Jessie Liu to Lead Manulife Asia Property Investment as Kenny Lam Exits Firm

Manulife Investment Management on Thursday announced the promotion of Jessie Liu to head of transactions and portfolio management for Asia real estate private markets, a role in which she will take over the duties of the departing Kenny Lam.

Liu has worked at Manulife since 2019 and now serves as managing director for Asia real estate investments at the Canadian insurance giant. She will report to Marc Feliciano, global head of real estate private markets, and continue to be based in Hong Kong, Manulife said in a release.

Lam will leave Manulife in June after performing his current role for more than four years, a period in which he sought to expand the Toronto-based firm’s dealmaking platform into new markets.

“The strategic importance of the Asia region in our global real estate growth strategy simply cannot be overstated,” Feliciano said. “We are very pleased that Jessie will lead the Asia real estate footprint expansion across the many markets we operate in.”

Internal Promotion

Before joining Manulife, Liu held senior roles overseeing real estate investments and strategies at China Resources Land Private Equity and Taiwan manufacturing conglomerate Yue Yuen Industrial. She also has international fund management experience from earlier stints with the real estate team at Blackstone and at Merrill Lynch Real Estate Principal Investments.

At Manulife, Liu has led and completed multiple investment transactions in key Asia markets across the logistics, commercial and multifamily sectors, the firm said. In the new post she will lead the sourcing, acquisition and new market development of real estate investment in the region.

A CFA charterholder, Liu holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the National Taiwan University and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Lam came to Manulife in 2017 after stepping down as chief manager of direct property investment at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

Starting his career as a civil engineer, Lam also served as executive director of strategic and overseas real estate investment at Ping An Real Estate in Shanghai. Before that stint in mainland China, he worked at JP Morgan in Hong Kong as vice president of Greater China real estate private equity.

Dealmaking Legacy

During Lam’s tour as head of Asian property investment, Manulife completed several high-profile real estate deals across the region.

In the waning days of 2020, a consortium led by funds managed by Gaw Capital Partners and Schroder Pamfleet closed on Swire Properties’ Cityplaza One in Taikoo at a price of HK$9.84 billion ($1.27 billion), with Manulife emerging as the biggest investor through its participation in the Gaw fund.

This year, Manulife signed on as an investor in GLP’s $1.1 billion Vietnam logistics development fund and acquired an $80 million logistics asset near Ho Chi Minh City in a joint venture with Logos.

Last month, Manulife announced the formation of a $170 million joint venture with Tokyo-based Kenedix to acquire multifamily assets in Japan’s major cities. The JV will be seeded with a portfolio of nine properties, including four already acquired, spanning more than 250,000 square feet (23,226 square metres) of net lettable area.