A major sovereign investor leads today’s look at real estate personnel news from around Asia with Malaysia’s EPF naming a new investment chief. Also making leadership changes this week is China’s Country Garden, which has named a new co-chair, and Singapore’s DayOne Data Centers is adding to its leadership team as it expands its war chest.
Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund on 1 December announced the appointment of Mohamad Hafiz Kassim (pictured) as its new chief investment officer, with Ahmad Rizal Omar taking over Mohamad Hafiz’s role as chief financial officer. Both appointments took effect from the day of the announcement, with Mohamad Hafiz, who has been with the Malaysian government pension manager for more than 17 years, succeeding Rohaya Mohammad Yusof, who had led the EPF’s investment division for the past five years.
Country Garden Holdings notified the Hong Kong stock exchange on 4 December that it has promoted Mo Bin to co-chairman with effect from that day, as the mainland developer continues to struggle with restructuring and paying down its debt. Now 58, Mo first joined Country Garden in 2010 and has been serving most recently as president of the company. Formerly acting as soul chair, Yang Huiyan, daughter of founder Yang Guoqiang, will now serve as co-chair alongside Mo, according to the announcement.
David Cheong has been promoted to partner at KKR in Tokyo, representing the sole member of the private equity firm’s eight-person class of new partners to come from the company’s real estate division, according to an announcement this past week. Cheong, who works as co-head of acquisitions for Asia real estate at KKR has been with the company since 2015 and will continue to rank as a managing director until the promotion takes effect from 1 January. The graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School also has previous experience with LIM Advisors in Hong Kong and Lehman Brothers.
With DayOne Data Centers busy with a reported $2 billion fundraising round, the offshore unit of China’s GDS has brought on board former Gaw Capital Partners executive Kok-Chye Ong as an executive vice president, according to a LinkedIn update. Ong joins DayOne after more than four years at Gaw Capital, where he served as head of the private equity firm’s data centre strategy outside of China and ranked as a managing director.
Digital Halo, a data centre unit of Arch Capital Management, said on 1 December that it has brought on board Ziyang Chen (pictured) as chief investment officer, with Helen Xin Su joining as vice president for sales with the Singapore-based company. Chen is joining Digital Halo after three years with CBRE in Singapore, where he served as head of data centre advisory with the property consultancy, with Su joining from Vantage Data Centres, where she had served as director of sales for Asia Pacific.
Shelson Lim has been promoted to managing director with SC Capital Partners in Hong Kong, after more than three years as an executive director with the private equity fund manager, according to a LinkedIn update. The graduate of King’s College London and UCL has now been with SC Capital more than eight years and joined the company after nearly three years on the real estate team with Deloitte in London where he served as a senior associate.
Max Parry has been promoted to the newly created role of vice president for growth and emerging markets with Equinix, according to an announcement this past week. Based in Hong Kong, Parry received his upgrade with the US data centre REIT this month after more than five years with Equinix, including serving most recently as senior director for business development for Asia Pacific.
Former Tahoe Group vice president Huang Xi has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for bribery, according to local media accounts citing judgements from China’s Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate on 28 November. Huang served as a senior executive with China Construction Bank and spent more than 30 years with state-run giant before joining Tahoe Group in 2018. Huang Xi was convicted of having received RMB 30 million from Tahoe chairman Huang Qisen (no relation) in 2018 in return for arranging loans for the developer. Tahoe racked up nearly $27 billion in debt before defaulting in 2019 and being forced into restructuring.
Hong Kong data centre operator SUNeVision informed the Hong Kong stock exchange on 28 November that it has appointed Helen Lo Ngai as executive director of the company with effect from that date. Now 41, Lo held senior roles at Tencent Music Entertainment from 2013 to 2019 before joining SUNeVision’s parent company, Sun Hung Kai Properties in 2020 where she was soon appointed as head of strategy before later being promoted to general manager with the company’s commercial division. In the same announcement SUNeVision said it had appointed former Noah Holdings group president Kenny Lam to an independent, non-executive director position on its board.
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