SINGAPORE: CapitaLand Limited announced several key executive appointments to drive its next phase of growth. With the fulfillment of all conditions precedent, the Group is on track to complete its transaction with Temasek to acquire all the issued shares of each of Ascendas Pte Ltd and Singbridge Pte. Ltd. by end June 2019.[the_ad id=”32940″]The proposed transaction earlier received overwhelming approval by CapitaLand’s independent shareholders at an Extraordinary General Meeting held on 12 April 2019.Whenthe transaction is completed, CapitaLand will become one of Asia’s largest diversified real estate groups with over S$123 billion of assets under management.
For its commercial retail; business park, industrial and logistics; integrated development, urban development; and residential businesses, the enlarged Group will be organised along geographical lines covering Singapore, China, India, Vietnam and other developed markets.
The lodging business as well as the fund and asset management business, will be organised as standalone sectors. CapitaLand will also be setting up a Group Centre of Excellence (COE) to focus on building capabilities, innovation and setting standards for business sectors and operating platforms that the Group participates in.
The focus areas under the Group COE comprise Urban Strategy, Business Communities Development, Retail Innovation, Customer Services & Solutions, Sustainability and Digital & Technology. In line with this new business organisation structure, a CapitaLand Executive Committee (CLExco) is formed to provide strategic business planning, organizational alignment and implementation.
The CL Exco led by Lee Chee Koon, Group Chief Executive Officer, comprises the following members: Manohar Khiatani, Senior Executive Director, will assist the Group CEO in matters relating to organisation integration, and the India and business parks businesses. He will also oversee the Group COEs for Business Communities Development and Customer Services & Solutions. He is currently Deputy Group CEO of Ascendas-Singbridge.
As President, Singapore & International, Jason Leow will oversee the business and growth of CapitaLand Group in Singapore and internationally excluding China and India. He will also oversee the Group COE for Retail Innovation.
Lucas Loh, President, China, will oversee the business and growth in China as a core geographical market for the Group. He will also oversee Urban Strategy under the Group COE, which leverages the Group’s expertise in urban development to build its competitive edge.
Leow and Loh will leverage the Group’s fully-integrated capabilities as an investor, owner, manager and operator to drive growth across diversified real estate classes including commercial, retail; business park, industrial and logistics; integrated development, urban development and residential.
Jonathan Yap will be appointed President, CapitaLand Financial to oversee the Group’s REITs and business trusts, as well as private and third-party funds. He will also oversee the Group’s India business. He is currently the Group Chief Operating Officer and Group Chief Financial Officer of Ascendas-Singbridge.
Andrew Lim will remain as Group Chief Financial Officer. Tan Seng Chai will be appointed Chief Corporate & People Officer. He is currently Group Chief People Officer. Kevin Goh will continue as Chief Executive Officer of The Ascott Limited to oversee the growth of CapitaLand’s lodging business. Goh will build on Ascott’s strong growth trajectory to drive the lodging business arising from the rapid increase of demand from rental accommodations globally.
He Jihong will be appointed as Chief Corporate Strategy Officer of CapitaLand Group. She will identify strategic business focus areas and will work closely with businesses in formulating corporate strategies to ensure long-term sustainable business results for the Group. She is currently Chief Investment Officer of Ascendas-Singbridge.
Lynette Leong, who is currently Chief Business Innovation Officer, will be appointed as Chief Sustainability Officer as the enlarged Group sharpens its focus on sustainable real estate developments and services. She will be responsible for the Group’s sustainability strategy and policies, and integrating them into its business and operations’ strategic environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts at various stakeholder levels. She is currently Chief Business Innovation Officer.
Wen Khai Meng, Senior Advisor, Group Strategy will also become a member of CL Exco. Ng Kee Choe, Chairman, CapitaLand Limited, said: “CapitaLand’s next phase of growth as an enlarged Group will be well supported by an experienced management bench comprising accomplished leaders and skilled professionals from both companies coming together to deliver sustainable long-term value to shareholders. CapitaLand will leverage the Group’s capabilities and combined scale to extract value from its enhanced real estate value chain and global network.”
Lee Chee Koon, Group CEO of CapitaLand Group, said: “The management team is looking forward to working together to maximise value capture for the enlarged Group while defining an inspiring corporate culture. Under the new business organisation structure, the Group will be able to quickly mobilize teams with people from two different companies–spanning functions and business units across all geographies; to achieve our strategic aspirations in a disciplined way. We are gearing up to be operationally ready from day 1 and to chart a new era of higher performance for CapitaLand. With the strong talents across the Group, we are raring to build CapitaLand into a winning global company.”
An Integration Management Committee, chaired by Non-Executive Independent Director of CapitaLand Stephen Lee, has been working closely with the integration teams of CapitaLand and Ascendas-Singbridge to ensure that the two companies are ready to operate as a unified CapitaLand Group post completion.
Multiple integration work streams have been formed to concurrently look into integrating the business operations and portfolios of the two entities. Amongst the key deliverables are the harmonising of key operational and governance processes, formalizing the reporting structures, as well as aligning key performance indicators and financial reports. All the appointments will be effective from 1 July 2019.