Manulife Real Estate expands management team to support growth in Asia

Hong Kong—Manulife Real Estate today announced the appointment of Kenneth Tsang to the newly created position of managing director, head of real estate asset management, Asia. Based in Hong Kong, Mr. Tsang reports to Ted Willcocks, global head of asset management, real estate.

In his role, Mr. Tsang will oversee Manulife’s growing real estate investments in Asia, including Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Melbourne, and Sydney.

Mr. Tsang’s appointment supports Manulife’s strategy for rapid growth in Asia, where Manulife most recently expanded its US$2 billion Asia footprint with strategic CBD office acquisitions in Melbourne, Australia, and Singapore.

“As we execute our global real estate strategy and rapidly expand our real estate footprint in Asia, Kenneth will be instrumental to our growth strategy in managing assets, optimizing returns, and exploring investment opportunities in key Asian markets,” said Mr. Willcocks.

Mr. Tsang brings more than 20 years of experience managing office, industrial, residential, and mixed-use real estate across the region. In his new position, he'll be responsible for asset management and the overall performance of the real estate portfolio while implementing effective business strategies and programs to maximize portfolio returns.

In his previous role, Mr. Tsang was general manager, property, at KHI Holdings Group and a member of the company's management team, where he co-led the acquisition, asset management, and divestment of real estate assets in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, and the United Kingdom. He was responsible for the management of a portfolio of real assets, which included direct investments, co-investments, JV partnerships, real estate portfolios, and real estate private equity funds. He was executive director, development, real estate Asia, JPMorgan Asset Management Real Assets (Asia). Prior to joining KHI Holdings Group, Mr. Tsang earned a B.Sc. (Honours) from the University of Hong Kong and an L.L.B. (Honours)  from the University of London, U.K. He's based in Hong Kong.

About Manulife Investment Management's real estate platform

Manulife Investment Management's comprehensive private markets platform includes real estate, private equity and credit, infrastructure, timber, and agriculture. Through its real estate arm, Manulife Investment Management develops and manages commercial real estate for thousands of customers around the globe. Its portfolio includes millions of square feet of office, industrial, retail, and multifamily space strategically located in major metropolitan markets. The real estate team leverages its vertically integrated platform to serve its customers as well as manage the space requirements and corporate-use facilities for Manulife's global operations.

As of December 31, 2018, the real estate portfolio totaled more than 58 million square feet with an assets under management (AUM) fair market value of CAD$23.7 billion.

About Manulife Investment Management

Manulife Investment Management is the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than 150 years of financial stewardship to partner with clients across our institutional, retail, and retirement businesses globally. Our specialist approach to money management includes the highly differentiated strategies of our fixed-income, specialized equity, and private markets teams—along with access to specialized, unaffiliated asset managers from around the world through our multimanager model. Our personalized, data-driven approach to retirement is focused on delivering financial wellness in retirement plans of all sizes to help plan participants and members retire with dignity.

Headquartered in Toronto, we operate as Manulife Investment Management throughout the world, with the exception of the United States, where the retail and retirement businesses operate as John Hancock Investment Management and John Hancock, respectively; and in Asia and Canada, where the retirement business operates as Manulife.

At the end of 2018, we had more than 34,000 employees, over 82,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving almost 28 million customers. As of December 31, 2018, we had over CAD$1.1 trillion (US$794 billion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months, we made CAD$29.0 billion in payments to our customers.¹

1 MFC financials, 2018.