CapitaLand Investment Limited’s (CLI) wholly owned lodging business unit, The Ascott Limited, announced today that it is acquiring Oakwood Worldwide from Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd.
The acquisition increases Ascott’s global portfolio by 81 properties and about 15,000 units.
Oakwood’s approximately 8,500 operational units are expected to immediately contribute to Ascott’s recurring fee income streams upon completion of the transaction slated in 3Q 2022.
Ascott’s acquisition of Oakwood will leapfrog Ascott’s global presence to more than 150,000 units in about 900 properties across over 200 cities in 39 countries.
It will add new markets which include Cheongju in South Korea; Zhangjiakou and Qingdao in China; Dhaka in Bangladesh as well as Washington D.C. in the USA.
“This acquisition of Oakwood is part of Ascott’s roadmap to playing a bigger role in the lodging market,” Kevin Goh, CLI’s CEO for Lodging, said.
“There are significant synergies between Ascott and Oakwood, given our complementary footprint and product offerings. We intend to build on the strong reputation and heritage of the Oakwood brand, especially in markets across Southeast Asia, North Asia and North America.
“Oakwood will continue to grow alongside Ascott’s current portfolio of global brands as we continue to build growth momentum for our lodging business. We will be able to leverage Ascott’s extensive expertise as a global lodging player to deliver greater value to our expanded network of loyal customers and property owners.”
“Besides strategic alignment, this acquisition is also notable to Ascott commercially. Ascott’s acquisition of Oakwood brings about an immediate boost to our units under management and franchise contracts.
“The Oakwood portfolio will accelerate the growth of our asset-light business, with added recurring fee income streams, expanded lodging offerings and increased customer base.
“The strategic moves we have made in the last few years, such as our investments in Quest, Synergy and TAUZIA have charted an unprecedented growth path for Ascott.”
Ascott’s strategic investments in the past years include its acquisition of Quest Apartment Hotels in 2017.
In the same year, Ascott invested in Synergy Global Housing (Synergy), a corporate housing provider in the USA.
In 2018, Ascott acquired TAUZIA Hotel Management, a hotel operators in Indonesia, to enter the fast-growing mid-scale business hotel segment.
With Oakwood coming onboard, Ascott is confident of achieving its target of 160,000 units globally well ahead of 2023.
