In the early 1970s, in an unlikely area away from Singapore’s shopping belt of Orchard Road, a small unassuming hotel opened its doors. Located near the junction of Outram Road and Havelock Road, better known for its crumbling godowns than fancy hotels, was King’s Hotel, the first hotel opened by Mr Kwek Leng Beng, Chairman of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (M&C) and Executive Chairman of City Developments Limited (CDL).

With his foresight and astute acquisitions, Mr Kwek grew M&C from this one hotel to a network of over 145 hotels worldwide. The group of hotels were listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996, the first and still only Singapore company to list on the stock exchange. M&C was delisted on 11 October 2019, following a successful privatisation exercise launched by CDL, its major shareholder.

The Early Days

Hong Leong Group, the parent company of CDL, first stepped into the hospitality industry in the early 1970s with the development and operation of King’s Hotel in Singapore, now known as the Copthorne King’s Hotel.

Shortly after Singapore gained independence in 1965, the government began to push the economy through diversification of industries and developing key infrastructure, which included a world-class port and an airport. Next, the government started its land sales programme to develop the tourism industry, support economic growth, and aid in national planning.

It was in 1967 that the land the hotel sits on was sold to Hong Leong Group in the Singapore government’s first hotel land sale. The late Mr Kwek Hong Png, founder of the Hong Leong Group, tasked his son Mr Kwek Leng Beng to develop King's Hotel, even though the young man had no experience in hospitality.

From Singapore to London

Visionary, bold and decisive, Mr Kwek Leng Beng set a fast track for the company’s hospitality business with a strategy of acquisition and geographical expansion/diversification. Following the opening of King’s Hotel, he initiated other trailblazing hotel acquisitions in the region and globally, including London’s Gloucester and Bailey’s Hotels, New York’s Millennium Hilton and The Macklowe at Times Square (now Millennium Times Square New York).

In 1992, CDL started acquiring several hotels in New Zealand and soon after established the largest hotel chain in the country. Mr Kwek cemented his reputation as a “mover and shaker” in the international hotel arena when in 1995, with Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed, he acquired the iconic Plaza Hotel in New York from American tycoon Donald Trump. That same year, he acquired the Copthorne Hotel chain, expanding the Group's hotel footprint in UK and Europe.

In 1996, M&C became the first Singapore-controlled firm to be listed on the London stock exchange.

He later purchased 17 hotels of the US Regal Hotels in 1999. That deal was the last major piece of a global plan. Now M&C could say it was moulded into a global hotel chain, further cementing the Group’s reputation as a global hotelier.

Already among one of the world’s largest hotel groups, the appetite to grow M&C’s portfolio was not done yet. The Group continued to buy and build standout properties to stay ahead of the competition.

By 2000, he had grown M&C’s portfolio to 88 hotels across Europe, United States, Asia and Australasia. That same year, he was named Asian Hotelier of the Decade by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels and Arthur Andersen.

M&C forayed into China with the opening of Millennium Hongqiao Hotel Shanghai in 2006. In the subsequent years that followed, the Group continued its China expansion with the opening of Grand Millennium Beijing, as well as hotels in Chengdu, Qingdao, Xiamen and Wuxi.

In 2006, M&C spun off part of its Singapore assets and formed Singapore’s first hotel real estate investment trust, CDL Hospitality Trusts (CDLHT). It was also the first hotel real estate investment trust in Asia, excluding Japan. Listed on the Singapore Exchange on 19 July 2006, CDLHT was established with the principal investment strategy of investing in a portfolio of hospitality and hospitality-related real estate assets globally.

In 2014, M&C acquired three hotels, the high-end Boscolo Palace Roma in Rome, the Novotel New York Times Square and the all-suites Chelsea Harbour Hotel in London. In December, M&C also opened its first hotel in Japan, the Millennium Mitsui Garden Hotel in the heart of Tokyo’s Ginza district.

M&C has weathered a series of global economic and political crises – the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, the 2000 dot.com crisis, 911 terror attacks of 2001, the SARS crisis of 2003 and the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, the last being the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of 1929. Prudent financial management and healthy balance sheets have kept M&C resilient and attuned to future challenges.

The Road to Privatisation

Despite its enviable portfolio, M&C faced a highly challenging trading environment in each of its locations with intensifying competition. Its stable of hotels needed substantial capital investment. CDL believed that through privatisation, M&C would achieve a nimbler and more efficient organisation structure. A successful privatisation would also allow M&C to further leverage CDL’s significant infrastructure and resources.

In October 2017, CDL launched a bid for M&C, in which it owned a 65.2% stake.

CDL’s final offer for M&C’s minority shares – announced on 8 December 2017 – of 620 pence a share, lapsed on 26 January 2018 after it did not meet the requisite acceptance condition from minority investors. It was short of the 50% threshold required for the offer.
 
A New Era

In June 2019, CDL made a second bid to take over M&C for a maximum cash consideration of £776.29 million (S$1.35 billion), this time with the blessing of key minority shareholders.

From a modest start, M&C, through its owner-operator business model, now counts over 145 hotels as part of its portfolio, representing more than 43,000 rooms in many gateway cities around the world. It is one of the largest Asian-controlled hotel groups outside China. In the most recent ranking of the world's 325 biggest hotel companies by Hotels Magazine, M&C listed 39.

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