Grosvenor Appoints Sing Cheong Liu as APAC Chairman, Replacing Keith Kerr

Grosvenor Group today announced the appointment of Sing Cheong Liu as non-executive chairman of the UK-based developer’s Asia Pacific board, replacing Keith Kerr.

62-year-old Liu, a veteran chartered surveyor who also served as the founding chairman of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ Asia Pacific board, takes over the top position on the privately-owned developer’s board after Kerr, a former chairman and chief executive at Swire Properties, served on the company’s board since 2013.

“We are delighted to appoint Sing Cheong Liu as Non-Executive Chair of Grosvenor Asia Pacific,” Peter Vernon, executive director of Grosvenor Group said in a statement. “He brings to Grosvenor outstanding knowhow and insight into Asia property markets, which will prove invaluable as we continue to grow our business in the region.”

Mainland Business Pioneer Joins Grosvenor

Liu, a Justice of the Peace in Hong Kong, founded Evergreen Real Estate Consultants in Guangzhou in 1993 and sold his consultancy in 2016 after the team had reached 6,000 people. The career-long property broker and consultant graduated from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1979 with an Advanced Higher Diploma in Surveying, and also holds an MBA from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

In addition to his role in his own ventures, Liu is an independent non-executive director of Swire Properties Limited and chairman of the Hong Kong-listed firm’s remuneration committee. He is also an independent non-executive director of fashion brand Prada SpA, and a director of privately-owned garment maker Hong Kong Sales (International) Limited.

Blue-Blood Developer Continues Asia Expansion

At Grosvenor, Liu will be overseeing the performance of the company’s Asia Pacific team, which is headed by CEO and Cha family scion Benjamin Cha who took the top executive position for Asia in 2015.

Grosvenor, which serves British nobleman, Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor, the seventh Duke of Westminster (born 29 January 1991), has managed the Duke’s property holdings since 1677. The company first established Asia operations in Hong Kong in 1994, and has since expanded to Tokyo and Shanghai.

In November of last year the developer purchased a 10-storey shopping tower in Tokyo’s Ginza district, adding to the company’s more than HK$6.8 billion ($871 million) in real estate assets under management in Asia Pacific.