A Capital Market Perspective of the Real Estate Business for Singapore

Abstract of Talk:

Ten years after the 1998 Asian financial crisis, the recent global financial 'tsunami' has produced a level of turmoil in the capital and real estate markets which has not been experienced in decades. Trillions of dollars have been wiped out from global real estate, REIT and mortgage markets. Singapore has not been spared, with many 'blue-chip' developer stocks and S-REITs losing more than 70% of their market capitalizations during the lows of the year. This has created an unprecedented opportunity to learn about the follies of the past and the opportunities ahead.

Backed with his unique experience gained from witnessing several boom and bust cycles, developing the S-REIT and commercial mortgage market and managing significant corporate restructurings during the 1998 Asian crisis, Alfred will share his 'front-row' experience and personal views on :

i) How does the recent financial turmoil compare to the 1998 Asian crisis? What happened then and now?
ii) What are the lessons learnt from the two crises?
iii) Is capital market and securitization still relevant to real estate markets?
iv) What does the capital market tell us about residential valuations today?
vi) A case study on how capital markets would value an 'ugly duckling' which has been transformed into a 'pro-family' mall compared to a gleaming new mall.

About the Speaker:

A lawyer by training, Alfred is a qualified Solicitor in England and an Advocate & Solicitor in Singapore. He has more than 15 years of extensive experience in real estate and corporate finance, encompassing investment banking, capital markets, securitization, restructuring, principal investing, project development, marketing, distressed management and legal work. His career has brought him across leading cities including London, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.

After practising as a corporate real estate and banking lawyer at top law firms in London and Singapore from 1994, Alfred was overseeing restructuring transactions across Asia as a senior manager at Standard Chartered Bank's Asian headquarters in Singapore during the Asian financial crisis.

Before joining JPMorgan, Alfred was a senior manager at leading real estate developer Keppel Land, in charge of capital markets. He completed a strategic review of Keppel Land's multi-billion dollar commercial portfolio and the successful launch of the first and most innovative cross-border AAA triple-rated securitization of US$230 million of residential receivables allowing Keppel to generate significant cashflow from construction projects presold via deferred payments (this transaction won the highly prestigious Securitization Deal of the Year 2002 IFR Asia award).

During his career at JPMorgan from 2004, Alfred was Vice President and in charge of real estate structured finance business for JPMorgan's Singapore branch. From ground zero, he established JPMorgan as the leader in Singapore real estate structured finance within the first year of operations after completing more than US$1 billion of financing transactions for numerous real estate firms, including the financing and listing of CapitaCommercial REIT (sponsored by Capitaland), financing the IPO of Suntec REIT and the establishment of a benchmark setting multi-currency CMBS MTN programme for Ascendas REIT. Following on from the success of financing REITs, Alfred originated various structured financing solutions for real estate developers seeking construction and project level equity and mezzanine finance. He has also travelled extensively across China to conduct due diligence on distressed real estate.

In 2009 (up to May), Alfred devoted his time to promote 'pro-family' business practices as an Executive Director at the Ministry of Community Development. He successfully reached out to more than 30 businesses and associations including most of the major developers and commercial landlords in Singapore. The presence of the 'pro-family' logo at VivoCity is an example of one of the many seeds of his work. His research on 'pro-family' practices has produced intriguing insights on how real estate businesses can achieve a 'win-win' combination of financial competitiveness and social responsibility. In future, he hopes to raise awareness amongst companies on how 'pro-community' business practices can enhance their financial competitiveness.

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