HSBC Asset Management Names Victoria Sharpe Head of Asia Real Estate

Just three months after creating an alternative investment division, HSBC Asset Management is introducing a new real estate team for Asia, led by industry veteran Victoria Sharpe.

Formerly head of real estate for Asia Pacific with Deutsche Bank affiliate DWS, Sharpe joins the fund management division of the Asian financial giant as managing principal and head of real estate for Asia Pacific, HSBC said in a statement late last week.

“The appointment of Victoria and the team is further evidence of our commitment to grow our alternatives business in Asia and provide locally invested real estate exposure to our global client base,” said Joanna Munro, CEO and head of the manager’s alternatives unit, who will be supervising Sharpe in her new role. “The team’s extensive experience in the real estate industry and exceptional track record made them the ideal candidates to lead and develop our Asian regional capability.”

HSBC Asset Management unveiled HSBC Alternatives Investments in June, combining its multi-manager hedge fund and private market teams, as well as the firm’s private debt, venture capital and direct real estate teams after its management of alternative assets had doubled over the past four years.

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In her new role, Sharpe is responsible for the strategic growth of the firm’s APAC real estate platform.

With nearly 40 years of real estate investment experience, Sharpe joined HSBC Asset Management from DWS Group, where she was responsible for expanding the company’s business in Asia Pacific as managing director and head of real estate for the region since joining the company in 2016.

Prior to joining DWS Group, Sharpe served at TH Real Estate, now Nuveen Real Estate, and ran the London-based firm’s global client capital group for nearly two years beginning in 2014. For 16 years before taking on her role with TH, Sharpe served with Prudential Real Estate Investors (now PGIM) where she ran Asia operations before moving to a Singapore-based client relationship role with the firm in the last 11 years of her position.

Sharpe will be working alongside James Bartlett and Lionel Low, who joined the team as managing principals in August and are responsible for management of the platform’s investment activities.

Based in Singapore, the team reports locally to Patrice Conxicouer, HSBC Asset Management’s Singapore CEO and head of Southeast Asia.

Like his team lead, Bartlett made the move to HSBC Asset Management from DWS Group, where he served as deputy chief investment officer for real estate in Asia Pacific, as well as head of real estate for Australia, for the four years beginning in 2017.

His teammate, Low, served at Ascendas-Singbridge before it was acquired by CapitaLand as head of strategic fund partnerships from 2013 to 2015, and head of China funds management from 2015 to 2019. He remained at CapitaLand for just under three years after the acquisition, from January 2019, as executive director of funds management in China, before taking on his new role at HSBC Asset Management in August.

Strong Roots in Asia

“HSBC AM’s commitment to the growth of its alternatives business and to the Asia Pacific region were key considerations in our decision to join and we are looking forward to bringing a direct real estate capability to clients,” Sharpe said.

In June, HSBC Asset Management consolidated its existing alternative investment divisions into a single business unit, HSBC Alternatives.

The 150-person team, with a combined assets under management of $45 billion as of 30 June 2021, is part of the firm’s strategy to reposition the business as a core solutions provider in Asia. Joanna Munro, who was global chief investment officer at the time, stepped up to become the newly established unit’s CEO.

Singapore CEO Patrice Conxicouer believes that with HSBC AM’s Asia real estate team, the firm will be better positioned to meet clients’ investment needs — including wealth, insurance and corporate — across the region.