U.S. investment fund Lone Star Group has been chosen as a sponsor for failed hotel management firm Holiday Tower Co. and its three affiliated firms, the four companies' bankruptcy administrator said Wednesday.

Holiday Tower, based in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, operates Hotel Nikko Toyohashi.

It and its three affiliates -- Toyohashi Sports Center, Toa Kogyo and Taiyo Fudosan -- went bankrupt in May 2002.

Yoshihiko Okuno, bankruptcy administrator for the four firms, said Lone Star has signed a sponsor contract with the firms and will also assist three other Holiday Tower group firms that have gone under.

Those companies are Kyoto Plaza, H.I. Plaza and Showa Boseki, all located in Kyoto.

Okuno declined to reveal the size of financial support to be provided by Lone Star, but sources close to the deal said the U.S. private equity fund will extend a sum substantially surpassing 10 billion yen for the group firms.

Lone Star, founded in the United States in 1991, is one of the world's largest investment houses.