Seibu Prince Hotels Worldwide wins a HICAP M&A award for its Ace Group deal, and names Ace Hotel Fukuoka for 2027

Seibu Prince Hotels Worldwide Inc. (株式会社西武・プリンスホテルズワールドワイド, SPW), the international arm of Japan's Prince Hotels group, said it and its New York-based subsidiary Ace Group International LLC (AGI) won the "Merger & Acquisition of the Year Award" at the Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP), held October 20-22. The award, SPW said, covers major Asia-Pacific hotel M&A deals completed between September 2025 and August 2026.

The award recognises SPW’s acquisition of AGI’s business, which closed in September 2025. According to SPW, the selection credited a strategy of respecting both companies’ brand values while pursuing global growth.

SPW used the announcement to confirm that Ace Hotel Fukuoka (エースホテル福岡) is planned to open in 2027. The company gave no further detail on the site, room count or design.

SPW named its President and CEO as Yoshiki Kaneda (金田佳季, romanized per the company's own officer listing) and AGI's CEO as Chris Penn, though the release carries no direct quote from either. SPW, which it says has more than a century of hotel-operating history, frames the deal as part of a push to become what it calls a "global hotel group with Japan as its origin," with a stated target of 250 hotels at home and abroad.

The sequence is the story, more than the award itself: a Japanese operator bought a lifestyle-hotel brand abroad, is being recognised at an industry conference for doing so, and now names a Japanese opening under that brand. SPW gave no detail on the Fukuoka site, so what it will look like and who it is aimed at remain open questions.