SHANGRI-LA Asia Ltd, the region's biggest luxury hotel operator, may raise as much as HK$5.22 billion (US$668 million) in a rights offering to pay debt and help finance expansion.

The company will sell to shareholders 287 million to 290 million shares, or one for every nine existing shares, at HK$18 each, it said in a statement to Hong Kong's stock exchange yesterday. Shangri-La, controlled by Malaysia's richest man, Robert Kuok, is expanding beyond its home market in Asia into North America, where it manages five hotels, and Europe. US business travel will grow about one to two percent in 2007, according to the Travel Industry Association.