Forum Partners makes three senior hires in Asia

Forum Partners Investment Management, the Europe and Asia focused real estate investment management firm, has appointed a trio of senior professionals in Asia as it seeks to expand its presence in the region.

The firm has appointed Wei Wang as director and china representative of its Hong Kong subsidiary from Sunshine 100, a Chinese developer which is backed by private equity firm Warbug Pincus. Wang also previously worked for Swiss bank UBS in its fixed income division.

Forum has also hired ken Aoyama as a senior Japan advisor. Aoyama was previously managing director and co-head of Morgan Stanley’s core investment platform in Japan from which he managed a country-focused closed-ended fund as well as Germany-based open and closed-ended funds.

In India Forum has hired Ashwin Shetty from Motilal Investment Advisors, an investment banking subsidiary of the Motilal Oswal Group, a financial services business. He also worked for Rabo India Finance, part of Rabobank Group.

Russell Platt, chief executive officer of Forum Partner, said of the appointments: “These professionals have been strategically selected to strengthen local ties to property companies and to enhance relationships with the developing Asian financial and investment community.”

Forum Partners, which manages more than $2 billion of assets, last month raised the first $200 million for its third Asia fund, the Forum Asia Realty Income III fund. Launched last autumn, the vehicle is targeting a total capital raise of $1 billion. It will target entity level investments in middle market property companies in the region.