DWS Promotes Leiting Deng to Lead Singapore Real Estate as Phil Kook Takes On Korea

DWS continues to bolster its Asia Pacific team, announcing the promotion of two executives to lead the firm’s real estate platforms in Singapore and South Korea.

The German fund manager has elevated portfolio manager Leiting Deng to serve as head of real estate in the booming city-state, while Junghoon (Phil) Kook is shifting from head of transactions for Korea to become head of real estate in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

Deng and Kook will report to APAC head of real estate Christopher Kimm, who said DWS is maintaining its growth aspirations in the region through co-investment and separate account mandate opportunities, along with the firm’s existing funds.

“In leading DWS’s largest real estate footprint in Asia Pacific, I am confident that Phil’s depth of experience and established networks will benefit our reputation as a major real estate player in Korea,” Kimm said in a release. “Leiting’s local knowledge combined with investment expertise across key real estate disciplines will be critical in growing our AUM in Singapore.”

Portfolio Manager Advances

Deng joined Deutsche Bank, DWS’s majority shareholder, as asset management lead for China, Australia and the Philippines in 2013 and was appointed portfolio manager for DWS’s Asian funds business in 2018. She will continue to perform the latter role in her newly created position.

Deng’s earlier career stops included LaSalle Investment Management, where she was portfolio manager of a real estate core fund, and CapitaMall Trust (now CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust), where she was an investment and asset management analyst.

Deng holds a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from Tsinghua University and a master’s degree in real estate finance from the National University of Singapore.

“Singapore remains a key investment market for international investors, given its stable and transparent investment environment,” Deng said. “The platform will continue to seek opportunities across relevant sectors for our investors.”

Kook joined DWS in 2021 from Shinhan Asset Management, where he led overseas and domestic investments and capital raising as head of real estate and structured finance, establishing nine funds with $1.5 billion in value.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison grad’s prior experience includes real estate investment banking at Seoul-based KEB (now Hana Bank) and analyst work at Savills Korea.

“It is a great privilege to lead the Korean real estate platform at DWS,” Kook said. “Our strategic focus will remain on servicing our international and Korean institutional clients through our asset management expertise in key regions, as well as broadening our strategies as we move higher up in the risk spectrum to pursue opportunities across different segments of the capital stack.”

Growing APAC Team

The latest reinforcements to DWS’s APAC roster follow the hiring of George Anastasiou as head of real estate in Australia last November and the promotion of Steven Kim to head of real estate asset management for Asia Pacific a month later.

Anastasiou joined DWS after having served as head of Australia for MEC Global Partners Asia, a member of the Mitsubishi Estate group, where he helped set up and manage the real estate business and portfolio in the country.

Kim, formerly the fund manager’s head of real estate asset management in Korea, now leads DWS’s environmental, social and governance strategies for its APAC portfolio, working alongside local asset managers in South Korea, Australia, Singapore and Japan.