First international serviced residence company to enter Hyderabad.

The Ascott Group, Ascott has signed a joint venture agreement with The Rattha Group, Rattha to acquire its fifth serviced residence in India.

The 218-unit property, to be named Citadines Hyderabad Hitec City, is Ascott's first serviced residence in Hyderabad. Ascott will invest INR 407.6 million (S$15.0 million) to acquire a 49% equity stake in Citadines Hyderabad Hitec City. Rattha will hold the remaining majority stake.

This latest joint venture is part of Ascott's master development agreement signed with Rattha in August 2006. The agreement aims to acquire and develop seven serviced residences with a total of at least 1,000 units in India by 2010.

Ms Jennie Chua, Ascott's President & CEO said: "The addition of Citadines Hyderabad Hitec City puts the Group ahead of the target set out under the agreement with Rattha. Ascott now has five properties with more than 1,100 units under development in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. We will continue to seek new business opportunities in other cities including New Delhi and Mumbai. Our strategy is to entrench our foothold in India as a first-mover by leveraging on the growing demand for quality-class serviced residences across India's first tier and emerging cities."

Mr Chong Kee Hiong, Ascott's Deputy CEO (Finance & Investment) said: "We see tremendous growth opportunities in Hyderabad as it is a vibrant business city and there is currently no international serviced residence operator there.

Citadines Hyderabad Hitec City will be in the heart of Hitec City, a major technology township where the Hyderabad International Convention Centre is located. It will also be close to numerous office buildings, IT parks and multinational companies. When completed, the serviced residence will be poised to tap into the rising accommodation needs of business travellers, in particular those from the IT and biotechnology industries."

Citadines Hyderabad Hitec City is targeted to open in the first half of 2010. With this latest addition, Ascott will have a total of 1,178 serviced residence units in five properties under development in India. The other four properties are Somerset Whitefield, Bangalore, Citadines Chennai Boulevard, Citadines Chennai OMR Gateway and Somerset Greenways, Chennai. These serviced residences are slated to open between 2008 and 2009.