BIL INTERNATIONAL, the Singaporean investment firm that owns Thistle Hotels, is preparing to apply for casino licences at several of the company’s Central London hotels, The Times has learnt.

It is understood that the company, formerly called Brierley Investments, has hired Paul Collis, the former managing director of Stanley Leisure’s casino division, to run BIL’s putative UK gaming business.

Quek Leng Chan, the Malaysian billionaire behind BIL, is one of the world’s biggest high-rollers and has long harboured hopes of having his own London casino. He is understood to have met Mr Collis while gambling at Crockfords, Stanley’s plushest casino in the capital.

Mr Collis, who left Stanley last year by “mutual consent” with a payoff of about £200,000, is said to be preparing to apply for casino licences under current gambling legislation at the Thistle Victoria; the Thistle Hyde Park, where it is planning a Crockfords-style club; and the recently opened Guoman at Marble Arch.

It has also been suggested that BIL is looking at the possibility of incorporating a casino into a planned £100 million upgrade of the Thistle Tower Hotel. The Tower has been earmarked for conversion to the new Guoman brand.

BIL yesterday boosted its ability to fund its development plans with the £185 million sale and leaseback of five of its London hotels — the Hyde Park, Euston, Barbican, Bloomsbury Park and Piccadilly Thistles — plus the Thistle Edinburgh, with a total of 1,209 rooms.

BIL, which put the hotels up for sale last July through UBS, the investment bank, sold them to Topland, the property vehicle of the brothers Eddie and Sol Zakay, who according to the Sunday Times Rich List have a £480 million fortune.

Topland has built up a property portfolio worth more than £3.5 billion and has been involved in a number of sale and leaseback deals with companies including Marks & Spencer and Tesco. It is believed to be looking at a portfolio of Boots stores and Somerfield’s property portfolio.

This is the first time Topland has done a deal in the hotel sector, which it believes will benefit from the recovery of tourism after the September 11, 2001 attacks and expected growth in consumer spending. The portfolio is thought to generate a yield of about 6 per cent.

This week about 30 mainly regional Thistle hotels were put up for sale for an estimated £400 million. Thistle, which completed a sale and leaseback on the hotels three years ago, owns a third of the equity alongside Atlantic Hotels and Morgan Stanley.

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