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.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS