UBS Asset Management’s Global Real Estate business has added a Senior Portfolio Manager to its Hong Kong based team.
In his new role, Derek Lai will be responsible for defining and implementing strategic initiatives with a specific focus on Greater China, as well as helping to manage and develop the Global Real Estate (GRE) business which currently has $73 billion assets under management across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.
Lai will be based in Hong Kong and will lead GRE's Greater China team and also be a member of GRE's Asia Pacific Management Committee. He will, in collaboration with GRE's Head of APAC, Graham Mackie, as well as the wider APAC team, seek to grow the business in China.
Lai joins UBS Asset Management from Macquarie Capital’s Hong Kong office where he was Senior Vice President and Co-Chief Officer, Real Estate, China, advising real estate developers, funds and operators on structuring and capital raising from global institutional investors.
Chinese Real Estate Push
Prior to joining Macquarie in June 2014, he was Head of Portfolio Management (Real Estate) at ARA Asset Management in Shanghai, with responsibility for the $500 million China Investment Partners fund. He has also had real estate focused roles at Blackstone, Merrill Lynch, the Carlyle Group and Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong across a career spanning more than 15 years.
«Derek Lai has a wealth of concentrated experience in the Chinese real estate investment market, as well as an in-depth knowledge of the institutional landscape, and we are looking forward to working with him to achieve our ambitions,» commented Mackie.
