Kingdom Hotel Investments said on Wednesday it did not have any acquisition plans for this year but will reassess market conditions in 2010, after its first half net profit fell 61 per cent.

'Within the next six months we don't expect any significant pick up in M&A activity, but as we enter 2010 we will take a greater assessment of the market...and define the extent at which we would release capital for discretionary M&A,' Sarmad Zok, chief executive, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

First half profit fell on weaker results at Four Seasons in Paris and Cairo, as well as lower real estate sales and an impairment charge, the company said on Wednesday.

Europe's hotels saw the sharpest drop globally in the first half of 2009, as revenue per available room - called revPAR, an industry benchmark - fell more than 30 per cent, figures by hospitality research firm STR Global and Deloitte & Touche Middle East showed.

While global hoteliers reported double-digit revPAR declines in the period, Middle East hotels were least affected, posting 17.5 per cent fall in revPAR.

Beirut saw the highest growth in revPAR globally, up by 124 per cent to $117, as the country enjoys a relative period of political stability.

Zok declined to give profit projections for the second half of the year, but said he did not expect hotel 'rates deterioration to worsen'. He added there were signs of greater stability in the market compared to a few months ago.

In the coming three years, the company expects to see organic growth coming from the opening of five subsidiary developments, Zok said. Hotels under development include two Four Seasons branded properties, in Beirut and Marrakech, in addition to hotels in Manila, Seychelles and Accra.

The company said it will spend $367 million from now until the second-half of 2011 on the development of the five properties and that its development pipeline was 'on track and on budget'.

Kingdom Hotel, headquartered in Dubai, owns hotels managed by chains such as Fairmont Hotels, and has focused its business on emerging markets such as the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

Alwaleed, who owns a stake in Four Seasons, sold his 39.3 per cent stake in Four Seasons Sharm El Sheikh, a hotel resort on Egypt's Red Sea coast, for $70 million in May this year.

Zok said the company has taken measures to reduce costs at the property and corporate levels, including cutting discretionary spending and staff costs, but did not provide a figure for staff layoffs.

The company, which trades on Nasdaq Dubai, saw its shares fall almost 83 per cent in the past year. Last time its shares traded was in January 11 with a closing price of $1.

Kingdom Hotel is a subsidiary of Saudi-listed Kingdom Holding Company.-Reuters