Former Ascendas executive Chia Nam Toon has joined ARA Asset Management
ARA Asset Management has appointed Chia Nam Toon as its new assistant chief executive officer effective from the beginning of this month, according to an announcement from the property investment firm. Chia is responsible for overseeing the operation of the fund manager’s REITs division as well as for business development.
Reporting to ARA’s group chief executive officer John Lim, Chia will put his more than ten years of real estate industry experience and 35 years of managing companies to work driving growth opportunities for the company’s existing REITs, as well as for developing new REITs across Asia, the United States and Europe.
ARA manages CK Asset-sponsored Fortune REIT and Prosperity REIT, as well as mainland-centric Hui Xian REIT, which is also invested by the real estate business of Hong Kong super-investor Li Ka-shing.
ARA Brings on Board Ascendas Veteran
Chia comes to ARA just three months after resigning as CEO of the manager of Singapore-listed Ascendas REIT — a role he fulfilled from 2016 to 2017.
The new assistant CEO at ARA also spent eight years at Ascendas Group as group assistant CEO and CFO for eight years from 2006, before taking up the role as the group CFO at Ascendas-Singbridge after the two merged from 2015 to 2016.
Singaporean Investment Manager Reshapes After Privatisation
With backing from US private equity firm Warburg Pincus and China’s AVIC Trust, Lim took ARA Asset Management private last March.
In May of last year, the Singapore-based asset manager hired former JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley executive Stephen Tang to take up a key role with its private funds division.
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