Link Reit appoints ex-BlackRock executive as group chief investment officer
Wong Pei Ting
LINK Real Estate Investment Trust’s (Reit) manager has appointed John Saunders as group chief investment officer with effect from Mar 4, 2024.
This is a newly created role at the Hong Kong-listed Reit, which marked its entry into Singapore last December with its purchase of several malls from Mercatus Co-operative for S$2.16 billion.
Saunders was most recently the head of Asia-Pacific real estate and global head of the real estate client business at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager.
He joined BlackRock through the asset manager’s merger with private equity real estate firm MGPA in 2013 when he was the firm’s chief executive officer of Asia and the portfolio manager of their Asian Property Funds series.
Saunders had at one point worked at Singapore-listed property group Hongkong Land, where he was involved with the development and leasing of a number of landmark projects in Singapore and other Asian countries.
Link’s CEO George Hongchoy said that Saunders’ appointment will enhance the scope and capacity of the management team and strengthen its capability as the Reit searches for new growth avenues and sustainable returns for unitholders.
Units of Link Reit closed flat at HK$42.55 on Wednesday (Dec 20).
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