SINGAPORE (Bloomberg) - CapitaLand Ltd.'s serviced residence arm, The Ascott Ltd, and Qatar Investment Authority, the Gulf state's sovereign wealth fund, will partner in a US$600 million (S$810.94 million) venture as Southeast Asia's biggest developer boosts its fund management business.

The 50:50 tie-up will initially focus on Asia Pacific and Europe, according to a statement on Monday. CapitaLand has a target to have six new funds with as much as $10 billion in assets under management by 2020, it said.

"Fund management is central to the active capital management strategy of CapitaLand as a dominant real estate player," Lim Ming Yan, CapitaLand's president and chief executive, said in the statement.

"With Ascott's newly set up global serviced residence fund, CapitaLand now manages 17 real estate private equity funds and five real estate investment trusts (Reits) with AUM (assets under management) worth over $43 billion," he added.

The fund with Qatar Investment Authority will help CapitaLand's Ascott boost apartment units to 80,000 by 2020. Ascott also manages a US$500 million China fund.

Qatar's sovereign fund has deployed the nation's riches on assets ranging from British bank Barclays to German automaker Volkswagen. It led a group of investors that agreed in January to buy London's Canary Wharf financial district in a deal that valued owner Songbird Estates Plc at about £2.6 billion (S$5.45 billion).