80 million ($113.7 million) for fiscal 1992, is not about to sell its ownership of the Princess hotels.

The Financial Times quoted the company's new joint CEO Mr. Dieter Bock as saying Lonrho would keep control of its core businesses, one of which he identified as hotels.

This would appear to end a long period of speculation that the Princess hotel division was up for sale.

Some industry analysts were forecasting yesterday that the Princess hotels would be sold before Lonrho's AGM in April in a bid to ease the company's debt.

But Mr. John Price, president of Princess Hotels, said: "I don't believe that is about to happen. The AGM is only six weeks away.'' Lonrho managed to cut its debt significantly last year and news services reported that the company was planning to further reduce its debt by between 300-400 million ($425-570 million) over the next year.

The Observer Sunday newspaper, in the UK, is one of the assets expected to be sold.

Lonrho made 205 million ($291.4 million) pre-tax in the fiscal 1991 and a spokesman called 1992 "a most difficult year.'' The results were just up on the 79 million ($112.3 million) estimate made during a share issue in December which raised 86 million ($122.3 million).

That, plus a series of disposals culminating in December's 124 million ($176 million) sale of car distributor VAG to Volkswagen AG, chopped net debt to some 700 million ($995 million) from 1.1 billion ($1.56 billion) in 1991.

The ratio of debt to assets dropped from 76 per cent to a more manageable 42 per cent.

On Wednesday, Lonrho ended weeks of speculation by appointing German property magnate Mr. Dieter Bock joint chief executive alongside controversial founder Mr. Tiny Rowland.

Mr. Rowland, 75, built the group up from a sleepy Rhodesian ranching outfit to a worldwide empire over three decades of deal-making but the shares more than halved in value last year.

Deputy chairman Mr. Paul Spicer said the two chief executives would work well together, taking a sharp look at all problems.

During the past year operating profit shrank by 44 per cent to 179 million pounds ($254.5 million), hit by recession. -- Reuter.