Hyundai Group plans to enter the hotel business as it was named the preferred bidder for a controlling stake in Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul, a six-star luxury resort in central Seoul, on Monday.

Hyundai proposed a bid of 160 billion won ($140 million) to acquire the shares on the condition that the group will pay in several installments.

Starting with the potential acquisition, the group said, it would step up efforts to find the new growth engines that Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun stressed in her New Year’s speech.

“Based on the brand power of Hyundai Group, we are preparing for a variety of marketing tools. We especially hope for synergy with Hyundai Asan, which operated the Geumgangsan Hotel (in North Korea),” a Hyundai official said.

The nation’s third six-star hotel opened at the foot of Seoul’s Mount Namsan in June 2010 under a 20-year contract with Singapore-based luxury resort and hotel developer Banyan Tree Holdings.

With the exception of some selected facilities that are open to the public, its VVIP club, an outdoor pool and other sports facilities are exclusively for use by the members of the hotel.

A membership account is priced at 130 million won.

Real estate agency Urban Oasis, which purchased the 24,729 square-meter hotel site for 120 billion won in 2007, recently struggled from severe liquidity problems.

The developer Ssangyong Engineering & Construction has not been paid almost half the construction costs and on Jan. 10 put a combined 95 percent stake in the hotel up for sale.

Hyundai plans to secure stable profits first by selling the unsold membership accounts. Currently, only 43 percent have been sold out of the total 3,300 accounts worth 480 billion won.

After taking over the authority for finance and personnel, the group will start streamlining the business and appoint management officials, it said.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)