Daily Briefing: CapitaLand's Ascott adds 14 new global properties; Air taxis to be trialed in southern Singapore

And data centre startup AirTrunk bags $450m to build first Singapore facility.

From Deal Street Asia:

CapitaLand’s wholly-owned lodging arm Ascott has added 14 properties comprising over 2,000 units across eight countries, including China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia.

Three of the 14 new assets are co-living facilities under Ascott’s own brand “lyf”, located in Fukuoka in Japan, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Shanghai in China.

Under a partnership with Japanese real estate firm NTT Urban Development Corporation, Ascott will manage lyf Fukuoka1 as well as jointly explore serviced residence opportunities in Japan, it said in a statement.

Ascott targets to open the 131-unit lyf property in the Fukuoka’s major retail and recreational centre in 2020. The Raja Chulan Kuala Lumpur lyf facility will also be launched in the same year, while the 160-unit Hongqiao Shanghai is set to open in 2022.

Read more here.

From Channel News Asia:

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) revealed that initial trials with Germany company Volocopter will take place in the southern part of Singapore.

Speaking at a media briefing at the Rotorcraft Asia trade show, CAAS’ deputy director of transformation programmes Tan Chun Wei said that this will take place "over water".

"We are going to take off where we land. For the first phase, it’s very much into experimental. For a start … it is going to be over water, and we are going to work with Volocopter on the safety aspects to ensure that even flying over water, it wouldn’t pose a public or even aviation risk. The landing spot will be somewhere in the southern part of Singapore," Tan added.

Volocopter’s CEO Florian Reuter told CNA that the company has plans for the first trials to commence in the second half of the year and that they "are very well within the timeline".

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From Bloomberg:

Data centre startups AirTrunk has clinched $450m in debt and equity to help build its first Singapore facility, as part of its plans to become a regional technology powerhouse.

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and TPG Sixth Street Partners-backed company has already spent more than $960m (A$1b) on two data centers in Australia and will open its Singapore facility in two phases, according to founder Robin Khuda.

The first stage is expected to be ready by mid-2020 and will allow half of its planned 60MW capacity to be sold to customers. The rest will be built when there’s enough demand, with the total project taking up 1.5 ha of land in Loyang, in Singapore’s east, and costing “in excess” of $500m, he said.

Read more here.