Travel finance. Unravelling the bolero.

 

FOXTROTS

   Fox – sly.  Trots – left-leaning (Trotsky) plus its more insalubrious meaning.  Foxtrots – leading the industry in a dance.   

 

2008 January 02

Travel finance. Unravelling the bolero.

Forget the foxtrot; the past two years has been a frenetic bolero. 

Big purchases by Starwood Capital, Blackstone, Kingdom, etc, and a raft of smaller moves – in Asia, such as UOL buying Pan Pacific, DLF buying half of Aman, Orient Express under siege, etc. 

Will the reduction in credit availability, plus/or higher interest rates, result in some reverse moves in the next two years? 

Oil money interests – such as sovereign funds from Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, and Qatar – seem likely to continue buying. And so do other sovereign funds such as Dubai and Singapore. They seem likely to get involved with any recent acquisitions by finance companies then flush with funds. 

But there could also be something more interesting. That these finance companies will have to run their new acquisitions to make money, not just rely on juggling their finances.  

The Fox