Signature in deal
to buy Marc Hotels

The Hawaii hotel-management firm
is being sold for $6 million in stock

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Signature Resorts Inc., an expanding, Los Angeles-based owner of time-share resorts, is acquiring Honolulu hotel management company Marc Hotels & Resorts for $6 million worth of Signature stock.

Michael V. Paulin, chief executive of Marc, said today a final agreement has been reached and the deal should close in early October.

Signature is a large owner of what it calls vacation ownership units, bigger even than Marriott Corp., Paulin said today.

Signature owns 33 time-share resorts, mostly in the United States but it has been expanding into foreign markets. In Hawaii, it owns two time-share properties, the Embassy Vacation Resort Poipu Point on Kauai and the recently acquired Embassy Resorts Maui.

Paulin's company is a manager of resort condominiums, operating 22 resorts, all in Hawaii.

Paulin said that the Hawaii operations will continue under the Marc Hotels & Resorts name after the merger.

He said time-share vacation ownership is a fast growing force in tourism and it makes sense for his company to get into it and the best way to do that was to team up with a big operator.

"We have watched it (the time-share business) grow to over 50 percent of the hotel inventories on Maui and Kauai," he said.

Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau figures show that more than 8 percent of Hawaii's westbound visitors are staying in time-share properties, he said.