KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 8): ECM Libra Financial Group Bhd is buying three hotels, together with the land where they are built on, from Tune Hotels Sdn Bhd for RM62.04 million.

These hotels are Tune Hotel @ Danga Bay (218 rooms), The Chow Kit — An Ormond Hotel (113 rooms), and MoMo’s Kuala Lumpur (99 rooms).

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, ECM Libra said its wholly-owned subsidiary ECML Hotels Sdn Bhd has entered into a conditional sale and purchase agreement with Tune Hotels for the acquisition of these properties.

The acquisition includes a piece of 45,821.97 square feet (sq ft) land in Johor Bahru, where Tune Hotel @ Danga Bay situated; a piece of 4,122.58 sq ft land where MoMo’s Kuala Lumpur is situated; a piece of 6,582.79 sq ft land where The Chow Kit – An Ormond Hotel is situated; and a piece of 3,745.84 sq ft vacant land.

ECM Libra said the transaction values the Danga Bay property at RM16.45 million, and RM45.59 million for the KL properties.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2020.

Tune Hotels is wholly-owned by a British Virgin Islands-incorporated unit called Tune Hotels Real Estate Holdings Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by Tune Hotels.Com Ltd.

The substantial shareholders in Tune Hotels.Com include Tune Group Sdn Bhd (56.97%), Lim Kian Onn (13.59%) and Datuk Seri Kalimullah Masheerul Hassan (13.54%) and Orix Corporation (9.12%).

Tune Group, which also holds a 22.95% stake in ECM Libra, is equally owned by Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun.

As at July 31, 2019, Kalimullah owns a 13.78% stake in ECM Libra, while Lim also has 33.54% shareholdings in the listed outfit.

ECM Libra said the acquisition is in line with its diversification plan to own and manage hotels.

The group said since the diversification began on Dec 12, 2017, it had completed the acquisition of Tune Hotel Penang, Tune Hotel Kota Kinabalu, and a 50% equity interest in TP Sepang Sdn Bhd — which holds the concession to manage and operate Tune Hotel KLIA2.

ECM Libra also updated that the acquisition of the rights to operate and maintain Tune Hotel KLIA Aeropolis is pending completion.

ECM Libra’s share price closed unchanged at 27 sen today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM129.58 million.