The purchase consideration of US$388 million represents the largest ever single-asset hotel transaction in Singapore and the second largest in Asia Pacific in 2023.

Singapore based UOL Group has sold Parkroyal Kitchener Hotel for S$525 million to Midtown Properties.

The latter shares the same registered address as Hotel 81 Management and Worldwide Hotels, whose chairman is Choo Chong Ngen, founder of the Hotel 81 chain. His daughter, Carolyn Choo, is the group’s managing director and CEO.

The hotel, with 542 rooms, is held under UOL's hospitality unit Pan Pacific Hotels Group. Located along Kitchener Road, off Serangoon Road, the property is near Mustafa Centre and City Square Mall, which is linked to the Farrer Park MRT station on the Northeast Line.

UOL currently holds the hotel at $83 million on its books. Upon completion of the sale, UOL book a gain of $446.2 million.

According to a Jan 9 valuation by Jones Lang LaSalle Property Consultants, the hotel is valued at $423 million as at Dec 2022.

"The proposed disposal provides a good opportunity for the group to unlock the value of its investment in Parkroyal Kitchener Hotel at an attractive price, and is part of the group's reconstitution of its overall property portfolio," says UOL on July 4.