CBRE Names Stuart McCann Head of International Capital for Pacific and SE Asia

CBRE has brought on board Stuart McCann to head the firm’s international capital team for Pacific and Southeast Asia, according to an announcement by the NYSE-listed property services company.

McCann will assume the newly created role on 3 February after parting ways with JLL where he had spent nearly fourteen years, including serving as the firm’s head of international capital for Australia from 2017 until leaving the firm earlier this month.

Based in Singapore, McCann will take charge of cross-border real estate investments into the Pacific region for CBRE, as well as providing advisory services for investors in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, including capital raising and capital partnering.

Bringing Link REIT to Australia

“Stuart’s wealth of experience and proven track record, particularly in the Pacific region that continues to attract offshore capital, will help grow the next phase of our Asia Pacific Capital Markets business,” said CBRE’s global president of capital markets, Chris Ludeman. CBRE has created the position for McCann less than two months after it named Gretchen Yuan as an executive director with its Capital Advisors team for Asia, with the former Hodes Weill executive charged with provide capital raising and strategic advisory services for institutional investors out of the company’s Hong Kong office.

McCann is taking on his new role at a time when foreign investment into Asia Pacific is at a ten-year high, according to a report released three weeks ago by JLL. The property services firm’s latest figures show that offshore capital made up 35 percent of the total $125 billion invested in the region’s property markets in the first three quarters of 2019.

Prior to his most recent role driving cross-border real estate investment into Australia for JLL, the Western Sydney University graduate had served as a national director with JLL’s Asia Pacific corporate finance and capital markets team from 2015 to 2017 and as an associate director with the company’s Australia corporate finance division during 2014 and 2015.

As head of international capital for Australia, McCann was involved in Link REIT making its first investment outside of China with Asia’s largest listed trust last month agreeing to purchase 100 Market Street in Sydney for A$683 million ($460 million).

Singapore Investment Brokers Switch Teams

CBRE’s hire of McCann is the company’s second senior appointment of a JLL veteran in three months after the world’s largest property services firm picked an executive from its biggest rival to head its APAC investment advisory team late last year.

In October, CBRE appointed Greg Hyland as managing director of capital markets for Asia Pacific, with JLL promoting Ting Lim to replace its outgoing head of capital markets for Singapore.

A month after Hyland’s appointment at CBRE, Savills announced in November that the company had hired CBRE’s former head of investment for Singapore, Jeremy Lake as managing director for investment sales and capital markets in the city. Another three former CBRE investment brokers moved with Lake to the rival firm, including Galven Tan, who was appointed as a deputy managing director at Savills.