APREA Opening New Doors for Investments in APAC: South Korea

Sigrid is the Chief Executive Officer of Asia Pacific Real Assets Association (APREA). Based in Singapore, she is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction, initiatives and operations of the association across Asia Pacific. Under her leadership, APREA repositioned to an industry trade group focusing on real estate and infrastructure.

Sigrid joined APREA’s executive team in January 2019.

Prior to APREA, she served as Managing Director of Asia Pacific Research and Advisory Services of Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) from 2010 through 2018, where she was responsible for research, thought leadership, strategy formulation and client management.  Before relocating to Singapore, she was based in Washington, D.C. and led C&W’s U.S. research group in the Mid-Atlantic region, overseeing all aspects of market research activities in the Washington, DC; Virginia; Suburban Maryland, Baltimore; and Philadelphia areas. Prior to joining C&W, Sigrid served as a Senior Economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR). In that position, she developed NAR’s office, warehouse, retail, multi-family housing, and international research programs.

A recognized expert in global economic, public policy and real estate issues, Sigrid is a frequent speaker at industry events.  Her commentary on commercial and residential real estate markets is also regularly featured in a wide array of global publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg, New York Times and Reuters. Additionally, she has made several television appearances on financial networks and radio such as CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, National Public Radio and Channel News Asia.

Sigrid holds a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and a Master’s degree in Economics from Pennsylvania State University. She is a member of several civic groups including the Rotary Club of Raffles City in Singapore, where she has served in various leadership positions, and serves in the Executive Committee of the Crohn’s & Colitis Society of Singapore.

Mr. Christian Bernasconi is a Founding Partner of B&I Capital AG and is based in Singapore where he acts a group co-CIO and head of the research office. Christian has over 27 years of experience as an Asian and Japanese equities specialist and has been based in Switzerland and Singapore over his career. Prior to co-founding B&I Capital in 2007, Christian was an Executive Director at UBS and established the Japan and Asian Equity Sales platform and was part of the Global Real Estate (RE) Team in Zurich. Before joining UBS in 2000, Christian was with W.I. Carr Far East Limited, Paribas Asia Equity and Yamaichi Securities. He received a Bachelors degree in Political Economy of Industrial Societies at the University of California at Berkeley.

Headquartered in Zurich with a research office in Singapore, B&I Capital AG was founded in 2007 by Christian Bernasconi and Charles Isaac to give qualified investors a means to invest in Asian listed Real Estate, predominantly the nascent Asian REIT market. At that time REITs were an emerging asset class in developed equity markets such as Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, and a more mature REIT market in Australia. B&I Capital is well regarded as an active investor that engages with the managements of the companies it invests in to encourage best practice and is also an active member of APREA which promotes the development of the listed Asian Real Estate sector. Currently B&I Capital employs 19 people and manages USD 1.7bn worth of assets and is licensed both in Switzerland by FINMA and in Singapore as a CMS License holder by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

YK Son is the head of C&W Korea’s Capital Markets division as an industry expert. Since 2014, YK Son has successfully executed many capital market deals of more than KRW 8 trillion in transaction volume. He worked in Collier International Korea, AON, and several local investment and development companies before. YK Son has in-depth experience and a strong understanding of major office transactions (both investment and disposal advisory) in major office areas in Korea including major key deals including State Tower Namsan, Young City transaction.

He has a master degree in Urban Planning at Yonsei University.

Sorim Jie focuses on cross-border investment and domestic office transactions with her business expertise obtained from various real estate related professions including asset management, development, investment, and consulting. Having diverse experience in different players in the market: real estate consulting firm, investment company, construction company and asset management company, she has successfully led and delivered many investments. With her rich and extensive experience, she has the depth of knowledge across real estate investment field and successfully closed multiple transactions since she joined C&W. Most prominent deal was State Tower Namsan, a prime office tower in core location reaching the highest unit price in CBD, which closed in April 2019. Prior to joining Cushman and Wakefield, she worked for Tongyang Asset Management Company, Samsung C&T, NCC Japan, Samjong KPMG and BHP Korea.

Mr. Kim spearhead Samsung SRA Asset Management as Chief Investment Officer for the real estate investment activities globally.

Prior to joining Samsung SRA Asset Management end of 2019, he was head of Infrastructure at KIC. He had been a founding member instrumental in establishing KIC’s real estate and infrastructure investment program and held several key leadership positions in private equity, research and London office since 2010. Before KIC, he led real estate investment globally at Mirae Asset Global Investments responsible for establishing the company’s initial global real estate footprint. He also worked at Asia Pacific Land (APL), a North East Asia focused real estate private equity, served as an investment advisor at Savills Korea and started his career as an international banker at Citibank, Korea.

He received his BA in Business Administration from Yonsei University, MA in Economics from Seoul National University and currently under Ph D course work on Urban Studies at Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.

Scott Choi joined Actis in 2018 following the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank's Principal Finance Real Estate group (PFRE). Scott was with PFRE since its inception in 2010 and has substantial experience in investing across property types and risk strategies, with particularly strong experience managing development opportunities in Korea. Overall, Scott gained 18 years of experience in the Korean real estate industry. Prior to joining PFRE, he served as a senior investment manager at Mirae Asset, the largest property fund manager in Korea, where he was responsible for acquisition, development, and disposition of commercial real estate. Scott started his career as a senior analyst at KPMG FAS Korea, where he conducted valuation and feasibility studies on various types of asset classes. Scott holds a BSc. Management from the University of London.

Sanghwoi Bae joined ESR-KendallSquare(“Kendall” or the “Firm”) in 2019 as the head of Income JV investment. He then joined KendallSquare REIT Management to spearhead “ESR KendallSquare REIT”(KOSPI 365550, the “REIT”)) IPO and investment. After completing the REIT IPO at the end of 2020 with initial asset value starting at KRW 1.4 trillion with 11 prime logistics assets, He became the Chief Executive Officer of the REIT Management.

The REIT is scheduled to complete its first rights offering process at the end of 2021 to finalize inclusion of additional 7 assets, increasing the total asset value of the portfolio to KRW 2.4 trillion, making it the largest publicly traded REIT in Korea.

He brings 15 years of Korean real estate investment experience to the Firm, having held roles across the investment banking and private equity in real estate spectrum in various financial institutions, including LaSalle Investment Management, and Hana Financial Group. Mr. Bae received his Bachelor of Art degree in International Relations from Boston University.

Richard Hwang is Managing Director of C&W Korea office. Since Mr. Hwang has been playing a key role to expand and diversify business operation in Korea, he has been providing strategic advice to the multinational companies, and implementing his experience on office investment transactions within the company. Based on his extensive relationship with various commercial investors/landlords, he has been at the forefront of the remarkable transformation of the Real Estate industry in Korea over the past decade and has been part of some of the most innovative assignments.

Prior to joining C&W, Richard was a member of the new development team at LG Department Store Group. Mr. Hwang obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning from University of Hanyang.