Marcus Lee Joins ZACD Group as Regional Director
Even as the world struggles with the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, new investment opportunities are opening up. Across Asia, investors are starting to explore new investment avenues, especially in the property sector.
While property prices have fallen over the past few months, this has opened up investment possibilities for individuals keen on leveraging on the overall growth story that Asia offers over the longer term.
Marcus Lee understands the potential the property sector offers investors having been involved in real estate projects in Indonesia and Singapore over the past eight years. Mr. Lee has overseen more than US$2 billion of gross development value of real estate assets since 2016.
He recently left his position in Pollux Properties, one of Indonesia’s fastest growing real estate players, to join the ZACD Group as Regional Director to continue his real estate venture expansion into the Asia Pacific region.
“The opportunity to invest and develop projects outside of Indonesia and Singapore was the key motivation for me to embark on this new journey,” he noted. “This move will complete the full ecosystem of real estate as up to now I have been involved mostly on the supply side but with this move, I can now also be involved on the demand side.”
By joining ZACD Group, Mr. Lee will have a much larger canvas to work on. Established in 2005, ZACD is an integrated asset manager listed in Hong Kong and headquartered in Singapore, offering integrated solutions across the real estate value chain on the Asia Pacific region.
ZACD Group offers regulated fund management business through its subsidiary company ZACD Capital Pte Ltd which holds a Capital Market Services License from Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
“We identify real estate investment opportunities in residential, commercial, industrial and hospitality projects and offer them to investors through the establishment of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs),” Mr. Lee said. “We manage our clients’ investment and assets through the SPVs and help them to realize attractive returns from the real estate projects.
The group has a proven track record of managing a comprehensive suite of real estate investments in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. Over the past 15 years, it has been involved in 30 projects and funds with a weighted average return on investment (ROI) of 96%, amounting to more than US$ 285 million. ZACD has also recently entered the US market with an investment into the US$300 million iconic Hudson Hotel in Manhattan.
“One of our core business is to provide our clients access to our investment solutions through a variety of structures including Property Development Funds, Asset Acquisitions and Private Equity Funds,” he added.
ZACD also holds financial licenses in Hong Kong through ZACD Financial Services, which began in Hong Kong after obtaining licenses in 2016 to conduct Type 1 (dealing in securities), Type 4 (advising on securities) and Type 6 (advising on corporate finance) regulated under the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO).
Specializing in financial advisory, mergers & acquisitions and capital raising activities in Hong Kong, the firm offers its clients advice on structuring and execution and assist them with expansion through access to capital markets.
With Mr. Lee as regional director, ZACD is keen to explore investment opportunities in Indonesia. The company believes in the nation’s long-term future as a country primed to among the top 5 economies in the world by 2030 with sizeable upside as Indonesia improves productivity through investment in infrastructure, human capital, greater international links and political stability.
“We are looking at potential partnerships with Indonesian companies to create synergistic collaboration for the company to participate in the growth of the Indonesian economy,” Mr. Lee said.
Looking post Covid-19, he is confident that international trade and investment flows will strengthen for ASEAN as Europe and America realign their trading position with China. Indonesia, as the largest economy in ASEAN, will be well positioned to attract greater foreign investments.
“As the economy strengthens, Indonesia will also be looking at outward investments. In the past, outward investments have been driven by the need to diversify risk but moving forward, we will see more Indonesian companies expanding their business internationally and thus will need to invest and acquire assets overseas,” Mr. Lee noted.