Hong Leong grows with the nation

Straits Times

2 days ago

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GROWING with the nation in the past 60 years, Hong Leong Group is a household name and a home-grown conglomerate with a sprawling global portfolio.
Real estate, hospitality, finance and industrials are key sectors where it makes its mark.
Amid fast-paced economic transformation, Hong Leong's diversified companies are investing in their Singaporean core, even as they compete on the world stage.
'Much like Singapore, Hong Leong Group stands as a testament to what vision, resilience, and innovation can achieve over time,' Hong Leong Group executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng tells The Business Times, pointing to a legacy and record 'shaped by performance, adaptability, and trust'.
Pioneering success
The Singapore River has undergone a massive evolution since independence, with shophouses and godowns making room for scores of modern skyscrapers.
Crucially, 'the 1970s and 80s saw a frenzy of private sector building construction in the Golden Shoe area', National Library Board publication BiblioAsia has reported.
One example that the article cites: Hong Leong Holdings' redevelopment of 28 shophouses in the Raffles Quay area into a new office tower.
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Today, Hong Leong Building is a landmark in the central business district (CBD), and among the flagship projects in property developer Hong Leong Holdings' commercial stable, while its sister company City Developments Limited (CDL) counts nearby Republic Plaza – one of Singapore's tallest skyscrapers – as a jewel in the crown of its Grade A office portfolio.
Listed on the Singapore Exchange, CDL – a pioneering Singapore developer established in 1963 – has grown alongside the nation, shaping the city's skyline with numerous residential, commercial, hotel and retail properties.
CDL has been part of the Hong Leong Group since 1972, after the group became its controlling shareholder. Since then, the company has developed more than 53,000 homes and owns around 23 million square feet of gross floor area in residential for lease, commercial and hospitality assets globally.
The 280-metre, 66-storey Republic Plaza, which was completed in 1996 and refurbished in 2019, has been honoured by architecture's prestigious FIABCI Prix d'Excellence, and has also racked up accolades for sustainability and eco-friendliness.
Republic Plaza.
Hong Leong Holdings' 80 Robinson Road and CDL's The Sail @ Marina Bay – launched in 2004 as Singapore's tallest residential project – are some other downtown gems. In fact, 80 Robinson Road is home to a co-working hub set up with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Singapore Fintech Association to promote collaboration among fintech firms.
These edifices are just some of the contributions to the skyline made over the decades by Hong Leong companies, including sister developers Hong Realty and TID Pte Ltd.
Founded by the late Kwek Hong Png as a building materials trading company in 1941, the Hong Leong Group still counts the real estate industry as central to its corporate portfolio.
Incorporated in 1963, urban solutions provider Hong Leong Asia grew in tandem with Singapore's public housing in the post-independence years.
Today, Housing and Development Board (HDB) projects are the mainstay for Hong Leong Asia's pre-cast concrete business, which specialises in the design and manufacture of prefabricated building components. The business counts the 50-storey public housing landmark Pinnacle@Duxton as a signature build.
Meanwhile, ready-mix concrete supplier Island Concrete has also been integral to several major public infrastructure works since its formation in 1970. These include Changi Airport Terminal 1 in the 1970s, the first Mass Rapid Transit line in the 1980s, the iconic Marina Bay Sands in 2010, and the Marina Coastal Expressway, which opened in 2013 and is Singapore's first highway to include an undersea road along its route.
In fact, Hong Leong Group has provided not just the raw materials for nation building, through Hong Leong Asia, but also the capital needed to get local entrepreneurs off the ground.
Hong Leong Finance – founded in 1961 and listed on the Singapore bourse in 1974 – is Singapore's largest finance company.
Hong Leong Finance.
It serves individuals and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) alike, offering deposits, savings, loans, and advisory services at its 28 branches and 12 SME Centres islandwide.
SMEs make up a strategic segment of the clientele for the financial services firm, which is also the only finance company in Singapore with full sponsorship status for the Singapore Exchange's Catalist board.
Representing the nation
Beyond forging local partnerships, Hong Leong Group has also cast a wide net in international waters. Significant overseas investments include Hong Leong Asia's acquisition of Malaysia's cement producer Tasek Corporation Berhad in the 1970s.
The company also entered powertrain solutions manufacturing and distribution in the 1990s with its 48.7 per cent stake in New York-listed China Yuchai International.
This powertrain solutions business contributed almost S$3.6 billion in revenue in 2024, or more than four-fifths of Hong Leong Asia's top line.
Similarly, Hong Leong Group's private developer arm, Hong Leong Holdings, entered the mainland Chinese market early, launching the Beijing Riviera luxury residential project in 1993.
The developer is still active in China, where its joint ventures have built mixed-use developments in major hubs such as Chengdu and Chongqing.
CDL's China arm has likewise built a strong portfolio across key Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, including Shanghai, Suzhou, Chongqing and Shenzhen, since its setup in 2010.
CDL has expanded its property development and asset management operations in major overseas markets, like Britain, Japan and Australia, and a sizeable living sector portfolio.
Hong Leong Group's international reach also comes on the back of its vibrant hospitality arm, which has helped to fly the Singapore flag in global cities like New York and London.
The group's strategic hotel expansion took off in the 1990s, when an earlier CDL hotel unit built on its Asian footprint to begin a string of acquisitions in the West. One watershed transaction was the purchase of the Plaza Hotel in New York for S$455 million.
Those deals paved the way for the London listing of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc (M&C) in 1996 – which made M&C the first Singapore-controlled company to trade on the London Stock Exchange.
'The listing opened doors to opportunities and built investor confidence. It gave us access to global capital, enhanced governance standards, and strengthened our brand positioning in international markets,' Kwek muses.
M&C was privatised into a wholly owned CDL subsidiary in 2019 and its role as a hotel operator and long-term asset owner is 'still selling' the Singapore brand, Kwek notes.
Today, CDL operates a stable of global properties under its Millennium Hotels and Resorts (MHR) brand. Kwek has touted MHR's hotel ownership model as a deliberate decision to 'ensure control over the guest experience and protect long-term value'.
MHR serves both business and leisure travellers with 145 properties in 80 locations – including London, New York, Paris, Dubai, Beijing, Tokyo, Auckland and, of course, Singapore.
The youngest of the group's 12 brands is trendy M Social, which debuted in 2016 to woo a new generation of tech-savvy, design-conscious guests with its smart tech-enabled rooms.
M Social Resort Penang.
Some MHR hotels are owned by mainboard-listed CDL Hospitality Trusts (CDLHT), a stapled group which comprises the first hotel real estate investment trust on the Singapore Exchange and had about S$3.5 billion in assets under management as at end-March.
CDLHT has more than 4,900 hotel rooms worldwide, with its portfolio anchored by strategic locations in gateway cities. A substantial portion of its portfolio value is concentrated in central Singapore, with the upcoming Moxy Singapore Clarke Quay slated to add 475 keys to CDLHT's presence in Singapore.
The trust also marked its foray into the living asset class in 2021 and achieved two milestones in 2024 with the opening of its build-to-rent residential project, The Castings in Manchester, and the acquisition of a purpose-built student accommodation building, Benson Yard in Liverpool.
The Castings in Manchester.
The addition of these longer-stay assets is expected to enhance CDLHT's income resilience and reinforce the benefits of a diversified lodging portfolio.
Charting new paths
Having been part of the national backbone for six decades, Hong Leong Group continues to make its mark in Singapore and the world.
In fact, the group is actively pursuing environmental sustainability goals across the board, with business units working to reduce greenhouse gas and carbon emissions by 2030.
For example, CDL has been pioneering green buildings and sustainable development over the past 30 years and has gained global recognition for its leadership in sustainability and climate action. It has consistently been ranked among the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World by media and research firm Corporate Knights since 2010 and continues to invest in green and innovative building methods.
In Singapore, CDL is rejuvenating the skyline with new-generation mixed-use and integrated developments in the Singapore River precinct and CBD. The upcoming CanningHill Piers and CanningHill Square, at the former Liang Court; Newport Plaza, at the former Fuji Xerox Towers; and Union Square, where Central Mall and Central Square used to be, will all transform the cityscape and infuse their neighbourhoods with new energy when completed.
Hong Leong Holdings has been moving to finance projects with green loans, starting with the nature-centric private mixed-use residential project in Tengah, while Hong Leong Asia is revolutionising its core industries with lower-carbon and circular economy solutions.
MHR and CDLHT hotels have adopted digital practices to streamline the guest experience, and tapping technology also delivers eco-friendly operational efficiency for the business.
For instance, MHR is the first hotel company to enter the Metaverse and install voice-enabled technology. It also utilises analytics to optimise energy consumption and resources.
MHR and CDLHT have also introduced waste reduction programmes in their properties, including cutting single-use plastics and deploying food waste digestors where possible.
On the industrial front, Hong Leong Asia has made significant investments in recent years to transform construction processes. Notably, it developed the HL-Sunway Prefab Hub, a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that streamlines the production of precast building components. The company also established a fully automated batching plant at the Ready-Mixed Concrete Ecosystem at Jurong Port, enhancing operational efficiency and productivity.
HL-Sunway Prefab Hub.
Meanwhile, Hong Leong Finance's transformation and digitalisation efforts have enhanced customer experience, operational efficiency and business growth. Its digital platform for vehicle loans saw over 300 per cent increase in new electric vehicle (EV) loans to S$314 million in 2024 – up from S$73 million in the year before – as Singapore guns for EV adoption. The HLF Digital App also enables customers to manage a range of services including fund transfers and placing of fixed deposits.
Across all these business divisions, Hong Leong Group continues to strive for excellence.
'In the face of global challenges, market shifts, and even a pandemic, we have remained steadfast,' Kwek tells BT. 'Our true strength lies not only in solid foundations, but in our ability to reinvent, adapt, and lead with purpose.'
In the years to come, 'we remain firmly committed to shaping a smarter, greener, and more sustainable Singapore, and building a future worthy of our past', he adds.