Oaks Hotels & Resorts keen to expand right across Australia

Oaks Hotels & Resorts chief executive and founder Brett Pointon wants to expand the hospitality group into a billion-dollar company. Source: News Corp Australia

Oaks Hotels & Resorts chief executive and founder Brett Pointon wants to expand the hospitality group, which has 5000 rooms in Australia, New Zealand and Dubai, into a billion-dollar company but says he must first increase profits.

“Oaks has the ability to be a billion-dollar company, (but) it needs to make $100 million a year; this year we will make $50m to $60m,” Mr Pointon said in an interview with The Australian.

Diversified Bangkok-based hospitality group Minor International, which has a portfolio of more than 8500 rooms in 70 hotels and resorts under the Anan­tara, Marriott and Four Seasons hotel brands and owns several luxury hotels in the Thai capital, bought Oaks in 2011 for about $180m.

Minor International spent years buying up tranches of Oak`s Hotels & Resorts, which was struggling with debt as a result of the softening corporate travel sector due to the global financial crisis. By that stage two of the companies privately owned by Mr Pointon, which had major financial stakes in Oaks, were in receivership.

Once Minor International gained control of Oaks it restructured debt and reinstated Mr Pointon as chief executive.

The 2011 deal virtually doubled Minor International’s global portfolio overnight.

Today, about 40 per cent of Oaks Hotels & Resorts business stems from Brisbane and other Queensland townships, which account for about 1200 rooms.

Mr Pointon is looking throughout Australia for growth opportunities either to develop and own or manage more Oaks-branded properties, but he said he would not venture offshore for growth.

“The problem with offshore expansion is we have a finely tuned management team in Australia; if we go offshore we will have to duplicate that team — sometimes it is not worthwhile.”

Oaks has been offered opportunities in Thailand and China, but Mr Pointon said unless he can get a critical mass of apartments or hotel rooms it is not worth the executive time necessary to put together the infrastructure.

“There is enough opportunity in Australia to continue our growth,” he said.

Mr Pointon said he is looking just about anywhere in Australia and recently opened The Oaks Grand in the Queensland mining centre of Gladstone.

“We have access to money now, we are looking at the best areas for accommodation. Now that we are part of a Thai public company, part of our job is to grow,” he said.

Mr Pointon added that because Minor International is the parent company he can look at freehold opportunities as well as management opportunities for growth.

“We have a block of land in the mining centre of Emerald; we will develop it, but now is not the right time.

“We are looking at Perth, Melbourne and Sydney,” he said.

“You are always working on something, we would like exposure in Perth, we don’t have anything there … We would like something in Darwin as well.”

Minor International acquired Oaks Hotels & Resorts as part of a strategic decision to diversify its business interests away from Thailand.

Oaks Hotels & Resorts was founded by Mr Pointon in 1991.

Source: The Australian - 11th September 2014