The Ascott Limited
The Ascott Limited has entered into a strategic alliance with a top Philippine real estate developer to manage 1,600 units in the country by 2022, the serviced residence owner-operator company said yesterday.
Ascott, a wholly owned subsidiary of CapitaLand Limited, will work with Cebu Landmasters Inc (CLI) to seek properties for CLI to develop into serviced residences, which will then be managed by Ascott.
They have signed management contracts for their first four properties in the districts of Bacolod, Cebu City and Davao City, which will open from next year to 2021 and offer more than 800 units in total.
Ascott has been in the Philippines for 18 years and is on track to achieve its target of 6,000 units there by 2020, said Mr Daniel Wee, Ascott's country general manager for the Philippines.
Ascott's chief executive officer Kevin Goh said that Ascott is confident of exceeding 80,000 units this year and expanding to 160,000 units worldwide by 2023.
Annica Holdings
Catalist-listed Annica Holdings announced yesterday that it has entered into an agreement to sell its entire shareholding interest in GPE Power Systems to GPE's executive director Chong Shin Mun for $2 million.
The disposal will enable Annica to focus on developing its new diversified business segments, including the renewable energy and recycling businesses, the company said.
Annica holds 350,000 ordinary shares in GPE, representing 70 per cent of the total number of issued shares, while Ms Chong holds the remaining 30 per cent.
Ms Chong is a substantial shareholder of Annica and holds 6.66 per cent of its total issued share capital.
The disposal is to be completed no later than 14 business days after all the conditions set out in the conditional sale and purchase agreement are fulfilled. Following the disposal, Annica will cease to have any interest in GPE and GPE will cease to be a subsidiary of Annica.
Separately yesterday, Annica said its non-independent and non-executive director Nicholas Jeyaraj Narayanan was interviewed by the Commercial Affairs Department on July 17 in an ongoing investigation. The investigation is related to a 2013 penny stock manipulation case. Mr Narayanan intends to cooperate fully with the authorities, the company said, adding that its business and operations are not affected by the investigations.
