* Expansion to take longer due to global crisis
* Hopes for improved performance in 2009 on 2008
* Uganda unit to be incorporated into listed firm soon
* Rules out cash call
By Duncan Miriri
NAIROBI, March 5 (Reuters) - Kenyan hotel operator TPS Serena said on Thursday the global economic downturn and a post-election crisis last year would put the brakes on its $10 million plans to expand across east Africa.
Serena is the region's biggest hospitality chain in terms of outlets, boasting 20 hotels, safari lodges and beach resorts across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Mozambique.
Managing Director Mahmud Jan Mohamed said in an interview the company remained committed to refurbishment, extension work and the opening of new facilities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
He said it was also reviewing its funding plans. "It is not necessarily the right time to perhaps do a rights issue but there are other avenues ... Hopefully, when we have completed (our developments), the industry will bounce back."
Political and ethnic violence convulsed Kenya in January and February last year, killing 1,300 people. That almost wrecked a tourist industry that was rattled by the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing but had slowly recovered to earn $1 billion in 2007.
Mohamed said last year had been the sector's worst.
"Kenya came to a standstill. It can't be as bad as that. 2009 has to be a better year despite the (financial) crisis," he told Reuters. "We are not in panic mode. We are obviously up on 2008, which was a terrible year."
Mohamed said one impact of the global financial downturn was a sharp reduction in lead time bookings from its main markets.
"In December, January was not looking too good but it turned out better than we expected. March is not looking too good, but I hope short lead time bookings will improve the situation."
Mohamed also said Serena's business in Uganda could be put under the listed holding company this year once it had got bigger.
Serena hotels outside Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar are run separately until they mature, then they are integrated.
"Rwanda will be the next stop (after Uganda), and Polana in Mozambique I would be looking at perhaps four years down the line," he said. Serena's investment in Uganda is worth $36 million, Mohamed added, while Rwanda is worth about $27 million.
Overall, Kenyan tourism is projected to fall this year as customers in all its main markets watch their spending.
But given stiff competition from destinations like South Africa and Mauritius, Mohamed accused the government of not doing enough to promote the country's white beaches and wildlife-filled game reserves to foreigners.
"Kenya has been very slow in taking proactive action," he said, adding that the company was focused on maintaining its local clientele, who account for 26 percent of its turnover. (Editing by Daniel Wallis, Greg Mahlich)