Left to right: Kishin RK, Founder and CEO of RB Capital, Raj Kumar, Chairman of Royal Holdings, … [+] Rajit Sukumaran, Managing Director, Southeast Asia and Korea, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Serena Lim, Vice President, Development, Southeast Asia and Korea, IHG Hotels & Resorts.

IHG Hotels & Resorts

RB capital—Controlled by Kishin RK and his father Raj Kumar– has selected IHG Hotels to manage its hotel in Farrer Park, in the heart of Singapore’s Little India neighborhood, and is banking on a robust recovery in the tourism industry, which has been hardest hit by the pandemic-induced travel restrictions.

Previously managed by Singapore-based Park Hotel Management, which is currently liquidation, the 300-room hotel was renamed Holiday Inn Singapore Little India before a renovation that gives it a new identity. “Holiday Inn Singapore Little India is helping the Singapore government protect its borders and we will begin renovations in due course,” IHG said in an email response to Forbes Asia.

This will be the third Singapore hotel managed by IHG for RB Capital, which also owns the five-star InterContinental Singapore Robertson Quay on the Singapore River and the 442-room Holiday Inn Express Clarke Quay. The strategic collaboration between the three hotels will enable greater synergies and shared expertise to ensure hotels are better prepared for the tourism industry’s recovery, IHG said in a statement.

“As Singapore prepares to tackle the endemic Covid-19 roadmap of gradually opening its borders to international travel, I am confident that the hospitality industry will recover strongly,” said Kishin, Founder and CEO of RB Capital , in a statement. “It is the perfect time to reboot this hotel with a new brand, repositioning and design-led renovation so that we are ready for rest and ideally positioned to contribute to Singapore’s success as the country reopens.”

The 20-story Holiday Inn Little India is part of Farrer Square, a mixed-use property built by RB Capital on 99-year-old building land and acquired at a state auction in 2012. The project was completed in 2016.

The following year, RB Capital received a unsolicited offer from an unknown investor to buy the hotel, but Kishin decided not to sell it. “We believe in the long-term appreciation of hotel properties in Singapore,” he told Forbes Asia over the phone, adding that the cost of replacing such properties is extremely high.

Directly connected to Farrer Park MRT station, the property is strategically located just outside the central business district and close to the Orchard Road shopping district. It is adjacent to Farrer Park Hospital and the 24-hour Mustafa Center shopping mall, which is popular with Indian tourists.

The Holiday Inn Little India renovation comes as several hotels in Singapore, including the Kwee family’s Capella Hotel Group and Pan Pacific Hotels, renovate their properties to take advantage of the pandemic-related downtime. Visitor numbers fell 86% to 2.7 million at the height of the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, dropping hotel revenue by 71% to $ 1.2 billion ($ 891 million), government data showed. While arrivals have increased this year, the numbers are nowhere near the levels seen in 2019, when more than 19 million visitors came to Singapore.

“New attractions and infrastructure projects planned for 2021-2030 bode well for future tourism demand in Singapore,” said Kishin. “The Singapore government’s management of the Covid crisis, with the world’s lowest death toll, has won the trust and confidence of companies around the world to explore this city as an attractive hub for themselves and their businesses.”

With their real estate empires Royal Holdings and RB Capital, Kishin and his father Raj are among Singapore’s leading landlords. The duo were on a deal spree following a family deal in 2011 between Raj and his younger sibling, Asok Kumar Hiranandani, also a billionaire. With net worth of $ 2.7 billion, Kishin and Raj were ranked 14th on the list Singapore’s 50 richest People was released last month.

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