New Chapter Opens for Asia’s Soneva Hotels With a More Than $200 Million Investment

Just when you think “barefoot luxury” hotel brand Soneva is enjoying the slow life, a new significant minority stake in the company by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and U.S.-based private equity firm KSL Capital Partners will see a spurt of expansion that will double the number of Soneva properties in three years. Sources tell Skift that GIC and an affiliate of KSL are in partnership for a 35 to 40 percent stake in Soneva Holdings, following the exit of Sailing Capital upon the end of its five-year term, which its CEO Liang Tsui said had “delivered a healthy return.” Soneva founder, chairman and CEO of the group, Sonu Shivdasani, and his wife Eva, hold the rest of the shares in the company. The two funds will infuse up to $200 million in cash for Soneva’s planned expansion in the next 36 months. Three new resorts, two in the Maldives and one in Okinawa, Japan, have been pre-approved. What's more, they will allocate $30 million of growth capital in Soneva Ho