Michael Kum

Executive chairman, M&L Hospitality Group

 

A shipping baron who is now the custodian of a billion-dollar multinational hotel empire, Michael Kum heads up M&L Hospitality Group

M&L Hospitality Group executive chairman Michael Kum made his name as a shipping magnate in a career spanning close to four decades. He started work at shipping firm Marine Charters in 1969, and co-founded Offshore Equipment seven years later, renting vessels to oil and gas firms in South-East Asia and the Middle East. The enterprise grew steadily, and Kum eventually sold his business to Australia’s Macquarie Group in 2009.

He then ventured into real estate and hospitality, launching Grandline International and a subsidiary, M&L Hospitality, to manage the group’s portfolio of hotels. M&L initially dipped its toes into the hospitality market by buying the former Four Points by Sheraton at Sydney’s Darling Harbour from GPT Group for A$185 million in 2009. M&L Hospitality spent another A$250 million to redevelop the property, and relaunched it in 2016 as the Hyatt Regency, a mixed-development property incorporating a convention centre and commercial tower with office and retail space.

Today, M&L Hospitality operates hotels in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the UK, operated by brands such as Accor, IHG, Hilton, Hyatt International and Rezidor. The group’s portfolio is valued at just under SG$3 billion.

Impacted Industries


Awards


2019

Lifetime Achievement Award (Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards)

Did You Know?


M&L Hospitality and hotel ibis Singapore donated 3,200 bento box meals to staff of Tan Tock Seng Hospital and the National Centre for Infectious Diseases over an eight-week period in 2020, to show their appreciation to frontline healthcare workers battling the Covid-19 outbreak.

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