Centuria Capital (Centuria) has expanded its property funds business into Asia in response to increased demand from Asian investors looking to penetrate the Australian property market.
In line with expansion plans for the company, Centuria has opened an office in Singapore and appointed Chong Woon Pin as Centuria Capital managing director.
"Centuria's decision to open a representative office in Singapore will provide it with greater access to Asian investors, which are in line with its business growth strategy," Centuria Property Funds chief executive Jason Huljich said.
The decision follows the growing success of Centuria and the appetite from Asian investors looking to penetrate the Australian property market."
Centuria also plans to continue seeking opportunities for expansion into the Asian region.
"We're talking to a number of players and investment can come via a number of ways, be it a direct investment into one of our funds, setting up a fund just for institutional investors, [or] being awarded a mandate to buy and manage assets in Australia," Huljich told InvestorDaily.
"We're still very much concentrated on Australian assets but really looking at capital that is coming out of Asia down into Australia," he said.
Chong will be responsible for leading and growing Centuria's Asia-Pacific platform by raising equity from Asian institutional investors to invest in Australian property and tap onshore Australian capital to invest offshore alongside Centuria's balance sheet.
Prior to joining Centuria, Chong was head of equity and capital transactions, Asia at Lend Lease.
In July, Centuria chief executive John McBain told InvestorDaily that he planned to build the company's property business over the following six to 12 months through corporate and organic acquisition.
"We're going to acquire more property in the current 12 months than we did in the previous," McBain said at the time.
"We would like to see close to $100 million worth of acquisitions between now and Christmas. That's our plan and we're well positioned to do that," he said.
