Singapore GIC to buy hotel from Morgan Stanley-paper

TOKYO, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) is set to buy a luxury hotel in Tokyo from Morgan Stanley (MS.N) for around 77 billion yen ($723 million), the Nikkei financial daily said on Sunday.

In a deal likely to be completed late this month, Singapore's largest sovereign wealth fund will buy both the land and the building of the Westin Tokyo, located in the city's central Ebisu district, the newspaper said.

The hotel is expected to carry on its operations as GIC, which invests Singapore's foreign exchange reserves, tries to boost its value as a long-term investment, the paper added.

A GIC spokeswoman contacted by Reuters could not immediately comment on the report.

Singapore government funds have been acquiring stakes in Western financial institutions, taking advantage of the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States.

GIC, which manages well over $100 billion, bought in January $6.88 billion worth of Citigroup (C.N) convertible stock or around a 4 percent stake, just one month after it injected nearly $9.75 billion in UBS (UBSN.VX) to purchase a 9 percent stake.

A real estate fund managed by Morgan Stanley bought the Westin Tokyo from a Japanese beer company in 2004 for about 50 billion yen, the Nikkei said. ($1=106.51 Yen) (Reporting by Chisa Fujioka, additional reporting by Koh Gui Qing; editing by Jacqueline Wong)