Nobu and AWC to Prove Chalk and Cheese can go Together
All the Nobu’s men, from left, Trevor Horwell, Struan McKenzie, Robert de Niro, Nobu Matsuhisa and Meir Teper. Right, AWC’s CEO/president Wallapa Traisorat and Horwell sign a new adventure
By Raini Hamdi, 16 September 2022
Nobu Hospitality and Asset World Corp (AWC) are like chalk and cheese. Yet Nobu will work only with AWC to develop multiple Nobu hotels and restaurants in Thailand.
After more than a year of signaling intentions to partner with each other, Nobu and AWC signed the exclusive agreement recently with the commencement of two projects, a Nobu restaurant and a Nobu hotel in Bangkok.
It’s Hollywood meets conventional business empire. Nobu is backed by celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa, actor Robert De Niro and film producer Meir Teper; AWC by the staid and steady TCC, owned by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakd. Nobu describes itself as a luxury lifestyle brand; AWC until now has favored the big chains and classic brands such as Marriott, Holiday Inn and Doubletree by Hilton to manage its properties.
AWC’s recent signings however shows a new penchant for lifestyle and/or luxury flags. Among its upcoming hotels are a Vignette Collection and an Autograph Collection in Pattaya, a Kimpton in Hua Hin, and a Ritz-Carlton Reserve and an InterContinental in Bangkok. In March 2021, it also shook hands with Hyatt Hotels to develop new properties that will carry the flags of Hyatt’s upper upscale, luxury and lifestyle brands.
Currently, AWC, which owns the largest hotel portfolio in Thailand, operates 19 hotels with 5,201 rooms in Bangkok, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Samui, Krabi, Phuket and Chiangmai.
Nobu, on the other hand, has 14 hotels in operation worldwide. Only one is in Asia, in Manila. It has a pipeline of 18 hotels, but only two of these upcoming properties are in Asia, in Danang, in partnership with Viet Capital Real Estate and Phoenix Holdings, and the yet-to-be-announced location in Bangkok with AWC.
The brand is more known for food than rooms in Asia, where there are Nobu restaurants in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Perth, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Manila.
Emphasis on Collaboration
Both parties emphasized that they would work “collaboratively” on projects.
Nobu’s CEO Trevor Horwell said the first Nobu Hotel in Bangkok will have “a completely unique and distinct program and experience being collaboratively planned by AWC and Nobu Hospitality.”
“We are excited to move forward with the first phase of this partnership in Bangkok whilst carefully planning further developments together,” said Horwell.
It is likely AWC will have a big say in creating Nobu hotels and restaurants in Thailand, never mind that it is new to lifestyle hotels. That isn’t necessarily bad since AWC has the local knowledge on the ground which Nobu lacks, while Nobu has the lifestyle expertise that AWC seeks.
But too big a say might be a problem.
Nobu’s keenness to partner with AWC exclusively isn’t misplaced. The Thai company has a lot of new developments, including its flagship mixed-use office complex, Empire Tower, where the first Nobu restaurant in Bangkok will open on the top floor in 2023. It will compete with other rooftop dining experiences that offer panoramic views of Bangkok’s skyline and the Chao Phraya River.
Bangkok may boast a population of more than 11 million and foreign arrivals that reached 40 million in 2019, but competition is incredibly stiff. The likes of Zuma are there, likewise some of Asia’s best restaurants, not to mention Thailand’s own street-food stars such as Michelin Bib Gourmand Thimsamai.
Another AWC development is the soon-to-open Aquatique The Beachfront Pattaya, a mega mixed-use destination comprising hotels, retail and dining outlets and convention spaces designed to appeal to a new generation of travelers.
The company has also launched a new joint venture with an unnamed investor, believed to be Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, to invest around $300 million (10,800 million baht) in developing “high potential” hospitality projects in Thailand’s key destinations.
AWC owns 59 percent of the joint venture company, named AWC Hospitality Development, and said it would derive fee-based revenue from managing those assets. This is a departure for AWC as typically it is an owner and pays operators management fees.
“The collaboration is the new business model that will help the company to create the foundation for new sources of income, which are derived from management fees, including incentive fees based on project performance,” AWC said in its filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand on the joint venture company.
AWC is ambitious, and has the lofty vision of supporting the Thai tourism industry and economy through developing quality projects. It believes this will attract more middle and high income foreign and local visitors to spend their dollars in the kingdom.
All this explains why AWC is expanding its partners network to include lifestyle and/or luxury independent chains such as Nobu, not just the Marriotts and IHGs of the industry.