Warburg Pincus Names Ellen Ng, Goldmans’s Murata to Lead Asia Real Estate

Less than two weeks after its head of Asia real estate Jeffrey Perlman was promoted to president of its global business, investment firm Warburg Pincus has named new leadership for its property division in the region, promoting a company veteran and pulling in a top executive from Goldman Sachs.

The company’s head of China real estate, Ellen Ng, has now been promoted to co-head of Asia real estate, with Takashi Murata, formerly partner and co-head of Asia Pacific private investing and global co-head of real estate at Goldman Sachs Asset Management set to join Warburg Pincus to work together with Ng as co-head of the team, according to an internal announcement seen by Mingtiandi.

“We believe Tak and Ellen’s complimentary expertise is the perfect partnership to help drive and further develop our Asia Real Estate business,” Warburg Pincus CEO Chip Kaye and Perlman said in the memo. “Ellen is a very talented investor who has played a key role in growing our real estate activities across Asia over the past 18 years. Tak’s deep experience across the region as well as his strong investing track record brings a fresh perspective and a differentiated skillset to our business.” Both Ng and Murata will report to Perlman in their new roles, with the company’s new president to continue playing an active role in the Asia real estate business while overseeing the sector globally.

Warburg Pincus is among the largest and most active investors in Asian real estate having committed $8 billion to 60 ventures in the region including ESR, Princeton Digital Group, China’s DNE Group and Vietnam’s BW Industrial. Representatives of the New York-based firm confirmed the content of the memo to Mingtiandi, after the news had first been reported by Bloomberg.

Quarter-Century at Goldman

Murata is set to join Warburg Pincus early next year, according to the memo and will lead the build-out of the firm’s Japan private equity and real estate business in the country, in addition to his role as co-head of Asia real estate, according to the memo.

“Over his career, (Murata) has demonstrated a keen ability to build businesses and develop talent,” Kay e said. “Additionally, Tak brings decades of experience in the Japanese market, a region where we look forward to expanding our presence. His investment experience and depth of relationships in Japan and across the region will be an incredible asset for the firm.”

Murata’s move to Warburg Pincus follows a quarter-century of experience at Goldman Sachs, after he joined the investment bank in Tokyo in 1998 as one of the founding members of its Asian Special Situations Group.

During his stay at the company Murata was responsible for developing the special situations business in Australia and New Zealand and was named head of the Asian Special Situations Group in 2018 before taking on his current role in 2019.

Company Veteran

Ng’s promotion brings her to the top of Warburg Pincus’ real estate operation in the region after the graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania first joined the firm in 2005.

Having worked with successful entrepreneurs including Sun Dongping of DNE and PDG’s Rangu Salgame, Ng now serves on the boards of a number of the company’s portfolio firms including PDG, DNE, Mofang Apartments, Weave Living, Kailong Holdings and a number of additional ventures both in China and at the regional level. Based in Hong Kong, Ng also serves as co-head of the company’s Women@Warburg diversity initiative.

“Over the past 30 years, we have built a highly differentiated franchise in Asia,” Warburg Pincus said in the memo. “With the next generation of leadership in place for our real estate investing franchise and great depth of talent in the team, we are very well positioned to continue to deliver for our limited partners in a more complex environment.”

Regional Team

In leading Warburg Pincus’ real estate business in Asia, Ng and Murata are expected to lean on the company’s group of partners on the ground in the region, including Fan Li in Singapore as well as Qiqi and Chloe Zhang (no relation) in Shanghai.

Having closed on $2.8 billion in equity for its first Asia-wide real estate fund in 2021, Warburg Pincus is now investing in opportunities at the asset level in the region, in addition to its traditional platform approach to building businesses.

With over $30 billion invested in more than 300 Asian ventures across its private equity and real estate strategies, Warburg Pincus’ portfolio in the region also includes Indonesia’s NWP Property, JD Property in China and the regional Storhub self-storage platform.