HSBC AM adds direct real estate investment team in Singapore

HSBC Asset Management announced the appointment of a Singapore direct property investment team as part of the company’s strategy to expand its alternatives business.

According to an HSBC press release on Wednesday, Victoria Sharpe joined the company on September 1 as Managing Principal and Head of Real Estate Asia-Pacific – responsible for building the company’s real estate business across the region.

Ms. Sharpe joins HSBC from DWS in Singapore, where she was Head of Real Estate for that firm’s Asia-Pacific region.

Christopher Kimm, CEO of DWS’s Korean business and head of the company’s Korean real estate business, will also take on the role of head of the Asia-Pacific real estate business, said a Singapore-based spokesman for DWS.

In addition, the HSBC press release said that James Bartlett, formerly Deputy CIO for Asia Pacific at DWS and the company’s head of Australian real estate, joined HSBC on Aug. 2 as managing director for the company’s new real estate team, reported to Ms. Sharpe.

Lionel Low, formerly Executive Director at Ascendas Asia Real Estate Fund Management, also joined the team on August 2nd as Managing Principal. An Ascendas spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment.

The press release states that in June HSBC Asset Management “amalgamated all of its existing alternatives capabilities under a single business unit, HSBC Alternatives, with a team of 150 and combined assets under management and advisory services of $ 45 billion”.