Hamilton Princess staff met their new Canadian owners yesterday during a "royal celebration'' at the Pembroke property.

And during the meeting they learnt that they will have a new manager by the end of September as present chief Peter Komposch is set to be replaced.

Canadian Pacific Hotels purchased the Hamilton and Southampton Princess Hotel properties along with five others from Lonrho PLC on August 6 for $540 million.

CPH chairman and CEO, William Fatt, human resources vice president Carolyn Clark, communications vice president Ann Layton and regional vice president John Pye welcomed the new employees with a brief history of Canada's largest hotel company and told them what they could expect.

Mr. Fatt recognised that change could be unsettling and understood that the staff might be wondering about their future.

He reassured them that he realised they had served Princess Hotels loyally for many years and CPH would be trying to inspire similar loyalty from them in the future.

However he added that with the Hamilton Princess now being a Canadian Pacific Hotel, the company wanted to integrate it as quickly as possible into the CPH family.

Bermuda will be put under the control of the regional vice-president for Ontario and Manitoba, Mr. Pye, who will work with former Princess Hotels regional VP Stephen Barker.

Meanwhile Mr. Komposch will be replaced by CPH general manager Michael Kaile who is presently at CPH's Waterfront Centre Hotel. He is set to arrive here in mid-September.

Mr. Fatt said a suitable position in the company was now being sought for Mr.

Komposch and stressed that Mr. Kaile was taking the position as he was aware of the CPH support systems which were in place.

However no-one has been selected to take the post of general manager at the Southampton Princess and replace present manager Manfred Timmel, said Ms Layton.

Mr. Fatt added that a decision on what to do at the Southampton Princess had not been made yet. He and his colleagues will meet with staff there today.

Hamilton Princess will keep its name although its logo has been adapted to show its CPH affiliation.

And plans are underway to examine the hotels to see where capital needs to be spent. Meetings have also been held with Government, Union and private sector officials to begin developing partnerships to ensure the hotels' and Bermuda's success.