China’s CreditEase Hires Mapletree Vet John Yip in Singapore

Mainland fund manager PeakVest China is expanding its real estate investment platform in Singapore and has hired former Mapletree executive John Yip to drive its growth in the Southeast Asia financial hub.

A restructuring of the asset management business of China’s CreditEase, PeakVest is expanding beyond the tech-driven company’s traditional fund of funds business and has begun managing its own direct deals around the region as it leverages expanding sources of capital and deal pipelines within China.

“Singapore will be the cornerstone of PeakVest’s offshore asset management structure and will primarily cover the Asia market along with investment opportunities in the US and the UK,” said PeakVest’s global real estate head John Qian.

A native of Singapore who spent six of his eight years with Mapletree based in mainland China, Yip brings with him experience managing commercial and industrial portfolios across Asian markets.

International Partners

Founded in 2006, CreditEase has been investing in real estate projects across China with some of the world’s largest developers and fund managers since 2013.

The company began working with New York-based developer Tishman Speyer nearly one decade ago and in 2017 signed an agreement with the US builder and fund manager for a $1.4 billion investment vehicle.

Fuelled by rapidly growing investments through its mobile fund management apps, CreditEase has previously established five real estate investment funds, which it has used to invest together with local players including CICC, Hony Capital, Sinochem Huili and Longfor Properties.

On the international side, it has backed projects together with ARA Asset Management, ESR, IDG Capital and CBRE Global Investors.

With most of its projects to date focused on China, CreditEase has taken stakes in developments across the commercial, residential and industrial sector. Now, PeakVest seeks to build on these existing partnerships and source new ones.

Regional Footprint

In his most recent role with Mapletree, Yip served as a vice president with the firm’s investment and asset management division, where he was involved in the Mapletree Japan Logistics Development Fund, as well as commercial and logistics coverage for North Asia and Australia.

With Yip having taken on his leadership role with PeakVest in Singapore last month, the company is understood to now be focusing on co-investment opportunities around the region, as well as in North America and Europe.

That expansion of the fund manager’s horizons comes after it opened its first international office in Hong Kong in 2013. Since that time, CreditEase has been rapidly expanding the global footprint for its fund management business, including receiving a capital markets service licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore in 2016.

During that same year, the Beijing-based firm opened a New York location, which was followed by the debut of its San Francisco office in 2017.