CapitaLand Hires Former Blackrock, Brookfield Execs Treacy and Boocock

Singapore’s CapitaLand Investment is importing expertise from BlackRock and Brookfield to head its private real estate fund management business as it begins its new existence as an asset manager.

The SGX-listed unit of CapitaLand Group this week welcomes Simon Treacy, who previously worked as BlackRock’s global chief investment officer, as the new chief executive officer of its private equity real estate unit. CapitaLand Investment also installed Patrick Boocock, former head of Brookfield Asset Management for Asia, as CEO of its private equity alternative assets division, as it seeks to grow its private fund business in niche markets such as private credit, data centres and social infrastructure among others.

The Temasek Holdings-backed fund manager said the pair of additions to its team will help grow CapitaLand Investment’s assets and funds under management, which now stand at S$119 billion ($136 billion) and S$83 billion, respectively.

The announcement two months came after CapitaLand was delisted from the Singapore Exchange as part of a plan to privatize the property giant’s development operation and transform its investment management platform into the biggest fund manager in Asia and third largest globally.

Fresh Leadership for New Structure

CapitaLand Investment in a stock filing on Tuesday said Treacy, now 53, joins the team with more than 23 years of experience in real estate markets across Asia, North America and Europe, and a background as a global governing trustee at industry non-profit Urban Land Institute.

“He will be a key member of the senior leadership team responsible for managing and executing the company’s growth strategies which span across multiple real estate asset classes,” it said.

Prior to his appointment, the Griffith University graduate led the Hawaiian operation of Texas-based developer Howard Hughes Corp for more than two years after ending his stint at BlackRock in 2017, where he had been head of US equities for BlackRock Real Estate, in addition to his global CIO role for the asset management titan.

Treacy was also a cofounder and for 10 years served as global CEO of Macquarie Global Property Advisors (MGPA), before BlackRock took over the private equity firm in 2013 to boost the latter’s foothold in Asia.

Now looking after CapitaLand’s tech infrastructure investments and other deals is former Brookfield managing partner and head of Asia for Brookfield Patrick Boocock. Now 48, Boocock spent more than a decade at the NYSE-listed asset management giant, where he held several executive positions and was responsible for transactions including the sale of Brookfield’s Australian natural gas transmission and distribution portfolio.

Driving the New Business

CapitaLand Investment launched on the Singapore Exchange in September as one of the biggest publicly listed real estate investment managers in the world, following a $15.9-billion restructuring plan consolidating its investment management and lodging businesses which won shareholder in August.

Central to that plan is expansion of CapitaLand’s private fund management business, after the group ranked as APAC’s second biggest fund manager last year with $62.9 billion in real estate AUM, trailing behind its peer ARA Asset Management which looked after $66.9 billion in combined assets.

The company’s fund management business has traditionally focused on public REITs, however, with CapitaLand’s earlier head of private fund management, James Lim, having left the firm in late 2019, before joining Oaktree Capital Management.

Before the recent restructuring, CapitaLand Development, the development division of the group, had S$22 billion in its portfolio at the end of June, including owning key assets like the 137,000 square metre (1.5 million square foot) Jewel Changi Airport and the Interlace residential development in Singapore, as well as Raffles City Chongqing in China.

Note: this story has been updated to show that Simon Treacy formerly served as global CIO and head of US equities for BlackRock Real Estate. An earlier version indicated that Treacy had supervised BlackRock’s Asian real estate business. Mingtiandi regrets the error.