M&G Real Estate Grows APAC Team in Seoul and Singapore

M&G Real Estate this past week announced a pair of senior hires in South Korea and Singapore, marking the latest move for one of Europe’s largest fund managers to grow its Asia Pacific division.

Martin Seol joins M&G Real Estate as director of portfolio management and head of targeted strategy for the Asia Life Fund in Singapore, while Daniel Cho takes on the role of director of acquisitions in South Korea, according to a press release by the UK-based fund manager. Seol and Cho’s positions became effective on 1 September and at the end of June, respectively.

“The APAC real estate market continues to be highly compelling for global investors, and our growth in the region reflects our commitment to be at the forefront of the industry,” said Jing Dong Lai, CEO and CIO of M&G Real Estate Asia. “The addition of Martin and Daniel, who are both leaders in their own fields, puts us in a strong  position to continue serving our clients and partners with on-the-ground capabilities to capture high-quality investment opportunities.”

The appointments were announced less than a week after M&G had set up a long-term partnership with industrial giant ESR to develop a portfolio of logistics properties in Japan, with the fund manager to deploy up to $350 million in equity towards the cause.

Asia Team Expands

Reporting to Kee Teck Leong, fund manager of M&G’s Asia Life Fund in Singapore, Seol will manage the firm’s Targeted Strategy, a value-add vehicle which invests in assets in Asia Pacific, the UK and Europe for long-term capital appreciation. In his new role, Seol will also work with head of capital solutions Peter Riley to grow and deliver separate account solutions, club deals and joint ventures, according to the company statement.

Before joining M&G, Seol served for nine years at advisory firm Coral Tree LLC, where he worked most recently as a managing partner, after spending three years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch as managing director and head of Asia for principal investments.

In South Korea’s capital, Cho will be responsible for sourcing and executing on and off-market transactions, as well as structuring real estate deals to maximise risk-adjusted investment returns. He will be driving the firm’s real estate investment activities in the North Asian nation, reporting directly to Ryu Hyesik, M&G Real Estate’s head of Korea.

With more than 15 years of experience in the industry, Cho joins M&G from KKR’s Asia real estate team, where he managed the firm’s Korea portfolio, after earlier serving as investment head for Korea at Mapletree and as an investment manager at Ascendas.

M&G Real Estate, which manages £33.5 billion ($38.4 billion) globally as at 30 June, has been expanding in Asia over the past year, having promoted Seiko Ikeda, former director of acquisitions of Japan, to country head in May.

In June of 2021, the manager appointed Jan Low as head of acquisitions for Asia, and Jody Neale as associate director of acquisitions for Japan, to expand M&G operations and services in the Asia region, as well as capture growing opportunities for strategic acquisitions, M&G’s Lai said at the time.

Enlarged APAC Portfolio

Aside from M&G’s recent partnership with ESR in Japan, the manager in April acquired a 97 percent stake in a Greater Seoul office building for KRW 264.5 billion ($214.6 million), which marked a fourth acquisition by the UK fund manager’s real estate division in South Korea since 2020.

About one month before that deal, M&G Real Estate acquired a portfolio of 30 Japanese residential properties from Blackstone for JPY 49.2 billion ($424.3 million).

At the beginning of the year, M&G said in an online briefing that Australia, Japan and Singapore would be its top targets in APAC for real estate investments this year, and that it would focus on logistics, office and residential opportunities in these markets.