Jim Yip Makes Way for Alvin Yip at C&W’s China Capital Markets Team

Jim Yip, the longtime managing director and co-head of Cushman & Wakefield’s capital markets division for Greater China, has resigned his position for “personal reasons,” the international property consultancy said Wednesday.

The Shanghai-based building broker’s responsibilities will be taken over by Alvin Yip, president of capital markets for Greater China at C&W, who will relocate to Shanghai to take up responsibility for the investment advisory team from there, beginning on January 1st.

Jim Yip, whose primary duties centred on assisting clients with acquisitions and disposals of large-scale property assets in mainland China, had worked at what is now Cushman & Wakefield since 2004 when he joined DTZ, which merged with Cushman & Wakefield in a transaction that closed in 2015.

Francis Li remains Cushman & Wakefield’s top executive for Capital Markets in Greater China, where he holds the rank of international director.

Alvin Yip Takes Over in Shanghai

Alvin Yip, who was promoted to his current position as president of capital markets Greater China in July, has been with what is now Cushman & Wakefield since 1994 when he joined CY Leung’s DTZ, and has been based in Hong Kong.

His client list includes Gaw Capital Partners, Blackstone, Link REIT and ADIA. His biggest transaction was closing Link REIT’s sale of a portfolio of 17 Hong Kong retail assets to Gaw Capital and Goldman Sachs late last year for a then-record HK$23 billion, C&W said in a statement.

Also last year, the Hong Kong-based Yip facilitated the sale of Guangzhou’s Metropolitan Plaza shopping centre by funds managed by Gaw Capital and Morgan Stanley to Link REIT for RMB 4.1 billion. In 2013, Alvin Yip brokered the RMB 7 billion sale of the Oriental Financial Centre in Shanghai by a joint venture between Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa (now CK Asset Property Holdings) to China Bank of Communications, C&W said.

Cushman and Wakefield said that the total amount brokered by its Greater China capital markets team through the first 10 months of 2018 was around RMB 70 billion.