 | Simon Smith, Senior Director, Research & Consultancy, Savills
Simon has worked in Asian real estate consultancy and research for over 20 years and is based in Hong Kong. Simon is responsible for Regional Investment Research Services covering the property markets of Greater China and the Asia-Pacific region. Simon has worked with most of Hong Kong’s major developers, providing consultancy studies for a wide range of residential, commercial and mixed-use projects. He has also worked closely with a number of governmental and quasi-governmental organisations advising on real estate development issues, including the Hong Kong Airport Authority, the Urban Renewal Authority, and the Hong Kong Science Park. Multinational financial institutions also form part of his client base and recent studies have been completed for Morgan Stanley, ING and Merrill Lynch. He has advised Fortune REIT, Regal REIT, The Link REIT and Prosperity REIT in Hong Kong and Allco REIT in Singapore on real estate market trends. |
 | Ricky Lau, Deputy Managing Director and Head of Office Leasing, Savills
Ricky joined Savills since 2006 and he has had more than 17 years’ property experience. He currently heads up Savills’ Office Leasing team and is responsible for leading the day to day management of Savills’ Hong Kong and Kowloon office leasing business. Ricky focuses on working on behalf of an occupier clientele, leveraging his extensive working knowledge of the Hong Kong landlord community. He provides advice to occupiers on issues such as lease acquisition, renewals and leasing restructuring strategies. His clients are largely major multi-national companies and enterprises in Hong Kong and corporations from China including such names as AIA, MassMutual, Ageas Insurance, Principal Insurance, Prudential, MLC, Bayer, ING, ICBC, China Construction Bank, Société Générale, Swiss Re, Kirkland & Ellis, Herbert Smith, Sullivan & Cromwell, Prada and Giorgio Armani. Ricky has extensive experience in managing property portfolios for major corporations and institutional investors. Prior to joining Savills, he worked with Jones Lang LaSalle where he was responsible for lettings on behalf of a number of major Hong Kong developers, primarily concentrating on new developments including general agency transactions. Ricky graduated from the University of Hong Kong with an honours degree in Surveying, and is a Licensed Estate Agent. |