Banyan Group (formerly Banyan Tree Holdings), a Singapore-based luxury hospitality brand, is owned and led by founder and Executive Chairman Ho Kwon Ping and his family. The company, which operates over 80 hotels and resorts, maintains a strategic partnership with Accor Group for global expansion but remains an independent entity.
Ho Kwon Ping is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings and Laguna Resorts and Hotels, and Executive Chairman of Thai Wah Public Company. All three family-owned companies are listed in Singapore and Thailand.
In 2009, Banyan Tree Global Foundation was created as part of Banyan Group Limited. In December 2016, Banyan Tree entered into a partnership with a French hospitality company, Accor.
As one of five award-winning brands under the Banyan Group, Angsana has welcomed travellers since 2000 to our destination playgrounds around the globe.
In 2007, a deal was completed that returned Four Seasons to private ownership in a partnership between Microsoft's Bill Gates and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, one of the major shareholders of Four Seasons.
The AAA Five Diamond Award Banyan Tree Cabo Marqués is a luxury resort with an Asian feel. Built on the high cliffs of the Diamond Zone, Cabo Marques boasts spectacular views, while offering Banyan Tree's signature privacy and comfort.
The company is part of India's Tata Group. IHCL was founded in 1902 by Jamshedji Tata and is headquartered in Mumbai where its flagship hotel Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is also located.
If you're searching for the finest 5-star hotels in Krabi, look no further. Banyan Tree Krabi is a sanctuary for the senses, where the sapphire blue sea meets tropical white sands against a backdrop of lush jungle-green mountains.
Last year, the company acquired the Fairmont Hot Springs Resort in the B.C. Interior. Aldesta Hotels Group is, in turn, owned by Saliance Global Holdings.
How many Banyan Tree hotels are there in the world?
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Ho Rih Hwa, father of Ho Kwon Ping, the Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings. Ho Rih Hwa was Singapore's ambassador to various countries including Thailand, Belgium, Germany and the European Economic Community.
Since 2007, Bill Gates (through Cascade Investment) and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal (through Kingdom Holding Company) have been majority owners of the company. As of January 2022, Gates-controlled Cascade Investment owns 71.25% and Alwaleed-controlled Kingdom Holding Company owns 23.75% of Four Seasons.
Ho Kwon Cjan is head of architecture at the Banyan Tree Group and leads the team who designed many of the group's beautiful resorts and hotels located all around he world. Prior to joining Banyan Tree, he had worked at a leading architectural practice in Singapore.
Mukesh Ambani is significantly richer personally, with a net worth over $100 billion from Reliance Industries, while Ratan Tata's personal wealth is much smaller (around $1-6 billion) because most Tata Group profits fund philanthropic trusts, making the Tata Group's overall value vast but not personally held by Tata. Ambani's wealth is personal and concentrated in his business, whereas the Tata Group's wealth is largely dedicated to charity, making Ambani the wealthier individual by a huge margin.
Global Ranking of Hotel Groups in 2025 based on the Number of Rooms (as of 31/12/2024): Marriott International: 9,266 hotels / 1,683,204 rooms (+6.9%) Jin Jiang: 14,311 hotels / 1,439,756 rooms (+7.7%) Hilton Worldwide: 8,342 hotels / 1,249,814 rooms (+7.1%)
The Maharaja's Pavilion at The Raj Palace, Jaipur is India's most expensive hotel suite—a 16,000 sq. ft., four-floor palace with 50 lavish rooms, gold-silver furnishings, and a private museum. With a butler, chauffeur, rooftop infinity pool, and Mughlai feasts, this is true royalty.
Banyan trees can spread out wide, creating forests all by themselves! Their special trick is the aerial root. These roots come out from branches, dangle down, and when they reach soil, they thicken into new trunks. Over many years, one tree can look like an entire forest because of this!
In 1977, while working as a journalist for the Far Eastern Economic Review, an English Asian news magazine based in Hong Kong, Ho was detained under the Internal Security Act for writing articles in the Review and held in solitary confinement for two months.
