After assessing opportunities in Australia, South America, India and Europe, City Lodge Hotel Group is focusing instead on East and Southern Africa, where it is investing close to R1-billion, a capital investment programme that will be completed by the third quarter of next year. "There were so many factors which really didn't make us happy going to these offshore places," said City Lodge CEO Clifford Ross. The group was far down the line with negotiations in Argentina a number of years ago, but decided to wait for the pending elections - "which were a disaster. They dumped the dollar and went back to the peso, prices were off the scale and it would have been a very big risk." In Australia, the numbers didn' t work. I n India, it would have probably taken five or six years to get any return on investment, said Ross. "It doesn't mean we've taken the eye off the ball there; if we could find a small group, we may pursue it," he said. The team spent a lot of time in Nigeria, but "we jus...
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