With troubles behind it, CDL can enter 2022 with a spring in its step

THE Covid-19 pandemic hit hotels hard. While property giant City Developments Limited's (CDL) property development and investment properties segments were profitable in the first half of 2021, its hotel operations posted a loss of S$143 million.

Operating metrics of CDL's hotels improved in Q3 2021, with revenue per available room (RevPar) up 117 per cent from a year ago to S$92. However, RevPar for CDL's hotels is 42 per cent below that of S$157 in pre-pandemic days of Q3 2019.

But there is good news on the hotels front. Perhaps testifying to the abundance of liquidity chasing hard assets and investor confidence that hotels can bounce back, CDL received several unsolicited and competing offers for Millennium Hilton Seoul, a 5-star hotel near Seoul's downtown business district, and its adjoining land plot