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SINGAPORE : Ascott Group, the serviced apartment arm of Singapore property developer CapitaLand, said Tuesday it will acquire a building site and a hotel here for 217.5 million Singapore dollars (136.79 million US).

The conditional agreement with The Asia Life Assurance Society Ltd involves the purchase of the 20-storey Asia Insurance Building and Hotel Asia, the Ascott Group said in a statement.

Ascott agreed to acquire the Asia Insurance Building and the land for 109.5 million dollars. It will buy Hotel Asia and 100 percent of the issued share capital of the hotel's management company, Hotel Asia Private Ltd, for a total
108 million dollars.

The acquisitions would bring the number of properties Ascott has in Singapore to eight.

"Looking ahead, the group intends to double its size in Singapore by 2010, from 800 units in six properties currently. Our global growth plan is to achieve 25,000 units by 2010," said Cameron Ong, Ascott's managing director and
chief executive.

The Ascott Group has more than 16,000 serviced residence units in key cities in the Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.

- AFP /ct