Following the presentation made by Adrian Zecha, the Conference had an opportunity to hear first hand, Mr Kwek�s views during an interview with Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels� Chairman and CEO Mr Peter Barge. After being pressed by Mr Barge on turnover and profit expectations, Mr Kwek confirmed he would deliver on analysts� expectations of more than S$1 million in turnover for 1999. But far from consolidating his position, Mr Kwek is looking to accelerate the pace.

Armed with the remaining proceeds of US$200 million from the sale of his hotels to Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, its London listed subsidiary, Kwek is on the lookout for another hotel chain. After being presented with the Award, Mr Kwek remarked �I�ll have to work harder to reach the target of acquiring a major hotel chain in the next decade to win the award again.� Mr Kwek said he is targeting a well established hotel chain with four and four star properties to bring Millennium & Copthorne to greater heights. 

The Kwek family�s Hong Leong Group started its hotel business in 1970 with the opening of the Kings Hotel in Singapore. By 1989, the business had grown to six hotels in Singapore. After taking over the helm as Chairman of Hong Leong group in 1990, Mr Kwek has aggresively expanded the CDL Hotels International business by acquiring the Copthorne chain, a number of individual hotels including New York�s Plaza Hotel and more recently the Seoul Hilton and 29-hotel Regal chain in the US.

�Investment in Asia�s hotel market certainly has been volatile� Mr Barge stated. �There are a lot of people interested in Asia, particularly opportunity funds from US and Europe. But the biggest investors have been domestic institutions. In fact, Mr Kwek has been one of Asia�s most active investors in recent years, not only in Asia, but in the US as well� said Mr Barge. 

Research by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels indicated that in 1999, 86% of buyers were Asian, with domestic buyers making up 64% of this total.

According to Mr Barge, future investment in Asian hotels is likely to continue to come from local Singapore and Hong Kong based investment groups.

As for the future investment hotspots, Kwek revealed it will be places like Thailand, Japan and China. Mr Kwek indicated his interest, stating �I�ve been looking and trying to get them, but it�s almost impossible in Thailand. Asian owners don�t sell cheap�. Mr Barge agreed indicating �the requirement in Thailand is to deal in many instances with local partners. That can have some complications because people want to retain their hotel assets.�

The opportunities in Japan will be concentrated in the three star category according to Kwek, while his interest in China is tempered by the oversupply of hotels in Shanghai and the low room rates in Beijing. Mr Barge was of the same opinion, stating �there will be more transactions in Japan than anywhere else, while China is also likely to see a pick-up in asset sales.�