Asiatravel is dot-com that's going places

By Koh Chin Ling
Bloomberg News

SINGAPORE — Asiatravel.com Ltd., an Internet hotel reservation company that sold shares amid waning interest in Internet stocks earlier this month, bucks the norm in more ways than one.

The Singapore-based company, which earns most of its revenue from customers in the United States who use its Web site to reserve rooms, has been profitable since its first year of business. In another unusual move for a dot-com, most of its initial public offering proceeds will be sunk into a physical asset — the lease of a hotel property in Hong Kong.

In its IPO, institutional investors fully subscribed to Asiatravel.com's shares. That interest may well signal that people are still willing to put money into Internet-related companies but are paying closer attention to their track records and profitability, rather than just their potential.

"I'm very keen to look into companies which make use of technologies to further enhance their earnings," said Tan Chong Koay, chief investment officer of Pheim Asset Management (Asia) Pte. "I'm willing to invest ... because it's profitable, and they can still make it grow."