Formosa International Hotels Corp (晶華國際酒店集團), the nation’s biggest listed hotel operator, yesterday signed a deal with Hong Kong’s Tomson Group (湯臣集團) to offer personal butler services to a top-end service apartment in Shanghai, marking its official entry into China’s luxury property management business.
Formosa Hotels currently manages Jasper Villa Xinyi (新光信義傑仕堡), a high-end apartment in Taipei that targets business executives, and is expected to clinch a second project with another top-class residential complex, The Palace (帝寶), early next year.
“We will only offer personal butler services to one or two landmark properties in each city, be it in Taiwan or in China,” Formosa Hotels chairman Steven Pan (潘思亮) told reporters after the signing ceremony.
The hotel group set up a subsidiary in Shanghai to serve top-end clients residing at Tomson Riviera (湯臣一品), one of the most expensive luxury apartments in China.
Tomson Riviera sold a unit of 180 ping (594m²) early this month for 96 million yuan (US$14 million), which translates to about NT$2.5 million (US$77,500) per ping.
Under the pact, Formosa Hotels would send experts to train personnel in Shanghai to offer personal butler services to Tomson Riviera’s residents, with the services ranging from food catering to business trip arrangements to language interpretation.
The deal with Tomson marks a further step for Formosa Hotels’ expansion across the Strait.
“Chairman Pan has been surveying the market in Beijing,” said Ellen Chang (張筠), Formosa Hotels’ public relations director.
With hotels in oversupply in Beijing after the Olympics Games, Formosa Hotels said it had no intention of buying lands or purchasing hotels but would rather use its experience in managing hotels, luxury apartments and luxury goods to work with real estate developers there, Chang said.
Its subsidiary, Grand Formosa Regent Taipei (晶華酒店), would manage its own luxury shops at the Regent Galleria (麗晶精品), when the operator’s lease ends in July.
A mall located at the hotel’s basement, Regent Galleria, brings in revenues of more than NT$2 billion a year.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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