Singapore Billionaire’s Royal Group Taps Minor International To Run Heritage London Hotel

Royal Group—controlled by Singaporean real estate billionaire Asok Kumar Hiranandani—has picked Minor Hotels, part of Thai hotelier William Heinecke’s Bangkok-based Minor International, to manage its first hotel in London

Last year, Singapore-based Royal Group bought the former NatWest Bank (formerly Westminster Bank) building on Piccadilly in Central London’s Mayfair precinct for £65 million and earmarked another £45 million to transform the century-old heritage property into a luxury boutique hotel with 50 suites across six floors.

“We view this project as a meaningful contribution to the continued renaissance of Mayfair and the wider West End,” Bobby Hiranandani, co-chairman of Royal Group, said in a statement. “By reactivating a distinguished heritage building on Piccadilly, we are not only preserving its legacy, but also introducing a thoughtfully curated hospitality experience that will enhance the character, energy and global appeal of the precinct.”

The WestDill Mayfair Hotel London, the Royal Group’s first venture in Europe, will open in the fourth quarter of this year and operate under Minor Hotels’ Colbert Collection, which draws inspiration from the convivial atmosphere of Parisian boulevard cafés and the cultural vibrancy of the original Colbert bistro in London.

“We are delighted to be working with Royal Group of Companies Singapore to bring Colbert Collection to London and are confident this new property will represent a highly attractive offering for visitors to the city,” Dillip Rajakarier, CEO of Minor Hotels and group CEO of parent company Minor International, said in the statement.

London has attracted other Singapore property tycoons in recent years. Billionaire Kwek Leng Beng’s City Developments bought St. Katharine Docks in 2023, and real estate magnate Chua Thian Poh’s Ho Bee Land acquired The Scalpel office skyscraper the year before.

Hiranandani is the cofounder of the erstwhile Royal Brothers property group, which was split in 2011 following a family settlement between him and his older brother Raj Kumar—also a billionaire who runs his separate companies, Royal Holdings and RB Capital, with his son Kishin.

Through Royal Group, Hiranandani owns prime Singapore assets including the Sofitel Sentosa Resort and the Royal Group office building at the heart of the Raffles Place central business district. The company also owns hotels in Malaysia such as the Double Tree by Hilton in Kuala Lumpur. With an estimated net worth of $1.9 billion, Hiranandani is among the richest in Singapore.

Minor was incorporated by Heinecke (a U.S.-born and naturalized Thai citizen) in 1970 in Thailand when he was still a minor, hence the name. It has since grown to become one of Asia’s largest hotel chains, running over 600 hotels with over 90,000 rooms around the world, and made Heinecke one the wealthiest in Thailand with a real-time net worth of $1.3 billion based on Forbes’ data. The billionaire hotelier plans to raise $1.5 billion by injecting some of Minor’s hotels in a REIT that will be listed in Singapore later this year.