KUWAIT CITY: The company is in the process of changing the brand in the hotel sector, changing the business model in the food and beverage sector, and expanding the hotels under its management, Mr. Fawzi Al Musallam, CEO of Kuwait Hotels Company said, explaining that it is negotiating the management of two hotels in Kuwait, and intends to enter new markets.

Al Musallam said in a statement to Al Rai on the sidelines of the ordinary general assembly of the company, held yesterday, in the presence of 79.6 percent of the shareholders, that work is under way to change the brand of the hotel management sector, referring to negotiations conducted by the company to manage two hotels in two distinguished locations in Kuwait, It plans to expand and renovate the Safir Hotels in Fintas, Cairo, and Dhahab, which is located on the Red Sea.

He added that the company is also working to create brands with new and distinctive products in the food sector in order to refresh the market, specifically in the Middle East and North Africa. It aims to change the business model so that it can compete more in the food and beverage sector, which is witnessing increasing growth and strong competition, especially in Kuwait.

Al Musallam pointed out that the company aims to expand outside of Kuwait in the food and beverage sector, and enter new markets such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates due to the size of these two large markets, noting that it has started working on all these goals and arrangements since 2016 with a target date set for 2018.

According to the law, the capital of the company listed on the official market should not be less than 10 million dinars, indicating that «hotels» do not need to increase the capital to 10 million dinars, so for that reason the company is interested in expanding into a parallel market.

"The regional crises in the region have become a real challenge that has cast a shadow over the business sector, especially in the hotel sector, in addition to the internal challenges related to the increase in the prices of some commodities," Ahmed Yousef al-Kandari, chairman of Hotels, said in his report to the General Assembly. Such as fuel prices, increased services and various administrative fees imposed by the state.

He pointed out that the company was able to settle the judicial dispute for Safir International Hotel Management Company (subsidiary) for two million dinars, out of 2.7 million dinars with self-financing and about 40 percent of its capital, and to make cash dividends equivalent to 22 percent of the nominal value of the share and 15 percent Bonus shares for previous years, in addition to cash dividends for the year 2016 at a value of 5 percent of nominal value, reflecting the strength of the company's solvency.

Al-Kandari pointed out that the company succeeded in acquiring new contracts, renewing some major contracts worth 9.6 million dinars in 3 years, and succeeded in adding the Dhahab Hotel in Egypt to the Safir Hotel chain, noting the launch of the new website of Cake N Bake, the first website of its kind, specializing in sweets and pastries.

The company's financial statements showed that it achieved revenues of 8.83 million dinars in 2016, compared to 8.79 million dinars in 2015, and it continued to follow a prudent policy to take allocations of 400 thousand dinars compared to 170 thousand dinars in the previous year.

The shareholders approved the agenda items, most notably Board of Directors, Audit, Governance and Financial Statements. They also approved the Board of Directors' recommendation to distribute 5% of the nominal value of the shares, From the main market to the parallel market, and the reappointment of the auditor, for the next fiscal year.

The general assembly elected the new Board of Directors for the next three years. Tamleek United Real Estate Services, Onear Advertising, Al Dhiyafa Holding, Al Mabani United Company and Ibrahim Ahmad Al Mannai won.