Lodgis Hospitality Holdings Pte. Ltd. (“Lodgis”), a leading fully integrated hospitality platform sponsored by Warburg Pincus and VinaCapital (the “Shareholders”), announced today that it has successfully completed the acquisition of two historic landmark hotels in Cambodia, the flagship Raffles Hotel Le Royal Phnom Penh (“Raffles Le Royal”) and the Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor Siem Reap (“Raffles Grand d’Angkor”) (collectively the “Raffles Hotels”). With the acquisition of the Raffles Hotels, Lodgis now owns the largest collection of luxury historic hotels in the Indochina region as well as a growing resort and hotel management business under the Fusion brand.
The acquisition of the Raffles Hotels marks the company’s maiden acquisition outside of Vietnam and adds to Lodgis’ leading Indochina hotel platform. To date, Lodgis has acquired and developed several leading city hotels and beachfront resorts in Vietnam, including the 365-key Sofitel Legend Metropole in Hanoi, the top performing hotel in Vietnam and consistently ranked as one of the leading hotels in Asia.
Located in Cambodia, the Raffles Hotels are both historic 1930s buildings, which were fully restored and re-opened under the iconic ‘Raffles’ brand in 1997. The 175-key Raffles Le Royal is centrally located in the capital city of Phnom Penh, adjacent to the U.S. Embassy and in proximity to several key government offices, the Royal Palace as well as the Central Market. The 119-key Raffles Grand d’Angkor is in the heart of the old French Quarter of the resort destination of Siem Reap, and is only 6km from the renowned UNESCO World Heritage site of Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world.
To maintain their unique Khmer-French colonial charm, the two properties will undergo select renovations which include upgrading and refreshing the guest rooms and food and beverage outlets as well as updating the meeting facilities and other areas to enhance the guest experience at the hotels.
Peter T. Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of Lodgis, said, “We are very excited with the acquisition of the two historic Raffles hotels in Cambodia. Together with the Metropole in Hanoi, Lodgis now owns an irreplaceable Indochina heritage hotel portfolio that allows us to achieve significant synergies on both marketing and operations to better serve the rapidly-developing tourism market across Indochina. We see tremendous upside potential for both assets with a highly targeted capital expenditure program to transform the hotels back to their grand stature. Given our close working relationship with Accor as well as our strong in-house expertise, we are confident the hotels will create long-term value for Lodgis and be very well positioned for the overall Indochina market.”
In 2017, Cambodia recorded 5.6 million international visitor arrivals, representing a year-on-year growth of 11.8% on the back of a strong 10-year CAGR of over 10%. Phnom Penh and Siem Reap attracted the largest share of international visitors in the country with 49% and 38% share, respectively. Notably, over 1 million Chinese tourists visited Cambodia in 2017, representing an outsized 45% year-on-year growth and making Cambodia one of the fastest growing frontier markets for Chinese outbound tourists in Southeast Asia alongside Vietnam. With increasing direct flights and the government’s strong push towards tourism, the industry is expected to continue its strong upswing in 2018 with at least 6 million international visitors on top of the projected 15 million domestic tourists, reaching an anticipated US$4 billion in revenue. In addition to tourism, foreign direct investment in the country reached US$6.3 billion in 2017, translating to a 75% year-on-year increase.
.jpg){kind=tracking}
