Italian-Thai Development's major shareholder, the Charanachitta family, plans to invest more than 2 billion baht to strengthen its real estate business this year. Amari Estate Co was founded early this year with a plan to develop a serviced apartment building on Soi Soonvijai in Bangkok and a residential project in Khao Takiab near Hua Hin.

Director Yuthachai Charanachitta said the company was developing the Amari Residence serviced apartment on a three-rai site on Soi Soonvijai with an investment of 800 million baht. With 128 rooms, the project should start operating next year and will target health-care tourism as there are three private hospitals nearby.

By the end of the year, Amari Estate plans to develop a mixed-use residential project on a 20-rai plot in Khao Takiab in Prachuap Khiri Khan province. It would comprise 210 condominium units for sale and 300 hotel and serviced apartment rooms.

Set up with registered capital of 150 million baht, Amari Estate is intended to develop property projects through the family's own investment while its affiliate Amari Group will operate the hospitality business.

''Serviced apartments are a part of our new strategy,'' said Mr Yuthachai, the 32-year-old son of Adisorn, a former chairman of ITD, the country's biggest construction company.

''There will be a big change by the third quarter in the Amari Group including re-engineering the organisation and rebranding Amari, which has never been refreshed for the past 16 years.''

To revitalise Amari, which has operated in the hotel business since 1965, in October the group recruited Peter Henley as president and CEO of Amari Hotels and Resorts Peter Henley.

''I'll review and restructure the branding, sales and marketing, human resources, IT and the strategy,'' said Mr Henley, formerly vice-president of London-based Morgan Stanley Properties UK Limited, which operates 18 hotels.

The three- and four-star hotels under Amari's operation will be reshuffled. Amari will remain the brand for four-star hotels while three-star will be given a new brand.

Last year Amari Hotels and Resorts recorded 2.3 billion baht in revenue. It currently operates 16 hotels with a total of around 4,000 rooms nationwide, half under the Amari brand.

The Charanachitta family owns five Amari hotels _ the 569-room Amari Watergate, the 158-room Amari Chiang Mai, a 236-room hotel in Pattaya, a 187-room hotel on Koh Samui and a 197-room hotel in Phuket.

The family is also a major shareholder of OHTL Plc, which operates the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok.