In mid-June, APA Holdings, the hotel ownership division of Tokyo-based APA Group, acquired 100% of the shares of Ishin Hotels Group for an undisclosed price.
APA Group — the largest hotel firm in Japan — develops, owns, operates and franchises a portfolio of 954 hotels and 134,847 rooms. The company has equity capital of approximately 328.2 billion yen ($23 billion), according to its website.
Founded in 2001 and also based in Tokyo, Ishin focuses on urban Japanese hotels. Sixteen of its 17 hotels, with a combined 2,508 keys, are in the upper-midscale brand B Hotels. It also has one independent property, the 135-room Hotel Centmain Nagoya.
APA leadership has goal to expand its hotel portfolio to approximately 150,000 rooms by the end of March 2027.
“To achieve this goal, the APA Group has been promoting direct management and franchise methods of opening new hotels to increase its own brands," according to a company news release. "However, these two methods alone are not enough to open new hotels, and the group felt the need to fully introduce rental and [mergers and acquisitions] methods as new [hotel]-opening methods."
APA has 47 hotels in the U.S. and Canada, 46 under the Coast Hotels brand and one under the APA flag itself, the 200-room APA Hotel Woodbridge in the Metropark Corporate Center in Iselin, New Jersey.
Ishin’s business model is purely franchise. Its president and CEO, Kong Lingyong, will remain part of the wholly owned subsidiary of APA.
In its own news release on the deal, executives at Ishin said B Hotels “will not be integrated with APA … and Ishin will continue its [hotel]-opening strategy, internal systems and culture as before.”