New | For Grosvenor, the Asia-Pacific means Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo - for now
Grosvenor is deepening its push into Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and Benjamin Cha, the company's Asia-Pacific chief, aims to double its stake in the regional market to 20 per cent soon
Benjamin Cha Yiu-chung, Grosvenor's Asia-Pacific chief executive since April, has decades of experience in property investment, development and management in a career built up from stints with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, to developer HKR International and UBS, where he was the managing director of the bank's global asset management business.
Cha joined Grosvenor in September last year, just before the British property firm celebrated its 20th anniversary in the region early this year. He says he wants to double the region's share in the company to 20 per cent "sooner rather than later".
It is in our portfolio but we are in the process of divesting it. We have owned the asset for a number of years. We have added significant value and put some capital expenditure into it.
Our focus is to go deeper into Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Some fundamentals in Beijing are very attractive. The Shanghai market is very liquid, deep and dynamic, so we would like to do more in Shanghai.
I wouldn't characterise Beijing as illiquid. The point is we do look for deep and dynamic property markets. We are interested in cities that have industry diversity and have a compelling long-term story.
