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Real estate guru sees upbeat trend
By Cherry Cao |
September 27, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PRIOR to his latest assignment in July as chief executive officer of Ascendas China, Singaporean Wong Wing Kien, a more than 25-year veteran in the regional real estate industry, held several senior executive positions including president of asset management with the Pacific Star Group and chief operating officer of Surbana Corp Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government. First starting his career with the Housing & Development Board of Singapore, Wong, with extensive expertise in construction, project consultancy, property development, real estate investment, asset management and fund management, is now responsible for developing and managing the Ascendas property portfolio in China as well as formulating the company's overall China strategy.
During a recent interview with Shanghai Daily, Wong shared his company's current developments as well as future aspirations in China, his views on the latest trend of business space and Ascendas's real estate funds experience in both overseas and the Chinese markets.
Q:How has your business been growing here since 1995 when you first tapped the country's real estate market and how large is Ascendas's current presence in China?
A: Pioneering the Ready-Built Facilities concept through our flagship Ascendas-Xinsu in Suzhou Industrial Park 16 years ago, we are now present in 10 cities of Shanghai, Suzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen, Dalian, Nanjing, Xi'an, Tianjin, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, developing and managing science, business and IT parks, innovation hubs and commercial office spaces. We have also been spearheading the development of integrated business parks in China since 2005 with a current portfolio of four projects both under operation and in the pipeline - the Dalian Ascendas IT Park, Singapore-Hangzhou Science & Technology Park, Ascendas iHub Suzhou and the upcoming integrated business park within Guangzhou Knowledge City.
Q: How do you perceive the latest trend involving business space and integrated business park in China?
A: Technology has changed people's expectations of business space. Together with the growing creativity of the new generation workforce, businesses now demand creative and high-tech environment that facilitates interaction and collaboration, an environmentally-friendly and sustainable workspace that nurtures inspiration and ideas. As Asia's leading provider of business space solutions, we constantly innovate on our solutions to stay relevant to our customers, crafting "integrated communities" that cater to the changing needs of corporate customers and their employees. We create sustainable work-centric integrated communities with mixed-use projects anchored by business space, such as the Dalian Ascendas IT Park, a 600,000-square-meter mixed-use development including high-grade office, retail and amenity space including quality residential apartments.
Q: In 2002, Ascendas launched Singapore's first business space trust, the Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust, or A-REIT. As one of the major players in the region, would you please share with us some of Ascendas's real estate funds experience in China?
A: Both launched in 2007, Ascendas currently has two China-related real estate funds under operation. The S$800-million Ascendas China Commercial Fund has been fully invested into three properties in downtown Shanghai which include Ascendas Plaza, Ascendas Ocean Towers and Ascendas Cross Tower. The S$600-million Ascendas China Business & Industrial Parks Fund, meanwhile, focuses on industrial and business park assets in China such as Ascendas-Xinsu in Suzhou Industrial Park and Ascendas Z-Link in Zhong Guan Cun of Beijing. We always remain keen on exploring further opportunities to set up real estate funds to invest in quality commercial and integrated projects in China.
Q: How do you personally perceive the future opportunities in the country's commercial and industrial real estate markets and what kind of business strategy will Ascendas take to accelerate its future growth in China?
A: Ascendas is very optimistic about the long-term potential of both commercial and industrial spaces in China. It remains our target to deepen and broaden our presence across the country, offering a wide spectrum of locations to our customers with emphasis on projects that have a good fit with the company's core business. We also aim to acquire, create and nurture an integrated suite of distinctive business space solutions that embodies our "work-live-play and learn" concept. I believe our strong and stable portfolio of quality commercial office space in China's first-tier cities and our integrated business parks across major cities around the country will enable mutually-beneficial partnerships and long-term business success in China for our customers and investors.
During a recent interview with Shanghai Daily, Wong shared his company's current developments as well as future aspirations in China, his views on the latest trend of business space and Ascendas's real estate funds experience in both overseas and the Chinese markets.
Q:How has your business been growing here since 1995 when you first tapped the country's real estate market and how large is Ascendas's current presence in China?
A: Pioneering the Ready-Built Facilities concept through our flagship Ascendas-Xinsu in Suzhou Industrial Park 16 years ago, we are now present in 10 cities of Shanghai, Suzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen, Dalian, Nanjing, Xi'an, Tianjin, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, developing and managing science, business and IT parks, innovation hubs and commercial office spaces. We have also been spearheading the development of integrated business parks in China since 2005 with a current portfolio of four projects both under operation and in the pipeline - the Dalian Ascendas IT Park, Singapore-Hangzhou Science & Technology Park, Ascendas iHub Suzhou and the upcoming integrated business park within Guangzhou Knowledge City.
Q: How do you perceive the latest trend involving business space and integrated business park in China?
A: Technology has changed people's expectations of business space. Together with the growing creativity of the new generation workforce, businesses now demand creative and high-tech environment that facilitates interaction and collaboration, an environmentally-friendly and sustainable workspace that nurtures inspiration and ideas. As Asia's leading provider of business space solutions, we constantly innovate on our solutions to stay relevant to our customers, crafting "integrated communities" that cater to the changing needs of corporate customers and their employees. We create sustainable work-centric integrated communities with mixed-use projects anchored by business space, such as the Dalian Ascendas IT Park, a 600,000-square-meter mixed-use development including high-grade office, retail and amenity space including quality residential apartments.
Q: In 2002, Ascendas launched Singapore's first business space trust, the Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust, or A-REIT. As one of the major players in the region, would you please share with us some of Ascendas's real estate funds experience in China?
A: Both launched in 2007, Ascendas currently has two China-related real estate funds under operation. The S$800-million Ascendas China Commercial Fund has been fully invested into three properties in downtown Shanghai which include Ascendas Plaza, Ascendas Ocean Towers and Ascendas Cross Tower. The S$600-million Ascendas China Business & Industrial Parks Fund, meanwhile, focuses on industrial and business park assets in China such as Ascendas-Xinsu in Suzhou Industrial Park and Ascendas Z-Link in Zhong Guan Cun of Beijing. We always remain keen on exploring further opportunities to set up real estate funds to invest in quality commercial and integrated projects in China.
Q: How do you personally perceive the future opportunities in the country's commercial and industrial real estate markets and what kind of business strategy will Ascendas take to accelerate its future growth in China?
A: Ascendas is very optimistic about the long-term potential of both commercial and industrial spaces in China. It remains our target to deepen and broaden our presence across the country, offering a wide spectrum of locations to our customers with emphasis on projects that have a good fit with the company's core business. We also aim to acquire, create and nurture an integrated suite of distinctive business space solutions that embodies our "work-live-play and learn" concept. I believe our strong and stable portfolio of quality commercial office space in China's first-tier cities and our integrated business parks across major cities around the country will enable mutually-beneficial partnerships and long-term business success in China for our customers and investors.
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