After taking over Holiday Inn Asiaworld Taipei in September and renaming it Sunworld Dynasty Hotel Taipei (
"I'm quite optimistic about Taiwan's economy and environment. It doesn't matter whether Taiwan has direct links with China or not. This small island has great potential," said Chen, who built his name and wealth via Sunrider International (
Chen, who usually shies away from the press, yesterday made his first public appearance in Taipei to introduce the hotel's new management team after acquiring Sunworld Dynasty with his wife Chen Oi-lin (陳徐愛蓮), president of Sunrider.
PHOTO: JACKIE LIN, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen last year made his first transition into the hotel industry by buying three hotels in Taiwan and China for over NT$11 billion (US$330 million). He has invested an undisclosed amount in the five-star Sheraton Taipei.
Early last year, Chen took in Tianlun Dynasty Hotel (天倫王朝飯店) and Tianlun Songhe Hotel (天倫松鶴大酒店), both in Beijing, for over NT$4 billion. In May, he secured Holiday Inn Asiaworld Taipei for NT$7.04 billion after three public auctions to sell the poorly performing hotel failed.
These deals were fairly cheap considering their good locations in downtown areas, he said, adding that the firm would continue to hunt for ideal takeover targets in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with possibilities also extending to Japan, South Korea, Australia and South Africa.
"The reason I stepped into the hotel industry is I want to integrate my business with culture and fashion," said Chen, who graduated from the pharmacy department of Kaohsiung Medical University.
With nearly 1 million Sunrider distributors in 40 nations, Chen plans to integrate resources and express his passion for fashion and image through his hotels. He said he will display some of his thousands of Chinese art collections -- currently stored in a museum in California -- in Sunworld Dynasty after an overall refit is completed.
Located at the intersection of Dunhua N Road and Nanjing E Road near Songshan Airport, Sunworld Dynasty was founded by Asiaworld Group (亞世集團) 25 years ago to become the nation's first hotel integrated with a department store.
However, lack of maintenance in recent years made the 750-room hotel appear rundown, which caused it to lose some of its competitive edge.
Chen expected the large-scale renovation -- including the outer walls, guest rooms, restaurants, ballrooms and basement parking space -- to take three years and over NT$2 billion to complete.
"We do not plan to demolish it for reconstruction as the hotel itself has a modern design. But after the face-lift, I'm confident it'll bloom for another two to three decades," Chen said.
He expected Sunworld Dynasty to rake in annual sales of up to NT$1.5 billion, from the current NT$900 million, by upgrading it to a five-star hotel with four-star rates.
In addition, because of his close relations with Sheraton Taipei, these two hotels will refer customers when one is fully booked, he said.
Chen yesterday also introduced the hotel's new general manager, Victor Chou (
He has participated in preparation at the Brother Hotel, The Sherwood Taipei and Ta Shee Resort, as well as management at the Sheraton Taipei.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS