When Peng Sum Choe joined Pan Pacific Hotels Group (PPHG) as chief executive, he brought with him experience across some of Asia’s most powerful hospitality companies and a conviction that strong culture, a focus on people and disciplined growth are inseparable.
Speaking at IHIF Asia 2025, Peng Sun Choe noted: “You can have all the money and titles in the world, but it always comes back to people.”
Born in Singapore, Choe’s early exposure to the hospitality business through his parents and his early experience in team sports shaped an instinct for ownership and teamwork that now defines his approach to running a global hotel group. Decades later, those principles underpin how he leads at Pan Pacific.
Blue ocean strategy
Since taking the helm, he has sharpened Pan Pacific’s focus around three distinct brands - Pan Pacific, PARKROYAL and PARKROYAL COLLECTION - as the group continues to scale worldwide.
That clarity of focus is deliberate. “We don’t want to be in the red ocean where everyone else is fighting for share. We go where there is real need and opportunity.”
The strategy echoes Choe’s earlier career at Frasers Hospitality, where he launched the company’s extended-stay platform, a move he described as a blue-ocean strategy in response to unmet corporate housing demand across Asia’s growth markets. The segment’s resilience through difficult times such as Covid reaffirmed his belief of the reliability of cashflows coming out of extended stay which could anchor portfolio performance during volatility.
The REIT advantage
Choe’s reputation as a financially astute hotelier dates to his role in establishing the city-state’s first hospitality REIT while at Frasers, a rationale remains highly relevant in today’s capital markets.
“When you’re an owner-operator with billions in assets, the REIT market gives you the ability to recycle capital without losing control. It’s a great way to unlock capital through the capital markets and yet enable the growth in business” he explained.
For investors, the takeaway is clear: structuring and scale can be mutually reinforcing. But he is quick to note that REIT success requires constant performance delivery. “It’s a yield play,” he said. “You must continue to acquire and sweat the assets, or the share price will diminish.”
Sustainability and “Asian graceful luxury”
At property level, Choe is redefining sustainability as a business case, not a branding exercise, noting “sustainability is not just removing plastic bottles.”
The PARKROYAL COLLECTION Marina Bay, for instance, underwent a complete retrofit that introduced more than 2,400 trees and plants alongside low-emissivity double-glazed glass, reducing energy consumption by up to 40 per cent.
That operational efficiency focus is extending into new projects, including upcoming developments in Jakarta, Dalian and Bangkok. In London, the flagship Pan Pacific opened amid the pandemic achieved five-star recognition within months, validating both product positioning and post-Covid market timing.
Choe describes its offer as “Asian graceful luxury”: understated, service-led, and wellness-centred.
People and culture
For all the emphasis on capital strategy, Choe often returns to a single constant: people. During COVID-19, he made a decision not to lay off staff, a commitment he says continues to resonate internally.
“At the end of the day, it is all about people,” he said. “Everyone still remembers that promise.”
That mindset reflects Choe’s broader management philosophy: lead through trust and ownership. “If your team feels they’re running the business like it’s their own, they’ll deliver,” he said. “And if you build trust consistently, it gives you the freedom to lead.”
It’s a principle that has served him well across three decades and three tycoon-led groups, from Shangri-La to Frasers to Pan Pacific.
Pan Pacific’s model illustrates how platforms can compete through focus rather than footprint, utilizing disciplined brand segmentation, capital recycling and operational sustainability to drive long-term yield.