Kempinski agrees to Myanmar hotel deal after Marriott pulls out

Swiss hotel chain Kempinski AG has entered a deal with Kanbawza Group of Companies to manage a hotel in Nay Pyi Taw,Myanmar after US giant Marriott pulled out of the project.

U Moe San Aung, deputy director at the Kanbawza Group of Companies, told The Myanmar Times that Kempinski and Kanbawza signed the deal in late March. The Kempinski Nay Pyi Taw is scheduled to open on May 1, ahead of the ASEAN Summit which later that month. The property will be fully owned by Kanbawza.

The deal has not been formally announced and a Kempinski spokesperson said only that “Myanmar is a market Kempinski is interested in and is exploring opportunities for entry”.

Kanbawza was originally working with Marriott on the project, but the US hotel giant pulled out of the deal because of a dispute related to quality control.

According to U Moe San Aung, Marriott’s rigorous inspections of the hotel construction site in Nay Pyi Taw were putting the project behind schedule. Marriott declined to comment on the failed deal.

Kempinski operates 75 hotels in 30 countries, including the Siam Kempinski in Bangkok. Thailand Crown Property Bureau has been the majority shareholder in the company since 2004.

Nay Pyi Taw, ( Burmese: “Abode of Kings”) also spelled Nay Pyi Daw or Naypyidaw , city, capital of Myanmar (Burma). Nay Pyi Taw was built in the central basin of Myanmar in the early 21st century to serve as the country’s new administrative centre.

In 2004 construction of Nay Pyi Taw began on an isolated site near the city of Pyinmana, some 200 miles (320 km) north of the then capital city of Yangon (formerly Rangoon). Holding that relocation of the capital would facilitate accessibility of the government from all parts of the country, the administration began its move in 2005, first to Pyinmana and then to Nay Pyi Taw, which was proclaimed the capital in March 2006. In its early years Nay Pyi Taw consisted of little more than government buildings, luxury hotels, apartments, and an airport, and it was populated primarily by civil servants, many of whose families remained in Yangon because of the lack of shops, restaurants, and other amenities in the new capital. Despite its limited facilities, the burgeoning city was provided with an uninterrupted supply of electricity—a rarity elsewhere in the country. Use of the airport at Nay Pyi Taw generally has been restricted to military personnel; otherwise, the city is accessible by road or by rail (with a station at nearby Pyinmana) from Yangon. Pop. (2007 prelim.) 418,000.