Covering Southeast Asia and North Asia markets, Lau will be responsible for shaping the firm’s strategy for real estate products and services, according to a statement from the firm. He will report to Julien Collin, head of markets for investments and structure in Singapore.
Lau will be looking at direct real estate investment, the firm said.
“[Lau’s] appointment underlines our commitment to Asia where property investments continue to be a favoured investment theme among our clients,” Pierre Masclet, Indosuez Wealth’s Asia CEO and Singapore branch manager, said in the statement.
Real estate continues to be an important part of high net worth investors’ asset allocation. For example, real estate direct investments account for 18% of APAC-based family offices’ portfolios, according to UBS and Campden Wealth’s global family office report.
Before Indosuez Wealth, Lau was a senior relationship manager for corporate banking at Maybank, where his portfolio included working with Singapore’s family-owned property firms, listed companies, real estate investment trusts and Chinese state-owned enterprises, according to the statement.
Before Maybank, Lau covered financing for real estate investments at Mizuho and UOB.
Asia movements
Lau’s appointment follows Indosuez Wealth’s Asia acquisition. In December last year, it bought Crédit Industriel et Commercia’s private banking operations in Singapore and Hong Kong.
In October 2017, just before the acquisition, it hired three senior relationship managers and a product specialist in the region. At the time, the firm had 220 wealth managers based in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The firm also appointed Eugene Huang as a senior banker in July last year.
However, the firm recently lost Sen Sui, its former commercial head for Asia, who joined Lombard Odier last month as Singapore-based managing director.
Globally, Indosuez Wealth managed €118bn ($138.78bn) in assets as of the end of 2017, according to the statement.
