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Ecuador's Metropolitan Touring Planning November Hotel IPOs, Chairman Says
Metropolitan Touring International, Ecuador’s biggest tour operator, is planning initial public offerings for two of its hotels to pay off debt and raise money for the projects, the company’s chairman said.
Metropolitan, which operates cruise ships in the Galapagos Islands, plans to raise about $5 million by selling 40 percent stakes in two luxury hotels that it’s building in Ecuador, Chairman Roque Sevilla said today in a telephone interview from Quito.
New central bank regulations passed in February requiring lenders to increase the amount of deposits they hold domestically have boosted liquidity in the nation’s financial system, Central Bank President Diego Borja said last week in an interview. The extra funds have created a surplus of cash because of a lack of quality investment projects, Sevilla said.
“If everything goes well with the market we are looking at selling shares on the exchange in November,” said Sevilla, a Harvard-educated former mayor of Quito. “There’s a demand for shares because there are very few investment opportunities and an oversupply of savings. People are looking for quality projects to invest in.”
Ecuador Tourism
Tourism in Ecuador, which represents about 4 percent of the South American country’s economy, will bring in about $800 million this year, said Sevilla, who is also the president of the nation’s federation of tourism chambers. About 1 million tourists will visit Ecuador this year, he said.
Sevilla said a government proposal announced last week to abolish casinos, including those in 5-star hotels, may hurt the industry if Congress passes it. President Rafael Correa said the plan will help eliminate international mafias and limit “brain damage” and “bad habits” in indigenous people.
Freddy Ehlers, Ecuador’s tourism minister, said the new measure will eliminate “casinos, games of chance, bingos and all those little machines,” referring to slot machines, state news agency Andes reported yesterday. The government has also tightened restrictions on the sale of alcohol this month in an effort to curb violent crime.
“The measures will have an economic impact,” Sevilla said. “It’s difficult to know by how much right now because we’re not sure how this will affect consumers.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Nathan Gill in Quito at ngill4@bloomberg.net
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