SITTING across the conference table from CapitaLand Investment (CLI) chief executive officer Lee Chee Koon at the Taj Mahal meeting room at his Capital Tower office, it is hard not to be impressed.
Despite its stately title, the decor of the room is soothingly subtle - not unlike the man himself.
Barely past his mid 40s, Lee helms one of the world's leading real estate investment managers (Reim), with some S$125 billion of real estate assets under management (AUM) as at end June.
In addition, CLI has around S$86 billion of real estate funds under management (FUM) held via 6 listed real estate investment trusts (Reits) and business trusts, and more than 20 private vehicles across Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US.
Big corporate move
Last year, Lee was the driving force behind one of the most exciting corporate moves in recent memory for a Singapore-listed company, as CapitaLand Group in 2021 privatised its decades-old property development business and consolidated its fund management and property investment business to be listed under the newly formed CLI.
The separation of the property development and asset management arms of CapitaLand Group - of which Lee was then president and group CEO - had been earlier planned to happen further down the road after 2024.
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But with the Covid-19 pandemic weighing on CapitaLand's share price, Lee and his team sprang into action.
"We told ourselves: 'We should not waste a crisis'," Lee said. "So we just accelerated the entire process." Thankfully, the gamble has paid off. CLI shares made its trading debut at S$2.95 on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on Sep 20, 2021, and soared to a peak of S$4.30 earlier this year. The counter closed at S$3.61 on Sep 8, 2022, up 22.4 per cent from its debut.
Yet, Lee expresses surprise to be named the Outstanding Chief Executive Of The Year for the Singapore Business Awards (SBA) 2022.
The award is in recognition of his stellar leadership and extraordinary efforts in reshaping the CapitaLand group amid the crisis of a generation.
"This should be a company award," Lee says. "There's no way anybody can do this alone - there's the board, there's the team, there are many people who burn many holidays and make a lot of sacrifices… just to get all these things done. So I really wouldn't claim the credit for this."
Coming in the throes of a pandemic that showed no signs of abating, the restructuring was a courageous move that could have only been pulled off by a true leader with nerves of steel.
And through the years, Lee has shown he is not one to shy away from the responsibility of bold corporate action.
In 2019, he orchestrated the CapitaLand Group's S$11 billion merger with Ascendas-Singbridge, paving the way for the property group to strengthen its position in the business park, industrial and logistics segments of the market.
He was also instrumental in significantly expanding the group's footprint in India, making it one of CapitaLand's core markets.
More recently, in 2020, Lee led CapitaLand Group in the merger between CapitaLand Mall Trust and CapitaLand Commercial Trust to form CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT) - the third largest Reit in Asia-Pacific and the biggest in Singapore.
The way Lee sees it, CLI has to dare to dream big in order to succeed. "Our port is one of the best in the world; our airport is one of the best in the world. So the question is: Do we dare to dream? And if we dare to dream, how do we make our dreams come true?"
As CLI continues to scale up, Lee says that the key focus of growth for the company over the next 5 years will be in the Asia-Pacific," he says. "Once we are ready in Asia-Pacific, then we'll go into Europe and the US in a more meaningful way."
Coming out of the pandemic into the volatility of geopolitical tensions and surging inflation and interest rates, Lee recognises that there will be challenges ahead.
"We just have to play with the cards that we are dealt and make the best of the situation," he says. "We hope that some of these crises present enough opportunities that we can capitalise on, take counter-cyclical positions, and take the chance to further strengthen and charge ahead."
Attracting and retaining talent
At the heart of CLI's success, Lee believes, will be its ability to attract - and retain - the right talent.
"Business is about capital; it is about people. You need the people to find the opportunity; you need the people to do the right things. And if you continue to do that, you will be able to raise a lot more money," he says. "But the key thing that we need to do is to grow the people with the right value system. I am really worried about recruiting somebody who is so smart, but with the wrong value system."
Lee is particularly concerned about the responsibility that comes with the power of being a Reim that manages funds from third parties including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and retail investors.
"If you just want to go aggressively just to earn fee income, I think you can be very aggressive just to grow for the sake of growing," he says. "But the important thing we need to remember is that much of this money is the money of retirees… so the fundamental basis of growth must be one that we deliver high quality consistent earnings for our investors. If we cannot do that, I'd rather not take the money."
"That's why when we choose people, we are very careful in choosing people with the right value system," he adds. "If you're not galvanised by the same value systems of integrity, reputation, and doing the right things, you can end up doing things that are terribly wrong."
With this people-first mentality, Lee has been known to pen messages to his employees in an effort to rally morale and stress on doing the right things. Some of these emails have included fable-like stories with lessons that staff can apply at the workplace and sports-inspired stories encouraging staff to embrace a winning mindset.
For example, in an e-mail to CLI employees to welcome the new year in 2022, Lee adopted the slogan "no apologies; no excuses" to urge staff to act with conviction.
"We must never be afraid, embarrassed or feel apologetic to challenge the status quo or propose new or alternative views, if this is done in the best interests of the company. After all, real change starts with us," he wrote. "Real change means taking risks, rolling up our sleeves to get things done, and most importantly, we must always be accountable and take responsibility for decisions we make."
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