IndoRealty

DAIKIN is the best brand. But if you are considering price, one should try HAIER aircon. It is made in China, but very durable and 1/3 of the price of Daikin.

I have an investment in a VSAT company which provides communication network for banks ATM in Indonesia. We considered several brands for our VSAT sites and decided to buy 400 of HAIER and 800 of DAIKIN in 2003. Two aircons for each VSAT site, running 12 hour in shift. Amazingly very little trouble with HAIER and no trouble with DAIKIN also. Aircons though are cleaned once every 2 months or so, given heavy usage. We will certainly use HAIER if we get more projects, given the price and realibity.

The Teigen brothers make so much money in such a short time.

Rich people are usually not stupid and they know more information

than regular people. Perhaps they know things in advance.

I stand to my view that Grande Asset is a great company to invest.

Frode Teigen himself makes close to USD6million in 4 months (Feb to June).

(100million shares x (4.85-2.60)=Bt225million). Other Teigen brothers are also rewarded handsomely.

******************************************************************************

Re Information of Other sellers unknown to the Company (Additional)

To President

The Stock Exchange of Thailand

As Grande Asset Development Public Company Limited (the "Company") has

informed selling of the Company's the ordinary shares of major shareholders to

Giant Mauritius Holdings and Hotel & Property Development Co., Ltd. at the

price of Baht 4.85 per share on June 30, 2006. The Company would like to

inform the additional data about Other sellers unknown to the Company (no.13)

that we have just received selling of the seller's the ordinary shares no.13

as follows:

Names of Sellers Number of Percentage of

Shares sold shares held (%)

1. Mr. Pongphan Sampawakoop 42,936,005 3.43

2. Mrs. Puangchan Sampawakoop 44,842,500 3.58

3. Mr. Anunnthorn Phasittisakon 3,135,000 0.25

4. Mr. Suradej Narula 25,387,827 2.02

5. Mr. Varin Narula 6,380,610 0.50

6. Mrs. Montira Narula 10,000,000 0.80

7. Mrs. Amornratana Narula 15,500,000 1.23

8. Mr. Narin Narula 18,989,185 1.51

9. Mrs. Ravisara Narula 15,500,000 1.24

10. Mrs. Indrani Narula 10,000,000 0.80

11. Mr. Amarin Narula 8,000,000 0.64

12. Mrs. Sunita Narula 3,628,885 0.30

13. Other sellers 172,551,188 13.80

13.1 Mr. Frode Teigen

(Remaining Share= 0)

Foreign 100,000,000 8.00

Thai NVDR Co.,Ltd. 7,651,200 0.61

13.2 Mr. Ole Teigen

Foreign 32,000,000 2.56

Thai NVDR Co.,Ltd. 850,000 0.07

13.3 Mr. Arne Teigen

Thai NVDR Co.,Ltd. 50,000 0.004

13.4 Others 31,999,988 2.56

Total 376,851,200 30.10

Please be informed accordingly.

Yours Sincerely,

Pongphan Sampawakoop

Chairman

***********************************************************

February 10, 2006

The President

The Stock Exchange of Thailand

Re: Resolution of the Board of Directors' Meeting No. 1/2006

Dear Sir,

On behalf of the Grande Asset Development Public Company Limited, I would like inform you of the resolution of the Board of Directors' Meeting No. 1/2006 held on February 10, 2006 as follows;

The Board of Directors approved to sell the increase of 100,000,000 shares (One Hundred Million) as determined during the Meeting of the Shareholders No. 2/2005 which was held on August 26, 2006. The shares will be distributed to 4 selected persons which are Mr. Frode Teigen, entitles for 25,000,000 shares, Mr. Ole Teigen, entitles for 25,000,000 shares, Bethleham International Limited, entitles for 30,000,000 shares and Miss Varinthorn Bulakul, entitles for 20,000,000 at Baht 2.60 (Two Baht Sixty Satang) per share. The total share value is Baht 260,000,000 (Two Hundred Sixty Million Baht) which the payment is due during February 13-17, 2006.

Sincerely yours,

Pongphan Sampawakoop

Chairman & CEO

***************************************************************

Thanks guys for all replies.

Both works are pretty similar in terms of duties and responsibility.

Job in Thailand offers less holidays vs. Qatar for 1 full month.

Work days in Qatar is Sunday through Thursday. Fri & Sat are off days.

Not so much thing to do in Qatar and you will be pretty much alone.

Really hot in the summer, lasting for at least 4-5 months, up to 43 degrees Celcius.

If you have a choice over the following two jobs which one would you choose:

A job that pays US$50,000 net of taxes in Bangkok, or

A job that pays US$150,000 net of taxes in Doha, Qatar

Bilateral agreements between the USA and your country of residence may mean that a US government agency passes on information to a government agency in your country of residence regarding the annual amounts of interest and dividends credited to your US account.

---------------

Maestro

The US IRS will not send the information about foreigners to tax authorities of each respective foreigner around the world. If a tax authority from a foreign country formally asks for data on your income to the US IRS, then they may give information. Otherwise no. The question is how will your country tax authority have a knowledge of your putting money in the US. Unless you volunter such information, your country taxman is not going to get any information about this.

If you dont have social security number, you just apply for an ITIN, tax id from the IRS, you can use this tax ID in lieu of the social security number.

Some banks allow account opening from outside the US, many others dont.

If you have to open bank account in the US with the banks that do not allow overseas address then you need to borrow your friend/relative's address in the US and use it for sending the statement. Afterawhile you can change the statement to your Thai address.

No big deal with account opening in the US. I had opened more than 8 accounts from outside the US just in the last few months, chasing the highest interest rates. Some now are offering 5% APY with an FDIC back up (guaranteed by the US government) up to USD100K

Can Expats get a local bank loan to buy a House or Car in Thailand? And if they can what is the process? I currently live in Jakarta, Indonesia and Expats can’t buy property here so I am looking at relocating to somewhere else in SE Asia, but I would prefer not to spend a huge amount upfront. Thanks for the help.

I know many foreigners who own landed houses in Jakarta. Even some of those buildings on Sudirman such as BCA & Da Vinci buildings (owned by Singaporeans) and MidPlaza/Bank of Tokyo building (owned by Japanese). You need to set up an Indonesian company (which belongs to you entirely) to hold a landed house/building in Indonesia and the process is less complicated in Indonesia than in Thailand to own a landed property and many banks in Indonesia are eager to lend money (whereas it is prohibited by the central bank of Thailand for banks in Thailand to lend to foreigners to buy properties and a foreigner can only hold 49% of the company which holds a landed property). More xenophobia in Thailand than in Indonesia in my opinion. Thailand only has an edge of clear regulation on condominium ownership by foreigners. I would expect Indonesia will have a more liberal laws on condo ownership than Thailand. I myself own a landed property in Jakarta and I am a Malaysian national.

If we want to know what sort of company this Grande Asset company is, let's review how each of their 124 Comm press releases starts.... 'Grande Asset Development Plc., Thailand?s leading property and hotel developer, announces its busin....' leading property and hotel developer???! really?? So how many projects do they have on the go?

'Grand Asset Development Plc. is Thailand?s leading property and hotel developer with 8 projects as follows: Westin Grande Sukumvit Hotel, Crowne Plaza Hotel, The Regent Bangkok Hotel, Sheraton Hua Hin Resort, Four Points Sheraton Hotel, Hua Hin Blue Lagoon resort condominiums and Island Villas, The Regent Residences and The Trendy.'

Natural Park is a very bad name. No banks and debt investors are willing to replace the loan from Krung Thai Bank. Krung Thai Bank is desperate to get out of N-Park. To mention that Natural Park is better than Grande Asset is a complete joke.

The Teigen brothers may have bought more Grande Asset's shares through nominees.

They now own close to 24% of Raimon land.

They are bullish on these two companies.

It is amazing how some people are keen in making unfounded and baseless comments about the Grande Asset as if with authoritative knowledge, when at the same time, one can easily find reliable information from an authoritative source such as the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).

http://www.set.or.th/en/index.html

Ticker is GRAND

In particular as of today Feb. 15. the following transactions should have been completed: Two groups of investors, one being Norwegian, owners of Thoresen shipping and the other the Bulakul family who invests in a variety of listed companies in Thailand, have plunged Bt260 million into Grande Asset. I am sure the Norwegian and the Bulakul family are smarter than average Joe and Jane, having amassed quite significant wealth and they may have more info as to why they are willing to buy Grande Asset share at Bt2.6/each, subscribing to 100 million shares of the company. Would anyone suggest that their money is easy money and they would be more than willing to flush it into a sinking company?

On the other hand, several other property developers (LPN and owner of a hotel in Yaowarat to name a few) who failed to acquire the Regent land when it was made available for sale in 2004 by the owner of Ambassador Hotel, are still very much keen in acquiring the land. Naturally, it is their wishful thinking to see that Grand Asset fails, so that they can have a second chance to obtain that very much coveted piece of land.

The following is the letter from the company to the SET

[/font]

***********************************************************

February 10, 2006

The President

The Stock Exchange of Thailand

Re: Resolution of the Board of Directors' Meeting No. 1/2006

Dear Sir,

On behalf of the Grande Asset Development Public Company Limited, I would like inform you of the resolution of the Board of Directors' Meeting No. 1/2006 held on February 10, 2006 as follows;

The Board of Directors approved to sell the increase of 100,000,000 shares (One Hundred Million) as determined during the Meeting of the Shareholders No. 2/2005 which was held on August 26, 2006. The shares will be distributed to 4 selected persons which are Mr. Frode Teigen, entitles for 25,000,000 shares, Mr. Ole Teigen, entitles for 25,000,000 shares, Bethleham International Limited, entitles for 30,000,000 shares and Miss Varinthorn Bulakul, entitles for 20,000,000 at Baht 2.60 (Two Baht Sixty Satang) per share. The total share value is Baht 260,000,000 (Two Hundred Sixty Million Baht) which the payment is due during February 13-17, 2006.

Sincerely yours,

Pongphan Sampawakoop

Chairman & CEO

***************************************************************

"Still though, Bangkok condo is cheaper than Shanghai's (average Bt160,000/sqm) and for an equivalent development like the Regent Residences if it were in Shanghai, it would fetch Bt200,000/sqm and higher."

Baloney. I live in Shanghai, and the "average" Shanghai condo is substantially cheaper than 160,000THB/sqm.

If you are talking about area like Hong Qiao yes many regular apartments can be had for USD1500/sqm or so, but many of such apartments lack gym, sauna, lap pool.

I am quoting the report made by Colliers dd April 2005 for luxury Grade A+ apartments in Shanghai (cost USD4,000/sqm and rental yield of USD30/sqm according to the report). Perhaps now with pressure from government the price is slightly down. Just last Dec, I went to see some apartments in Liujiazhui district with a nice Wai Tan view costs more USD5,000++/sqm, likewise those 4 tower apartments next to XinTianDi. with a view of Pudong, high floors of which, command more than USD5,000/sqm.

I have yet to encounter a 5-star international chain hotel residences in Shanghai. Is there any? like the Four Seasons Residences or The Residences at the Ritz Carlton.

What I've tried to argue is that if they are so incompetent/unprofessional as to choose the name/concept "the Trendy", then can you trust their competence in developing the condo itself? The answer to that is there for all to see.

Trendy is not actively marketed toward foreigners. I have seen more Trendy ads on Thai language newspapers than Bangkok Post or the Nation. To most Thai, the name Trendy is very acceptable and very trendy indeed. Why dont you ask your local friends/acquiantances whether the name Trendy for a condo is acceptable to him/her? Thai condo buyers could care less even if the word Trendy is written Trendie or Trendi or if the condo is named whatever (it is only a name). What's important is the condo is located close to BTS (only 1 minute walk) and it is still affordable.

But the good news is Regent's price has gone up again

From the initial price of

Bt85,000/sqm (6th Floor) - Bt100,500/sqm (37th Floor)

to

Bt99,000/sqm (6th Floor) - Bt114,500/sqm (37th Floor)

Still though, Bangkok condo is cheaper than Shanghai's (average Bt160,000/sqm) and for an equivalent development like the Regent Residences if it were in Shanghai, it would fetch Bt200,000/sqm and higher.

An Indian from Mumbai recently bought the last 3 units of Athenee Residences, for which he paid close to Bt60million. He thought that prices of condos in Bangkok is a lot cheaper than those in Mumbai for a comparable quality.

Think you've got a bit hot under the collar there and you may have confused me with other people but I'll try to address your points:

There's one poster with nick "Charles W" on skyscrapercity who on every single occasion writes very negative comments about the Regent Residences or Grande Asset. I had assumed this "Charles W" was you. Perhaps the competitors of Grande Asset hire many Charles'es

I just spoke with people at the Grande Asset today:

- Structural work by Syntec : another 26 months from today: --> March 2008

- Finishing work by another contractor another 12 months from March 2008: --> March 2009

- Transfer with land department at the earliest June 2009.

So only in 2009 you will enjoy the Regent Residences.

Charles, if you are so disgusted by the idea of prostitution, why settle in Bangkok or even come to Thailand?

If I am not mistaken, you may have bought a unit in Athenee residence? Quit bad mouthing about other projects, you wrote so many articles bad mouthing about Regent residences in thaivisa and also skyscrapercity. What's your point of doing this? to boost up your athenee residence purchase? or to make you look smarter than others who bought Regent?

Bangkok is full of prostitutions for that matter. Why dont you flaunt your purchase of a Bangkok condo for Bt25million something back home in England or whereever you come from, see whether you impres anyone.

I got my contract written Dec 2007 as completion date and this is before this Amarka guy bought the unit, I dealt with Grande Asset instead of Harrisson since there was a misunderstanding with regards to the 5% discount that I got. (Harisson told me that the discount was applied to every installments whereas Grande Asset as owner of the projects thinks the entire discounts will only be applicable during the transfer of the remaining payments of 70%). Harrison was not too professional from my experience dealing with them.

Grande Asset has been listed on the stock exchange in 2003. No to answer your question it is not like TPI, listed under Rehabilitation company.

Please look at my earlier posting. They couldnt get the license from the government on time so it was somewhat delayed. When license is not issued, they cannot start any construction of the project.

Please note that the house at the corner of Regent will always be there. It belongs to K. Lek Nana, the wealthy landlord who used to own plots of land around Nana area. So dont start a rumour that it will become a massage parlour or seedy bar. Nana family is rich enough and wont engage in such business.

Maybe your contract had a typo of 2006 instead of 2007.

The entire Bangkok or Thailand for that matter is seedy.

Are you being serious? Have you compared, for example, the Ploenchit-Ruam Rudee-Chidlom area or the Thonglor area after 9 p.m. to the area around the Regent?

A typo? Think they may have changed the contract once they realized they couldn't keep their dates.

As for share price fluctuations, come on, this isn't the UK, could mean all sorts of things and not necessarily related to the company's real financial position. Wasn't Grande Asset in it's previous incarnation a desperately indebted company (run by the same people).

Finally, why is Grande Assets "Trendy Condominium" project (refurbishment of existing building next to the Regent) also moving at a desperately slow if not non-existent pace?

i am surprised that the sales have not been stronger at the Regents, but like i said i am an outsider, so i dont really know BKK that well.

From what i was told, Grande Asset could not get the license on time to build the project from the land department. The land department was demanding the company to donate land from the project for the widening of Sukhumvit 13 which they finally agreed toward second half of 2005. And this was the main problem of the delay. I dealt directly with Grande Asset people and instead of that useless agents Harrison which didnt do a great job on the sales. I also doubt the professionality of the people at Harrisson (Harrison lost my check on the 2nd installment).

Ever since CBRE took over since Dec 2005, sales have been quite good, given the slow down in property sales in Bkk. In December 2005, CBRE sold 10 units at the Regents and last week they sold 3 units. I have been communicating with Sophia who speaks English very well. I have sent you her contact number privately.

All corner units have been gone. If your unit is corner unit and if you are worried so much about the development, you can sell it now. There are people who want to buy corner units.

Then all of those bond and equity investors and also banks which have invested into Grande Asset are totally wrong ????

Grand asset share has shot up from Bt1.47/share on 1 Dec to Bt1.96 closing on 16Jan, 31% increase. This is a phony increase????

check it out from www.set.or.th

click on historical trading, ticker is GRAND

Yes it is normal that banks provide finance for such sized projects however they will only release funds based on % units sold - that way they minimise their exposure - a lesson learnt the hard way in '97 crash.

GA is not the most solvent of developers anyway and it appears they are getting ahead of themselves - again.

I also signed up for one unit at the Regent Residences

back in early Feb 2005. Back then the sales was done by Harrison and not CBRE

My contract says Dec. 2007 as completion date. Transfer

date, I was told by Grande Asset engineer, was probably in the middle of 2008.

Maybe your contract had a typo of 2006 instead of 2007.

Dont worry about all those negative comments. Grande Asset

is one solid company. Banks and bond investors were competing to

buy the company's bonds back in early 2005.

hi...

i have a signed contract for a condo in the Regents residences. its says completion will be December 2006.

i signed the contract in march 2005.

now the sales people say December 2007. thats a whole year late already.

does anyone else have a contract for completion for December 2006?

what can be done about this? i have written to the Regents and they dont reply.

any sensible comments welcome.

happy new year to everyone

amarka

Regarding why the project might struggle to sell at the moment, Lower Suk IMHO has a reasonably nasty neighbourhood on that side unless you get deeper into the sois; the opposite side looks onto the monopoly which is greener. My boss sold all their land and properties in this lower Suk area behind where the Regent is simply because it was no longer a place they felt comfortable driving around; beer bars, prostitutes everywhere and so on. That said, a few big quality developments, and areas can scrub up; like the area aruond LPN in Suttisan which used to be a supreme slum.

For now though, the traffic in that area is bad, but so is pretty much all of Suk, Chitlom is a pain to get to and there are a few out by Sathorn but traffic isn't much better. So there is quite a lot of competition, and at least as it seems to me, they have a worse track record than some of the other projects developers. And guys like Sansiri with a fairly large stock have been selling off with some pretty good deals on the other side, I think Soi 8? so it makes it harder when you have a bigger company with a better record discounting (which they can do, because Sansiri probably have a lower cost to do business).

The entire Bangkok or Thailand for that matter is seedy. Bangkok is the centre of sex, prostitution you name it of Asia.

Sukhumvit's traffic is bad? get real. where in Bangkok do you not see traffic jam?

The great thing is that Regent is only 53-second walk to Nana BTS station.

I used to work for a realtor in New York, and we advised clients to buy higher floor if they can afford it. It is not that we make more money that way, but the clients truly benefit from higher floor. Thai developers have yet to recognize the value of higher floor condos. Price difference per floor is Bt500-1000/sqm, which is menial and sometimes higher floor unit is even cheaper per sqm basis (since they are selling larger sqm). In Manhattan, the price difference between a 50th floor condo and a 5th floor condo, all things being equal, at the Residences of Mandarin Oriental Time Warner for example would be in the million dollar range. “View is everything” as Donald Trump said. Indeed, Trumps condominiums are well sought since most of Trump buildings usually carry air space rights surrounding them so that no one can build another building immediately in their surroundings.

I am in the business of selling condos and it has been my experience that it takes quite an effort to sell low floor condos. Low floor condos are usually sold to people whose budgets are limited. Blocked view condos are also extremely difficult to sell. I have a client who wants to sell her 11th floor condo at Langsuan Ville, but the unit was completely blocked by Grand Langsuan. It has been sitting for sale for more than 2 years now and over hundreds of prospect visits and newspaper ads.

If I were you, I would switch the condo to higher floor, if it is at all possible and while the condo is still under development. After all you should see some exit strategy for your condo in the future. Here in Thailand, people prefer to buy new condos. You can never be too long term or else you would be staying alone in a deserted building. Higher floor unit means easier to sell. Two months ago I checked the Park and was told that only 40% of the units were sold, which prompted the CEO David Nardone to oversee the condo sales directly by himself (the Park has started selling since Feb 2004 but results were poor). I have seen him come on many Saturdays, Sundays and even on holidays lately to the sales office.

Now compared the Park to the Athenee, which was 60% sold when it was launched in December 2004. This doesn’t mean the Athenee is much better in terms of development. In fact, the Park’s interior incorporates higher value furnishing (such as the Poggenpohl kitchenette) when compared to the Athenee. The Athenee had been started selling earlier than Dec 2004. One of my clients who personally knows Khun Charoen was invited to a pre-launch sale and was offered “special discounts” something like 20% off the price launched in Dec 2004.

Khun Charoen knows more rich people than David Nardone and among Thai socialite it becomes a face thing to buy such condos from Khun Charoen. i.e. if Khun Charoen believes you as a "high-so" Thai, you would lose your "face" and your "high-so" status, if you couldnt afford to buy Bt20million condo from him, after all why are you chauffered around, in say the Bt15 million Benz or BMW. "Is that all the money you got, all spent for the Benz/BMW?" My client is very satisfied with her Athenee purchase, since all her friends now can admire her more with her ability to buy the Athnee Residence and also by the gain she made on the purchase, at least on the paper.

So of course, the Athenee looks good in terms of marketing 80% sold in one month after it was launched, but it was all a gimmick. They hold the launching date until it was 60% sold, which drives all those unfortunate outsiders who didnt get the "20% inner-circle discount" rushing to buy the Athenee. Moreover, Khun Charoen is a shrewd businessman, he will never let CBRE pocket so much commissions after all he gets better connection to rich people than CBRE. (CBRE only handles the sales post of the launching dats and therefore they only make commissions on 40% of the remaining units). It is indeed a very clever marketing strategy.

I agree with Nordlys, I too prefer a greener location but one that is still central, for example my UK flat is in Hampstead, London. Unfortunately I don't know Bangkok all that well just the main (tourist) areas, so could not be really daring.

I am actually on a very low floor only 6 or 7 C2 units are being built so I chose an apartment that should be a tree canopy level rather than a high up city view from one of the 'A' apartments which were also available at that time. So as per previous comments its all-personal taste.

Baht&Sold's comments also resonate. This is not get rich quick, again I will be honest and say If money were no object I would have gone for one of the 3 bedroom apartments at 300 sq m they seem endless, but with a price tag of around 28m I had to put on my 'lets be realistic hat!

I will have a small mortgage at the end of this and at 46 cannot retire just yet so the important thing from my point of view to pay this off as quickly as possible hopefully with the assistance of rent income (another reason for not going with the larger apartment) but yes I could definitely live there I think its going to be superior to my main residence. Also its Freehold so yes a lifetime investment.

I hope I have covered all the bases from short-term financial shock (redundancy, I am not stretched and will have two properties to juggle) through to retirement at 50 with some reserves. But that crystal ball is notoriously poor at predicting the future..... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I also prefer the Athenee Residence over the Regent Residence. 

I was studying this too, and over all location won out as the main reason.

The area around the Regent is just plain unappealing to me.  I visited at various times in the day and night, and the type of people and business located at the Regent area are VERY different from the Wireless Road and Ruam Rudee area (even though its very close ---one stop on the SkyTrain). 

Generally, for buying a condo in Bangkok, I would MUCH prefer the Central Business District bordered by Lumpini Park/Rama IV Road (South), Royal Bangkok Sports Club/Rajadamri Road (West), Klong/Canal Saen Saep (North) and Port Din Daeng Expressway (East).  I confirmed this opinion with several international real estate brokers--- who should know.

Secondarily, the Athenee Residence seems to be much more professionally run.  The mock ups, the sales people's knowledge, the international fixtures which will be installed, the floor plans, the internet cameras, the fingerprint scans for elevators, the semi private elevator lobbies (six elevators per floor, but not located all together---so only two units per floor share a bank of two elevators  ), the WONDERFUL large pool, lap pool, garden and lounging area etc. on 8th floor extended potium area, the views from the high zone (floor 21-38) not sure about low zone.

I like the fact that the Athenee units are on average larger so there are less people and a more exclusive atmosphere.  I dont like the fact that the top floors (33-37) of the Regent are smaller units (not penthouses).  I like the fact that access to the Athenee is from both Wireless Road and Ruam Rudee and that it is a very short walk to Ploenchit and Ploenchit Skytrain station. 

For price, yes its more expensive, but I believe this is the trend for top quality projects in the CBD and a few other places.  These are becoming much more rare too as opposed to other areas.  As I understand, The Park Chitlom (Soi Chitlom), The Infinity (corner of Sathorn and the new Road--old Russian Embassy), Le Raffine 31 (Sukhumvit Soi 31) , Baan Ratchadamri (Ratchadamri Road) and now Athenee Residence (Soi Ruam Rudee) have achieved an average price of over B100,000 per sq.m.  But other finished top projects are achieving that price on the secondary market (like All Seasons Mansion (Wireless), and a few buildings on Lang Suan, etc.  If you are looking at a slightly longer term investment (instead of buying and immediately selling) or just renting out for the highest return possible, I personally think this is good value at Athenee.

Lastly, the brand name Regent is now with Carlson of Minnesota? USA, not Four Seasons.  If the KL Regent (although I like it alot for GREAT value) is representative of the new Regent ambiance, then its really not the same as Four Seasons).  The Athenee hotels AFAIK only have locations in Bangkok and New York, but they are first class.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yeah, but i dont like to become SUCKERS who WILL subsidize 80 or so of Khun Charoen's friends (and his daughter) who got huge discounts prior to the launch of the Athenee on Dec 1st. The discount from CBRE will be menial when compared to those received from Khun Charoen as a priviledge friend. I heard it is close to 20% or so.