Pakistan (Commonwealth)_ Pakistan Hotels Developers Ltd (PHDL informed the investors that a prominent non-profit organization engaged in the healthcare sector has offered to purchase the multistory Regent Plaza hotel, which is located in a prominent area on Karachi’s main highway, owned by PHDL, for Rs14.5 billion for conversion into tertiary-care hospital
The offer letter was also included, and it was signed by Syed Shabbar Zaidi on behalf of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) Trust. Zaidi is the trustee for the trust.
Following a public disclosure by PHDL on September 25, the listed company informed investors that SIUT Trust wanted to conduct due diligence, or a thorough appraisal of assets and liabilities by a prospective buyer, of its property documents. The result was the formal offer to purchase Regent Plaza on an as-is, where-is basis.
Yousuf M. Farooq, Research Director at Chase Securities, stated in a statement to Dawn that the hotels proposed acquisition by the SIUT Trust appears to be for the purpose of turning the facility into a hospital.
He pointed out that the SIUT Trust was simply buying the assets of PHDL, not the business itself. As a result, the firm will receive the profits of this deal, and although losing its primary revenue-generating hotel property, it will still maintain its listed status.
Given that the deal doesn’t affect the ownership of the company, there won’t be any tender offers for the roughly 11% stake now held by minority shareholders.
The 13,200 square-yard Regent Plaza Hotel and Convention Center is situated on the major Shahrah-i-Faisal. The multi-story building has a total covered area of 47,034 square yards. In Thatta, PHDL also owns two other properties with a combined area of around 14 acres. It’s not known if Thatta properties are part of the planned purchase.
The hotel has 400 rooms, and its occupancy rate for 2022–2023 is 19 percent. In the two financial years before, the occupancy rate was 20 and 9 percent, respectively.
According to the most recent annual reports, the corporation valued its prime real estate at Rs8.9 billion. The worth of the hotel building is Rs 924.2 million. PHDL reported a net profit of Rs44.1m in 2022–23, a 7.7pc decrease from the prior year.
The maximum increase permitted in a session was 7.5 percent, and the share price of PHDL ended the day on Wednesday at Rs458.41. Since the end of August, its stock price has increased by about 500%. In fact, the frontline regulator requested an explanation from the company due to the “unusual movement” in its price in the days preceding the SIUT Trust’s initial indication of interest.
Famous surgeon Dr. Syed Adibul Hasan Rizvi established the SIUT forty years ago as an eight-bed ward in the Burns Unit of Karachi’s Civil Hospital. It presently functions as a charity trust and offers medical facilities and financial aid to more than 500,000 patients annually through a number of hospitals after undergoing significant expansion over the years.
SIUT began its journey as an eight-bed unit in the Burns Unit of the Civil Hospital Karachi four decades ago. This tiny ward gradually increased its clinical and physical activity. By way of a Sindh Assembly Act, it was given the status of an Institute in 1991.
In order to give medical facilities and financial aid to those who are at the terminal stage of renal diseases, the SIUT Trust was established in 2005 as a charity trust for the benefit of the general public.
The Dewan Farooq Medical Complex, named after a kind donor whose generosity helped build the complex, serves as the center of activity for SIUT, which is situated close to Civil Hospital of Karachi.
Since receiving yet another kind donation from a benefactor that allowed for the creation of the Hanifa Sulaiman Dawood Oncology Centre, SIUT has further expanded its facilities. Another significant achievement for SIUT is the construction of the Oncology Center, which will make it easier to treat tumors such as bladder, kidney, prostate, adrenal, testicular, and post-transplant malignancies.
