People: Actis’ Aggarwal Pegged to Lead India’s NIIF – Mingtiandi

India’s de facto sovereign fund leads this week’s review of personnel moves from around the region with news reports indicating that the organisation is targetting an Actis executive as its next chief executive. Also making the list are senior leadership moves at Vantage Data Centers and its Singapore rival STT GDC.

Sanjiv Aggarwal, a partner with UK fund manager Actis, has been recommended by the board of India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, which serves as the country’s de facto sovereign investment vehicle, to serve as the organisation’s next chief executive officer, according to media reports this past week. Aggarwal leads energy investments for Actis in Asia and has been with the company for 15 years.

Vantage Data Centers announced on 13 November that it has appointed Raymond Tong as president for Asia Pacific based in Singapore. Tong joins the unit of US private equity firm DigitalBridge from SUNeVision Holdings where he had served as chief executive of the data centre unit of Hong Kong’s Sun Hung Kai Properties for more than five years. Also coming aboard at Vantage is former Elite Commercial REIT executive Joel Cheah who joins the company as chief financial officer.

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) said on 15 November that it has hired Thomas Ee as group chief operating officer, where he is expected to manage the Singapore-based company’s regional data centre portfolio. Ee joins the Temasek Holdings-backed player from Macquarie Asset Management, where he had spent more than two years with the Aussie investment firm after a fourteen year stint at Taiwan Broadband Communications, where he had served most recently as chief executive. Mingtiandi reported earlier this month that STT GDC had hired former JLL executive Chris Street as chief revenue officer.

Eric Ng has joined China Resources Longdation, also known as China Resources Property, as head of investment for China, according to a LinkedIn update. Ng joins the state-backed mainland player after more than four years as director of overseas investment and financing with Shanghai-based developer CIFI Group. He also has previous experience as investment and corporate finance director with Country Garden Properties (Hong Kong) Ltd.

Shimao Group Holdings said on 15 November that its former president, Lu Yi, had resigned as a non-executive director of the financially trouble mainland developer with effect from that day. Lu had been with the company since 2008 and was promoted to executive president in June of last year. He first joined the debt-wracked firm’s board as an executive director in 2020 and led its Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan business before becoming president.

Shanghai-based Haichang Ocean Park Holdings announced on 17 November that Zhang Jianbin has resigned from his role as an executive director on its board, and is also stepping down from his duties as executive president and authorised representative of the water park operator. Zhang’s departure took effect from that same day with the company appointing Li Kehui as an executive director and senior vice president at the same juncture.

Singapore-based listings website PropertyGuru said on 16 November that it has appointed Ray Ferguson as an independent, non-executive director of the KKR-backed company with the former Standard Chartered banker also taking on the chairman role with the Southeast Asia regional firm. Ferguson succeeds Olivier Lim, who is leaving the board after a four year stint with effect from 1 January of next year.

Jinke Smart Service Group announced to the Hong Kong stock exchange on 13 November that Eric Tung Woon Cheung, an independent, non-executive director on its board had been publicly censured by the city’s Securities and Futures Commission for his conduct in buy-back transactions involving shares of Beijing Enterprises Holdings, where he is also a director. The company is the property management division of mainland developer Jinke Property Group.

If you know of other Asia real estate professionals changing their jobs, getting promoted or just doing something exciting, please contact us here at Mingtiandi.