Ascott Plans Further Expansion In China

Ascott Group, one of the biggest service apartment groups in the Asia Pacific area, is now planning to further expand its business in China.

Huang Zhenyu, senior vice-president of Ascott and general manager of Ascott International Management China, tells l,ocal media that Ascott will increase the total number of service apartments in China to 10000 and double its assets in the region before 2010.

Ascott has announced plans to purchase Beijing Yuelai Hotel and Tianjin Junyi Mansion, which will be rebuilt into service apartments under the Somerset brand. Involving an investment of about RMB800 million, these two projects will add 422 units of apartments for Ascott.

Huang says that Ascott will pay more attention to Chinese second-tier cities such as Xi'an and Suzhou and will also expand its business in China via property purchases.