Pedro Martin Deputy President of Raytur Caribe – Hotels C

22 March 2005 5:00am

CND: Two years ago, your group bought Hotels C, am I wrong?

PM: No, you’re absolutely right. It was on June 2003 that our group bought most of the shares of Raytur Caribe and Hotels C. I mean, we’ve been some two and a half years in the business.

CND: Your investments in the Dominican Republic are growing. In which zones are you planning to pour more cash?

PM: There are some projects we’re looking into right now to invest in the Dominican Republic and we’ve made good progress in that sense. We’re investing more heavily in Cuba and in Spain’s Malaga, where as we speak, there’s a hotel under construction. We’re now thinking of making a trip to China and maybe come up with some kind of joint project with companies there.

CND: Where in Cuba are you going to build and invest?

PM: Well, in the case of Cuba, we’re wrapping up the remodeling of a hotel in Varadero and we’re going to build another resort on an undefined key. We’ve also been offered the possibility of founding a joint venture and we have already signed a letter of intention to start talking about the project a year from now.

CND: What other projects are you going to develop elsewhere in the future?

PM: Right now, we’re homing in on Cuba. Period. We want to work things out in the Dominican Republic, then on to Malaga and to China. For the time being, we’d like to start working on all six before taking on more investments than the ones we have right now.

CND: In Cuba, what companies are you making joint ventures with and what’s volume of your investments there?

PM: In Cuba, we’re working with Gran Caribe on three hotels, and the letter of intention for a potential joint venture was also inked with that group. As to the refurbishment of the hotel in Varadero, the Playa Caleta, the whole project has a $7 million price tag and we’re contributing 50 percent of the money. In the keys, well that investment is in the neighborhood of $12 million, and that money will be used by the future joint venture to build a new hotel.