Americom Hustles to Save Soviet Project : Joint venture: On day Bush holds Moscow meeting, Irvine firm names official to seek financing for the stalled complex in that city.
In an attempt to save its stalled Soviet venture, Americom International Corp. appointed Eric O. Knapp to head its Moscow hotel and business project Wednesday, the same day that President Bush met with Moscow business leaders in the facility.
As chief executive of Americom subsidiary Moscom Business Centers Inc., Knapp will be responsible for raising $2.75 million needed to keep the Moscow joint venture alive. His appointment comes just two weeks after Richard R. Monroe, the company’s marketing vice president, was promoted to general manager of the business center, operating from Americom offices in Moscow and Irvine.
Last month, the Soviet partner, Intourist, threatened to terminate the venture unless its U.S. partners fulfill some interim financing commitments. It set an Aug. 6 deadline for the U.S. partners, which include Radisson Hotels International, to come up with the financing.
Irvine-based Americom hopes to raise some of the $2.75 million by selling part of its 40% interest in the venture--Intourist RadAmer Hotel and Business Center--to Communications Satellite Corp., better known as COMSAT, according to G. Ted Botens, Americom’s chief financial officer. Botens wouldn’t reveal how much of its stake Americom plans to sell. Intourist, which is the Soviet tourism agency, owns 50% of the venture, while Radisson Hotels International has 10%, he added.
The Moscow complex--known as Radisson Slavjanskaya Hotel and Business Center--is on the banks of the Moscow River near the Kiev Railway Station. Built by Intourist at an estimated cost of $80 million, it offers 430 rooms and 165 business suites and it is the only Western-managed hotel and business center in the Soviet Union.
Americom shareholder H. R. Haldeman, the presidential chief of staff for Richard M. Nixon, was among those who helped Americom work out the initial deal with the Soviets. As a member of Americom’s advisory board, Haldeman is expected to guide the company through the current negotiations with the Soviets, said Paul Tatum, Americom’s president.
Part of the hotel and business center opened in June but changes in Soviet regulations, a Soviet bureaucratic shake-up and wrangling over financing the venture have threatened to split the partners.
Before joining Americom, Knapp worked in Los Angeles for Ashton-Tate Corp., a $230-million computer software company where he was responsible for divesting non-strategic business units and acquiring and developing new business for the company. In 1987, he was treasurer for Sacramento’s municipal utility district, responsible for raising money for the utility. Between 1972 and 1985, he worked in various positions at Atlantic Richfield Co. in Los Angeles.
President Bush addressed 135 Moscow business leaders and representatives of some U.S. companies during a breakfast meeting in the hotel and office complex Wednesday while attending summit talks with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
