ASCOTT, the wholly owned lodging business unit of CapitaLand Investment (CLI), expects to open 28 properties across South-east Asia in 2024.
On Monday (Sep 23), Ascott said the new signings will add more than 3,400 units across its various brands, including lyf, Citadines and Oakwood.
With the addition of the properties, Ascott’s portfolio in the region will amount to more than 360 assets, both operational and in the pipeline. They will also account for more than half of the group’s year-to-date global signings.
The group’s expansion comes amid robust growth prospects in the region, where the hotels market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.8 per cent to achieve US$16.4 billion in revenue by 2029, said Ascott. It also expects tourist arrivals to achieve pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year.
Wong Kar Ling, chief strategy officer and managing director of South-east Asia for Ascott, said: “Contributing over 30 per cent of our total revenue, this region remains central to Ascott’s global expansion strategy.”
She also noted that the group is “on track” to open the 28 properties in the region this year, with 12 already completed.
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Seven of the newly signed properties are part of the Oakwood brand, which will open in Cambodia and expand across several Indonesian cities and Singapore.
Somerset properties accounted for four of the new assets, while Citadines made up three.
Meanwhile, The Unlimited Collection, which is part of the Oakwood portfolio, has expanded with two new properties in Malaysia, and the lyf brand also added two new assets in Singapore.
The Oakwood portfolio also includes brands such as The Unlimited Collection and other unbranded properties.
By geography, Ascott has also increased its Malaysian portfolio by more than 20 per cent, with the signing of nine new properties in Penang in 2024 to date. This is almost twice the number of signings last year, said the group.
In Batam, Indonesia, Ascott also doubled its portfolio to 14 properties over the last two years.
Following the new signings, the company noted that it will also enter into new cities such as Purwakarta in Indonesia and Kulim in Malaysia.
Shares of CLI ended 3.9 per cent or S$0.12 lower at S$2.93 on Friday.
