Colliers has taken great strides toward sustaining its commitment to Singapore with a number of changes to its leadership bench in the last six months. On Jan 10, Bastiaan van Beijsterveldt was appointed the company’s managing director for the city-state. Moving up from his previous role as executive director and head of occupier services, he succeeds Tang Wei Leng who was appointed Singapore managing director in 2015.
Mike Davis, formerly managing director for CBRE in the US, was appointed managing director for occupier services for Asia Pacific. His appointment as well as the promotion of Chris Pilgrim to managing director of global capital markets for Asia Pacific signal the company’s intent to build scale in Singapore. Both Davis and Pilgrim are now headquartered in the Marina Bay office.
Sam Harvey-Jones, COO for Asia Pacific, views Singapore as a key hub with a high concentration of resources and decision-makers across the Asia Pacific (Apac) region. Van Beijsterveldt concurs, adding that Colliers sees its Singapore office as a “centre of excellence” with a focus on driving growth across the region.
At the end of 2021, the company launched an ambitious growth strategy with the intention to double its profitability to an adjusted ebitda of US$830 million by 2025. Core to the strategy are building scale and making strategic acquisitions. To that end, Colliers has deployed US$1 billion in acquisitions in 2021, targeting its investment management portfolio, engineering and design, project management, capital markets and leasing, and alternative investment manager.
As of January 2022, Colliers has about US$98 billion of assets under management. These investments have set the firm on track to meet its Enterprise ’25 targets.
To drive the growth strategy in Singapore, Van Beijsterveldt is overseeing a plan to double the headcount in the company’s occupier services team and in other lines. The move comes despite a choppier economic environment that casts uncertainty over the city-state. But Harvey-Jones insists that growth is a long-term investment that ensures the business grows in a commercially viable way.
There are currently some 120 people working out of Colliers’ Singapore office in several services including occupant representation, capital markets and investments, and valuation and advisory. All the staff are held accountable to build and grow the business as one team unified under one banner. Van Beijsterveldt stresses the importance of collaboration between staff and service lines to provide clients with better service.
Colliers similarly puts a high emphasis on investing in its people, establishing a diversity of workforce and committing to 40% female employees overall and in manager roles by 2025. In December 2021, it was recognised as one of the world’s “top female-friendly companies” by Forbes. In Singapore, the occupier services team alone has already doubled in its headcount, with Van Beijsterveldt stressing the importance of providing opportunities for existing staff to grow.
CapitaLand J’Den Condo to launch J’Den Condo in 2023, a 40-storey residential and commercial development next to Jurong East MRT Station in Singapore, with prices estimated at S$2,000-2,100 per sqft.
Ultimately, Colliers seeks to be the best at what they do, and they believe their staff and service-oriented approach is the way to do it.
