Suntec City Inks Partnership with Alipay To Attract Chinese Tourists and Enhance Shopping Experience

Suntec City
Inks Partnership with Alipay

To Attract Chinese Tourists and Enhance Shopping Experience

Singapore, 8 February 2018 – Suntec
City and Alipay are pleased to announce today that they have inked a two-year
partnership to launch Alipay touchpoints in Suntec City.

The
two-year partnership between Suntec City, one of Singapore’s largest shopping
malls and Alipay, the world’s largest mobile payment and lifestyle platform
operated by Ant Financial Services Group, is set to attract more Chinese
tourists and enhance their shopping experience at Suntec City.

Under
the partnership, approximately 350 retail establishments in Suntec City will
progressively roll out Alipay as a payment option for Chinese tourists. By July
2018, the partners plan to cover 60% of the stores with Alipay touchpoints.

To
enable merchants to leverage on the Alipay platform to engage Chinese tourists,
Alipay and its acquirer partners will jointly organize a series of workshops to
sign up with Alipay and to promote merchants’ businesses on the Alipay
platform. Acquirers also provide hands-on training to merchants to operate the
Alipay payment terminal and manage strategic content feature of merchants’
offers. Alipay has also launched a dedicated Suntec City microsite within its
app to provide ongoing publicity to Suntec City and its merchants. The current
joint marketing campaign with Suntec City on Alipay’s app, from now till Mar
2018, offers a ¥25 F&B voucher and a ¥50 retail voucher which can be used
at participating merchants in Suntec City.

Mr.
Chan Kong Leong, Chief Executive Officer of Suntec Real Estate Investment
Trust, which owns Suntec City said, “With an extensive range of shopping,
dining and entertainment offerings coupled with the iconic Fountain of Wealth
as well as being the embarkation point for the Duck & Hippo Tours, Suntec
City is a popular destination amongst tourists. We are delighted to partner
Alipay to offer our Chinese shoppers a seamless payment system that they are
familiar with. This partnership with the market leader in mobile and online
payment platforms is a great opportunity for us to elevate engagement with our
shoppers in the digital space.”

“Suntec
City is a must-visit shopping destination among Chinese tourists and business
delegates who convene at Suntec Singapore for exhibitions, seminars and
conferences. We are happy to partner with Suntec City to deploy Alipay touchpoints
in the mall for Chinese visitors who are looking for the best of retail and
lifestyle offerings and the same seamless shopping experiences that they enjoy
at home. At the same time, we are very excited to help merchants in Suntec City
connect with Chinese visitors.” said Cherry Huang, General Manager,
Cross-border Business for South and Southeast Asia, Alipay.

According
to the Singapore Tourism Board, Singapore received 15.9 million international
visitors in the first 11 months of 2017, during which, the number of visitors
from China reached close to 3 million, a stellar 13.1% increase from a year
ago. This also makes China the single largest contributing country to
Singapore’s tourism industry.

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About Suntec City

Suntec
City is an iconic integrated commercial development comprising five prestigious
office towers, a world class convention centre and one of Singapore’s largest
retail malls. Nestled in the heart of the bustling Marina Bay precinct, Suntec
City offers a unique one-stop shopping, dining and entertainment experience for
many. The mall currently houses more than 350 shopping, dining and
entertainment options and the iconic Fountain of Wealth.

About ARA Trust Management (Suntec) Limited

Suntec
REIT is managed by ARA Trust Management (Suntec) Limited, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of ARA Asset Management Limited (“ARA”).

Established
in 2002, ARA is a premier integrated real estate fund manager driven by a
vision to be the best-in-class real estate fund management company focused on
the management of real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and private real
estate funds.

ARA’s
diverse suite of REITs and private real estate funds are invested in the
office, retail, logistics/industrial, hospitality and residential sectors. ARA
has distinguished itself over the years with its unique investor-operator
philosophy, which nurtures each asset from acquisition to divestment to add
value to every stage of the asset life cycle. Built on a foundation of strong
corporate governance and business integrity, it counts some of the world’s
largest pension funds, financial institutions, endowments and family offices as
its investors.

ARA
has approximately 1,300 staff in 20 cities in seven countries. It manages over
90 properties measuring approximately 57 million square feet in Asia Pacific,
with approximately S$40 billion in assets under management.

About Alipay

Operated
by Ant Financial Services Group, Alipay is the world’s largest mobile and
online payment platform. Launched in 2004, Alipay currently has over 520
million active users and over 200 domestic financial institution partners.
Alipay has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler. Users can hail
a taxi, book a hotel, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills, make appointments
with doctors, or purchase wealth management products directly from within the
app. In addition to online payments, Alipay is expanding to in-store offline
payments both inside and outside of China. Over 40 million brick-and-mortar
merchants now accept Alipay across China. Alipay’s in-store payment service
covers more than 38 countries and regions across the world, and tax
reimbursement via Alipay is supported in 24 countries and regions. Alipay works
with over 250 overseas financial institutions and payment solution providers to
enable cross-border payments for Chinese travelling overseas and overseas
customers who purchase products from Chinese e-commerce sites. Alipay currently
supports 27 currencies.