Yarmouth Group Inc. and a group of U.S. pension funds completed their purchase of the 194-room Maui hotel from Japan-based KBH Operations Limited Partnership on Sept. 5, said Robert Kline, a principal at Yarmouth.

KBH, which bought the hotel for $102 million in June 1990, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 1995.

The sale of the hotel was approved by federal Bankruptcy Judge Lloyd King in mid August, said Kline.

According to Kline, the new owners plan to spend $9 million to $10 million to renovate the hotel. He declined to disclose the identities of the mainland pension funds.

Kline said that the Halekulani Corp., the owner and manager of the Halekulani luxury hotel in Waikiki, took over the management of the Kapalua Bay Hotel on Sept. 11.

The Yarmouth Group, a unit of Lend Lease Corp. of Australia, is a New York based real estate adviser that manages $5 billion in property.

KBH, a unit of Japan-based Kapalua Club Corp., had put the hotel up for sale back in early 1995. Previous efforts to sell the property to Colony Capital Inc., which recently acquired the Alana Waikiki Hotel, and Korean investor Choong-Kun Cho fell through last year.

Attorneys for KBH could not be reached immediately for comment.