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Major Acquisition Deal Originated at 2024 Event Highlights Conference's Role as Premier Investment Platform
HONG KONG, Oct. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Questex's IHIF Asia cemented its position as the APAC region's premier hotel investment forum after three days of intensive deal-making and strategic discussions. The event attracted 520 senior delegates from 33 countries, with investors representing $280B in AUM comprising 40% of attendees – a 33% increase from the $210B represented at the 2024 event.
The conference's deal-making hub was illustrated by the revelation that Seibu Prince Hotels' acquisition of Ace Hotel Group – a landmark transaction that reshaped the boutique hotel landscape – originated from meetings at IHIF Asia 2024. This demonstrates the forum's unique ability to facilitate transformative deals that drive industry consolidation and growth.
Diversified Capital Sources Signal Maturing Market
A standout feature of the event was the significant increase in Chinese and Japanese investor participation, and the emergence of new capital sources that demonstrate the hospitality sector's evolving appeal to institutional investors. Private equity firms including Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield, Bain Capital and Fortress Group were represented alongside investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, signalling the asset class's growing sophistication.
The event welcomed an increasing number of family offices, multilateral and bilateral institutions, reflecting the sector's expanding investor base beyond traditional hospitality-focused funds.
Chinese investment groups including Delonix, Huamao, JinJiang, SSAW Group, Funyard Hotels & Resorts, and China Travel Group registered their strong presence with expanded delegations, while Japanese participation reached new heights with institutions representing both inbound capital seeking regional opportunities and outbound capital targeting domestic market expansion. This bi-directional capital flow from Japan demonstrates the country's evolving role as both a destination and source market for hospitality investment across APAC.
Japan's real estate developers - Mitsubishi, Indochina Kajima, Takenaka Corporation and Mitsui - brought delegations highlighting the convergence of hospitality and real estate investment strategies.
Key Investment Opportunities Drive Strategic Decision-Making
The forum's strategic sessions delivered actionable market intelligence influencing capital deployment decisions across the region. Gateway city trophy assets in established markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney dominated investor appetite, with focus on operational upside opportunities.
Emerging markets across Southeast Asia and India emerged as key expansion targets, while technology-enabled hospitality captured attention through measurable AI integration and automation returns. Cross-border partnership structures between Western operators and Asian capital were highlighted for market access and risk mitigation, with third-party operators importing best practices from US and European markets.
Branded residential evolution featured prominently, with hybrid models emerging as preferred structures across diverse Asian markets, creating new revenue streams and enhanced development cycle economics.
IHIF Asia Digital will offer main stage sessions, extending the event's reach to the broader hospitality investment community. Learn more here.
About Questex
Questex fuels exceptional business connections—where every buyer and seller interaction matters. Through live events enriched with data insights and active year-round digital communities, we deliver measurable results. It happens here.
Media Contact
mfranzman@questex.com
Major Acquisition Deal Originated at 2024 Event Highlights Conference's Role as Premier Investment Platform
HONG KONG, Oct. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Questex's IHIF Asia cemented its position as the APAC region's premier hotel investment forum after three days of intensive deal-making and strategic discussions. The event attracted 520 senior delegates from 33 countries, with investors representing $280B in AUM comprising 40% of attendees – a 33% increase from the $210B represented at the 2024 event.
The conference's deal-making hub was illustrated by the revelation that Seibu Prince Hotels' acquisition of Ace Hotel Group – a landmark transaction that reshaped the boutique hotel landscape – originated from meetings at IHIF Asia 2024. This demonstrates the forum's unique ability to facilitate transformative deals that drive industry consolidation and growth.
Diversified Capital Sources Signal Maturing Market
A standout feature of the event was the significant increase in Chinese and Japanese investor participation, and the emergence of new capital sources that demonstrate the hospitality sector's evolving appeal to institutional investors. Private equity firms including Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield, Bain Capital and Fortress Group were represented alongside investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, signalling the asset class's growing sophistication.
The event welcomed an increasing number of family offices, multilateral and bilateral institutions, reflecting the sector's expanding investor base beyond traditional hospitality-focused funds.
Chinese investment groups including Delonix, Huamao, JinJiang, SSAW Group, Funyard Hotels & Resorts, and China Travel Group registered their strong presence with expanded delegations, while Japanese participation reached new heights with institutions representing both inbound capital seeking regional opportunities and outbound capital targeting domestic market expansion. This bi-directional capital flow from Japan demonstrates the country's evolving role as both a destination and source market for hospitality investment across APAC.
Japan's real estate developers - Mitsubishi, Indochina Kajima, Takenaka Corporation and Mitsui - brought delegations highlighting the convergence of hospitality and real estate investment strategies.
Key Investment Opportunities Drive Strategic Decision-Making
The forum's strategic sessions delivered actionable market intelligence influencing capital deployment decisions across the region. Gateway city trophy assets in established markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney dominated investor appetite, with focus on operational upside opportunities.
Emerging markets across Southeast Asia and India emerged as key expansion targets, while technology-enabled hospitality captured attention through measurable AI integration and automation returns. Cross-border partnership structures between Western operators and Asian capital were highlighted for market access and risk mitigation, with third-party operators importing best practices from US and European markets.
Branded residential evolution featured prominently, with hybrid models emerging as preferred structures across diverse Asian markets, creating new revenue streams and enhanced development cycle economics.
IHIF Asia Digital will offer main stage sessions, extending the event's reach to the broader hospitality investment community. Learn more here.
About Questex
Questex fuels exceptional business connections—where every buyer and seller interaction matters. Through live events enriched with data insights and active year-round digital communities, we deliver measurable results. It happens here.
Media Contact
mfranzman@questex.com
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Questex's IHIF Asia Delivers Record Deal-Making Activity as $280B in Capital Targets APAC Hotel Market
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- At CES 2026, Flowtica was not the loudest presence on the show floor. Over the course of the week, however, the Singapore-based AI company became one of the most closely watched, drawing sustained attention from media, investors, and industry observers.
That attention has now translated into availability. Following its appearance as a CES 2026 Innovation Award Honoree, Flowtica has officially opened sales of Flowtica Scribe, its AI recording pen that quietly stood out in a field dominated by phone-dependent and screen-heavy solutions.
Flowtica Scribe did not make its first public appearance at CES. The product launched on Kickstarter several months earlier, where it attracted thousands of users and established early validation. CES marked a different stage for the company. The focus shifted away from introduction and toward closer examination, with many observers asking whether the idea could hold up beyond early enthusiasm.
Throughout the exhibition, Flowtica's booth at Eureka Park became a steady meeting point for investors and journalists. Conversations rarely centered on specifications or feature lists. Instead, discussions focused on a more fundamental question: whether AI recording tools are beginning to converge on forms that genuinely fit into professional life.
Flowtica's answer was visible in its choice of form. By embedding AI into a pen, an object already accepted in boardrooms, consultations, investor meetings, and sales conversations, the company avoided many of the social and practical frictions that continue to limit phone-based recorders. The result was a device that felt less like a new category of gadget and more like a natural extension of existing behavior.
This restraint is deliberate. Flowtica Scribe is designed to remain unobtrusive, with no screen and no demand for user attention during conversations. Recording, organization, and interpretation take place quietly in the background, allowing users to remain focused on the discussion itself. Among on-site observers, this approach positioned Flowtica as one of the more pragmatic entrants in an increasingly crowded AI recording market.
Hardware, however, represents only part of Flowtica's differentiation. The company places equal emphasis on what happens after recording ends. Its AI functions as a continuously evolving insight system that can operate autonomously while remaining responsive to clear user guidance when needed. Over time, it adapts to individual working rhythms and priorities, shifting the emphasis from capturing everything to identifying what truly matters.
Rather than simply storing conversations, Flowtica helps determine which moments should be retained, revisited, and translated into next actions. Key insights are designed to integrate naturally with existing productivity tools, including calendars and task systems, allowing them to fit into established workflows rather than compete with them.
As interest in Flowtica Scribe built during CES, one question surfaced repeatedly. When would the product be available beyond the show floor?
With sales now officially open through Flowtica's website, the company moves from exhibition attention to real-world deployment. For Flowtica, this moment appears less like a conclusion and more like a transition, from being observed to being used.
As the AI recording market continues to mature, competition is shifting away from novelty and early adoption toward durability. The defining question is no longer whether a system can record conversations, but whether it can remain useful over time.
Flowtica enters this next phase with an approach that is measured and quietly confident, placing its bet not on spectacle, but on long-term relevance.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
The AI Recording Pen That Turned Heads at CES Is Finally for Sale
