Ascott Residence Trust (Ascott REIT) on Thursday (Jun 25) announced it will acquire seven property assets in Australia and Japan for S$298.3 million.
It will acquire the 380-unit Citadines on Bourke Melbourne from Ascott for A$158.5 million (S$167.6 million). It will also buy the remaining 40 per cent interest in Citadines Shinjuku Tokyo and Citadines Karasuma-Gojo Kyoto for about 3 billion yen (S$33.7 million) and 1.4 billion yen (S$16 million), respectively, from Ascott, the REIT said in its press release.
Additionally, it will acquire four rental housing properties in Osaka for 7.3 billion yen (S$81 million).
“The seven prime assets with 1,152 apartment units will broaden Ascott REIT’s earning base and increase our scale to 11,368 apartment units in 95 properties across 39 cities, further diversifying our portfolio across key cities globally,” said Mr Lim Jit Poh, Chairman of Ascott REIT.
“Ascott REIT’s asset size will also enlarge from S$4.1 billion to S$4.4 billion, bringing us closer to our target asset size of S$6 billion by 2017.”
Mr Ronald Tay, CEO of Ascott REIT, said: “We have been very bullish on Japan as a hospitality market for investment, so total asset base in Japan now would be exceeding 16 per cent. We will continue to focus on equity acquisitions in Japan.”
“Again, we like Australia for being a stable and developed market so we will continue to look for acquisition opportunities in Australia as well,” he added.
Ascott REIT currently owns 90 properties in 37 cities across the Asia Pacific and Europe.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 25 Jun 2015