Ho Kwon Ping and his wife Claire Chiang may be in their 70s, but the couple is full of life, hosting the 30th-anniversary gala dinner of Banyan Group on the night of Sept 27. The power couple showed no sign of slowing down as they danced the night away and planned for the future expansion of Banyan Group.
Ho, the executive chairman, and Chiang, the senior vice-president and chairperson for China business development, are co-founders of Banyan Group, previously known as Banyan Tree Holdings B58 .
Ho’s eldest son Ren Hua is now the CEO of Thai Wah, a regional agri-food platform developing a range of from-farm-to-shelf food, starch and bio-packaging products. Ho’s other two children, Ren Yung and Ren Chun, are now the deputy CEO and director of corporate development of Banyan Group, respectively.
Ren Hua holds a direct 0.11% stake in Banyan Group, as well as indirectly through Bibace Investments. Bibace Investments is owned by the Ho family, where Ren Yung and Ren Chun both have indirect holdings in the group through this vehicle.
Ho tells his story of how he became an “accidental hotelier” when he and Chiang had decided to purchase a piece of baron land in Phuket. The land was once a thriving tin mine that was eventually abandoned. The couple was looking for somewhere to build a holiday home, along with some chalets for the employees of Ho’s family business, Thai Wah, away from the city.
Only after buying the land did Ho see a 1977 report by the United Nations that the area had been declared “useless and unfit for development”.
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While there were feelings of regret after purchasing the land, the couple decided that “what’s done is done” and to make the most of the situation.
This situation forced them to innovate and think of ways to revive this land.
Speaking at a roundtable event, Ho says: “I came to Phuket about 40 years ago, and we came across this piece of land that we thought was quite beautiful, and we bought it, not knowing much about business or due diligence back then.”
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“Since my brother is also an architect, we thought we might as well try. So we built the first hotel, then came the second and third and Laguna Phuket just began to grow,” he adds. Ho’s brother Kwon Cjan is the head of architecture at Banyan Group.
The first two hotels were managed and operated by Sheraton and Dusit International, but there was a piece of land by a beautiful lake without any beach access. As no hotel operator wanted to manage it back then, Ho and Chiang decided to start their own brand — Banyan Tree.
From the beginning, Banyan Tree’s mission and statement had been strongly related to sustainability, as the group started reviving the abandoned tin mine into a liveable space. They reconstructed the land with soil and fertiliser and then planted over 7,000 trees and plants around the land.
Shortly after Banyan Tree Phuket was launched in 1994, the group quickly expanded into Maldives and Indonesia. “We knew how difficult it was to start one hotel and to grow it. So, we made the decision to launch three hotels at one go, opening right after each other,” explains Ho. Back then, Phuket was undeveloped, as well as Bintan and Maldives — destinations still “unheard of”. Banyan Tree was the first international brand in Maldives almost 30 years ago.
In Vabbinfaru Maldives, the group paid particular attention to the fragile coral reefs in the area and instead of setting up construction there, it fabricated the resort at an off-site facility and later transported it to the island. The villas in Bintan were designed on stilts to minimise the impact on the surrounding rainforest.
Banyan Group’s sustainable DNA can be found in all 12 brands. In 2004, the group even launched a marine lab in Maldives to conduct research, conservation and education on the surrounding environment.
The group also supports the local economy where its hotels or resorts are located by sourcing its food and art locally and setting up schools to help give locals access to education.
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Last March, Maybank Singapore collaborated on Banyan’s first sustainability-linked senior unsecured syndicated term loan facility. Acting as the sole mandated lead arranger, underwriter, bookrunner and sustainability coordinator, Maybank spearheaded this facility amounting to $70 million with Bank of India (Singapore Branch) and Hua Nan Commercial Bank (Singapore Branch) as lead arrangers.
Says Banyan Group CEO Eddy See: “Banyan Group’s founding ethos of ‘Embracing the Environment, Empowering People’ remains the cornerstone of our brand. Our group’s financial results for FY2023 have shown our recovery from the pandemic’s impact. As we remain committed to advancing responsible tourism and supporting the industry’s decarbonisation pathway, our partnership with Maybank for our first sustainability-linked syndicated term loan facility will bolster these efforts.”
