Vietnam’s BW Names Gene King CIO

Vietnam’s best-known industrial builder has hired former Ally Logistic Property executive Gene King as chief investment officer, according to an announcement today.

King’s appointment to the newly created position at BW Industrial Development takes effect immediately, as the Warburg Pincus-backed company expands to meet rising investor demand for Vietnam industrial assets.

King will continue to call Ho Chi Minh City home after most recently serving there as director of international expansion for Taiwan-based ALP, where he was responsible for acquisition and new-market strategies in Southeast Asia. He began acting as an advisor to BW last year.

“Mr King brings to the table 19 years of experience in cross-border property development and M&As,” BW said. “He has been stationed in HCMC since 2016, and his strong presence and active market engagement have built him profound industry relationships in the region.”

Platform Branches Out

In his full-time role at BW, King will oversee all equity-related strategies including capital raising and joint venture partnerships, the company said.

At ALP he concurrently acted as principal of SEA Logistics Infrastructure Partnership, a development tie-up between the firm and Taiwan’s Cathay Private Equity targeting Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Before joining ALP, King was a senior investment manager at Taipei-based Fubon Financial, where he spearheaded early overseas property investments by Taiwanese insurance funds in New York, Paris, London and Ho Chi Minh City.

The graduate of National Taipei University also holds a master’s degree in real estate development from Columbia University and a master’s degree in architecture from Taiwan’s Tunghai University.

ESR Team-Up

Established in 2018 as a joint venture of private equity major Warburg Pincus and state-owned builder Becamex, BW has about $2 billion in gross assets under management and bills itself as Vietnam’s leading logistics and industrial developer.

BW in December broke ground on its 10th project of 2023 and its third development joint venture with Hong Kong-listed industrial giant ESR, which had acquired an initial 10.89 percent interest in the Vietnamese company for $207.8 million in January of last year. Warburg-backed ESR in August exercised its right to subscribe for additional shares of BW, investing a further $122.2 million to raise its ownership to 15.57 percent.

BW controls over 9 million square metres (96.8 million square feet) of industrial land across 51 projects in 11 Vietnamese provinces. The platform had accumulated more than $1 billion in equity commitments from investors and partners as of the fourth quarter of last year.