Oxford Properties, Mapletree, Arch Capital to Speak at Mingtiandi Singapore Forum in May

With Mingtiandi’s fourth annual Singapore forum less than two months away, speakers from Oxford Properties, Mapletree Investments, Arch Capital Management and Macquarie-backed Local:Residential have joined the programme for the biggest Asia Pacific real estate investment event of this year.

A total of six new additions to the list of industry heavyweights appearing at the forum over the last two weeks bring the roster of speakers to 24 senior executives with more expected to join before the 13 May event at the Conrad Centennial hotel in Singapore. With more than 200 industry executives having attended the Mingtiandi Singapore Forum in 2024, over 250 are expected this year.

The expanding set of expert speakers will be taking the stage along with representatives of CDPQ, Warburg Pincus, Scape and Hilton, who earlier confirming their participation in the full day of conversations on top strategies for investing Asia Pacific real estate strategies.

The Mingtiandi Singapore Forum 2025, which is sponsored by Yardi, takes a look at top sectors for capital deployment, including student housing, hospitality, rental residential and life sciences, with special sessions also dedicated to the India market and Singapore’s role in global capital markets.

Living Sector in Focus

From Oxford Properties, the event will feature Alessandro Fiascaris, the Canadian pension fund manager’s head of Asia Pacific, who will join the keynote panel which highlights the programme, alongside George Agethen of CDPQ, Knight Frank Singapore chief executive Galven Tan and Hilton Asia Pacific president Alan Watts.

Mapletree Investments, which managed nearly $58 billion in assets as of one year ago, will be represented on the programme by Matt Walker, the company’s chief executive for student housing, who will join a student accommodation panel alongside Tjarko Edzes, chief capital officer for Australia’s Scape and Victor Lor, head of investment management for Asia Pacific at the UK’s Global Student Accommodation.

Also new to the student housing panel in recent days is Wee Ping Goh, chief investment officer of Singapore-based Wee Hur Holdings, which late last year agreed to sell a $1 billion purpose-built student accommodation portfolio to US giant Greystar.

From Arch Capital, Mingtiandi will be welcoming Jonathan Umali, the Hong Kong-based fund manager’s chief investment officer with Melbourne-based Local:Residential to be represented by the build-to-rent specialist’s founder and co-CEO Matt Berg.

Umali and Berg will be joining the forum’s APAC Residential Outlook panel alongside Ho Lip Chin, chief investment officer for SGX-listed Centurion Corporation and Kelvin Lim, executive chairman of LHN Limited and founder of Singapore’s largest co-living operator, Coliwoo.

Also joining the speaker roster will be Calvin Sin, KEO and director of CREAL Asia, the Singapore branch of Japanese investment firm CREAL, who will be joining a panel on APAC hospitality investment alongside Gisle Sarheim, vice president for feasibility and investment analysis in the real estate and asset management division for Asia Pacific at Hilton and two additional speakers to be named in the coming days.

Spotlight Interviews Drive the Conversation

Key to the insights available at the forum will be a set of spotlight interviews of top industry figures including a conversation with Bart Price, chief executive of life sciences platform Vita Partners, who will be appearing at the event with Tag Yuxiang a principal at US private equity giant Warburg Pincus, which set up the joint venture platform together with Lendlease, and veteran CBRE advisor Rimon Ambarchi.

Australia’s evolving residential market and demand for student accommodation will be the focus of a spotlight interview with Stephen Gaitanos, managing director and group chief executive for both Scape Australia and rental residential platform Rent to Live Co as the country’s housing shortage creates opportunities for institutional capital.

A third interview will feature executives of Singapore-based industrial real estate specialist Equalbase and its investment management affiliate Northmod as executives from the two Stonepeak-backed companies share with Mingtiandi founder Michael Cole about the development of their Asia-wide logistics platform.

The forum will also feature panel discussions on industrial and commercial strategies with more speakers to be named in the coming weeks. Sponsorships of the forum are still available through Mingtiandi’s marketing team and tickets are available at early-bird rates through Friday, 4 April on Mingtiandi.com.