Chang Rui Hua dropping of ESR’s winning bid in the Kwai Chung land tender last year
New economy real estate developer and fund manager ESR has appointed new leadership for its Hong Kong business by naming company veteran Chang Rui Hua to a top post in the city from her former role as group head of capital markets from 1 April, according to a LinkedIn update.
In her new position as managing director for business management and investment at ESR Hong Kong, Chang will also lead ESR’s China REIT initiative the company said in an internal announcement. The leadership appointment comes after Warburg Pincus-backed ESR won approval last month from the Hong Kong stock exchange to list a trust holding a set of mainland warehouses on the Shanghai bourse. The REIT awaits further approvals from mainland regulators.
With Chang’s shift to the Greater China-focused role, Marilyn Tan, a long-time executive in ESR’s ARA Asset Management division has taken over as group head of investor relations, with that transition also taking place at the start of this month.
Having listed on the Hong Kong exchange in October 2019, ESR’s biggest operations have traditionally been in Shanghai and Tokyo, with the company adding assets in Hong Kong over the past two years, including winning a 2022 tender for a site near the city’s Kwai Chung container port with a HK$5.26 billion (then $668.7 million) bid.
Hong Kong Operation Expands
Having joined ESR in September 2019, Chang was credited with playing a significant role in the company raising HK$12.6 billion in its debut on the Hong Kong bourse just two months later. An initial attempt at an ESR listing had been pulled back in June after unrest rocked the city.
From August last year Chang had been appointed as an executive director as she was named responsible officer for the company’s Hong Kong business shortly after ESR won the tender for the 1.48 million square foot (138,000 square metre) warehouse project. In 2021 the company acquired its first industrial asset in Hong Kong, which it has since converted to a data centre.
Prior to joining the industrial specialist, Chang had spent more than six years with CapitaLand, including serving as general manager for capital markets, corporate finance and corporate planning for the Singaporean group’s China business. The Singapore native also has experience with China’s CICC, DBS and S&P Global.
ARA Group Experience
ESR’s new group head of investor relations takes on her new role after just under a year as deputy chief executive and head of investor relations with ARA US Hospitality Trust. Before joining the Singapore-listed REIT Tan had spent 11 years as director for group finance with the trust’s sponsor, ARA Asset Management.
Marilyn Tan has been named group head of investor relations at ESR
After joining ARA in 2006, Tan also worked as a senior management in the group investment office and as an investor relations manager with SGX-listed Suntec REIT. The graduate of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore also has previous experience with financial services information provider Amba Research, Keppel Land and SG Securities.
In presenting its annual results last month ESR reported that it had grown its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by 10 percent to $1.15 billion in 2022, thanks largely to growth in fee income and sales of assets from its balance sheet to funds managed by the company.
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