Ascott To Manage Another Serviced Residence In Beijing

The Ascott Group has been awarded a contract to manage another serviced residence in Beijing.

The 175-unit Ascott Beijing Raffles City is part of Raffles City Beijing, an integrated lifestyle development comprising a retail podium, an office tower and residential apartments.

Ascott Beijing Raffles City is the Group's fifth serviced residence property in Beijing. It is targeted to open in the second half of 2009, and is centrally located in Dongzhimen, Dongcheng District which is near the second embassy district, where many embassies and over 500 foreign enterprises are located.

Ascott Beijing Raffles City sits diagonally across a transportation hub and is about 20 minutes away from the airport via the light railway. Located near the Forbidden City and the famous Sanlitun nightlife area, the property is close to a range of top class dining and leisure outlets.

Ascott Beijing Raffles City will be the Group's fifth Ascott-branded serviced residence property in China. The other four are Ascott Beijing, Ascott Shanghai Pudong, Ascott Guangzhou, and Ascott Shenzhen Maillen. The latter is slated to open in 2010. Other newly added properties in China that will commence operations in the next two years are Citadines Xi'an Gaoxin, Citadines Wuhan Zhuankou and Somerset Heping, Shenyang. By then, Ascott will have more than 5,000 units in 26 properties in 12 cities across China.