Phoenix, CapitaLand, CPPIB and Ivanhoe Cambridge Join Tuesday Office Panel

With interest rates putting a damper on acquisitions of trophy office towers and building owners in some cities beginning to become cash-constrained, value-add and opportunistic strategies have become the favoured approaches to office investment in Asia Pacific this year.

To find out more about how investors are adjusting their approaches to fit the realities of 2023, the Mingtiandi Office Strategies Forum, which is sponsored by Yardi, has organised a panel dedicated to value-add and opportunistic strategieson Tuesday at 10:00 AM Hong Kong time.

The one hour session on Mingtiandi’s MTD TV video platform features speakers from Phoenix Property Investors, CPPIB, Ivanhoe Cambridge and CapitaLand, and will take a particular focus on the Japan and India markets, in addition to other locations around the region.

Later in the week, the forum will continue with a panel on the future of the office with senior executives from Brookfield Asset Management, LaSalle Investment Management, Yardi and Benoy joining that one-hour session on Thursday.

Asia’s Standout Markets

Tuesday’s panel on value-add and opportunistic strategies includes a pair of speakers from two of the world’s largest pension fund managers, with Hari Krishna V, a managing director for real estate with CPPIB who is also a member of the firm’s global leadership team among the experts lending their insights, alongside Josephine Yip, a senior director for investments and asset management for Asia Pacific at Quebec’s Ivanhoé Cambridge.

From the general partner side of the table will be Daisuke Hayashi, a partner and Japan chief representative with Phoenix Property Investors and Gauri Shankar Nagabhushanam, CEO for India Business Parks at CapitaLand Investment.

The panelists will be looking at the forces that have driven rising rents in India’s office market this year as other locations slide, and at how Japan’s second tier cities can offer higher yielding returns. Also the agenda will be how investors are adding value to existing assets and the impact of work from home trends around the region.

Future of the Office

At 10:00 AM Hong Kong time on Thursday, the future of the office panel includes speakers from two of the world’s largest property fund managers with Leonie Wilkinson, senior vice president for portfolio management with Brookfield Asset Management joining the talk, along with George Goh, head of acquisitions and asset management for Southeast Asia at LaSalle Investment Management.

The two investors will be joined by Bernie Devine, senior regional director for Asia Pacific at Yardi, whose company provides information systems to some of the world’s largest property owners and Terence Seah, a director who serves as head of Hong Kong, Singapore and Shenzhen for international design firm Benoy, whose firm has led the design of some of the region’s most iconic properties.

Following the Thursday session, which concludes the office forum, the Mingtiandi Singapore Forum will be next on the agenda, with the full-day event taking place at the Conrad Centennial in the Lion City.

A partial list of speakers for the Singapore forum includes the following industry leaders.

• Alessandro Fiascaris, Head of Asia Pacific, Oxford Properties
• George Agethen, Co-Head of Asia Pacific, Ivanhoé Cambridge
• Sangwook Kang, Director, KIC
• Fan Li, Managing Director, Singapore, Warburg Pincus
• Imelda Tham, Managing Director, Investments, Gaw Capital
• Andrew Lee, Director, Head of Investments, Singapore and Southeast Asia, BlackRock
• Suchad Chiaranussati, Founder and Chairman, SC Capital Partners
• Sarah Winbur, Senior Portfolio Manager, APG Asset Management

Tickets for the forum are still available here, with more than 220 senior executives expected to attend.