reporter2
30-06-12, 18:57
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/archive/saturday/premium/top-stories/mr-capitaland-starts-long-goodbye
Published June 23, 2012
Mr CapitaLand starts long goodbye
He introduced Reits and ECs to S'pore and stamped S'pore mark overseas
By Felda Chay
LIEW Mun Leong, the 66-year-old straight-talking president and CEO of CapitaLand Ltd who proved his critics wrong by showing them that a bureaucrat can turn into a successful businessman, will be leaving the property giant come June next year. CapitaLand said yesterday that Mr Liew, among the highest-paid CEOs here, has notified its board that he will not seek a further extension when his current appointment ends. His departure comes after two extensions to his appointment - a three-year extension in 2008 when he hit 62, and a further two years in June 2011.
Mr Liew's retirement will cap 17 eventful years at the helm, starting with his appointment as president of Pidemco Land - which in November 2000 merged with DBS Land to form CapitaLand. "Seventeen years is a long time. . . If I bring up a boy, he would be ready for national service," said Mr Liew yesterday at a press briefing to announce his impending departure. The group is now on the hunt for a successor, and has engaged a headhunter to look at both internal and external candidates for the job.
A civil engineer by training, Mr Liew spent 22 years in the civil service before joining the private sector in 1992 - a move that was met with much scepticism. "When I went into the private sector, people said, 'how can you go and run companies? You are a civil servant'," recalled Mr Liew yesterday.
In 1996, he took on the role of president of Pidemco Land and Singapore Technologies Properties, amid doubts over whether he was up to the demands of the job. Questions continued to linger when he was named CEO of CapitaLand - which in its first two years turned in losses. Detractors also scoffed at the group's overseas strategy.
The naysayers are now silent.
Said Mr Liew yesterday: "When we first started in 2000, nobody believed that we could go overseas. All the reporters wrote us off. All the analysts wrote us down. I think they were logical because at that time, nobody could believe that you can do real estate overseas, because real estate is such a local business, in China or Vietnam or Japan.
"So the question was, how can you go down there (in China) and compete with the Chinese? How can you go to Vietnam and know what the Vietnamese like? But we proved to them that it can be done."
Today, the bulk of CapitaLand's revenue and earnings come from foreign shores. In 2011, 64.4 per cent of its turnover of $3.02 billion came from contributions from its overseas ventures. Close to 60 per cent of its $2.09 billion in earnings before interest and taxes were from foreign operations. Net profit last year was $1.06 billion.
Veterans in the property industry say that Mr Liew has done a remarkable job taking CapitaLand to where it is today. Said Tan Tiong Cheng, chairman of Knight Frank: "He wasn't quite a property person when he first started, so people thought that he wasn't a suitable candidate (to head Pidemco and CapitaLand).
"But I think he's done a great job. He brought many innovative ideas to the local property scene."
For instance, Mr Liew "was the first to get the Reit (real estate investment trust) market going", said Mr Tan.
"It wasn't well-received at first, but it was something new, and it was relevant to the market and gave it depth."
CapitaLand first tried to introduce Reits to the local market in 2001 with the public offer for its $740 million SingMall Property Trust (SPT). It later canned the offer, citing a poor market, but reintroduced the Reit listing months later in 2002 under the name CapitaMall Trust (CMT).
On its first day of trading, CMT closed at a 3.1 per cent premium above its IPO price - a sign that listed property trusts had been accepted as a form of alternative investment.
Yesterday, Mr Liew said that the introduction of Reits to the local market was one of the milestones of his career, as it gave property firms a "methodology to do evaluation of properties by yield, and not just by capital values" - which is more speculative, he said. "I think I am very proud of that," he added.
Mr Liew is also credited to have pioneered the highly popular executive condominium (EC) concept in Singapore, with Pidemco Land the first to introduce such developments to the market.
On his plans after stepping down, Mr Liew appeared open to possibilities, saying that he may make his own investments, or help other GLCs and non-GLCs by sharing his experience with them.
"I'm not retiring. I'm just changing career, changing job, changing scenes."
One thing's for sure, though. He would not be doing anything related to real estate, he said.
"I will continue to chair, for example, the Changi Airport Group, which is going through a big phase. I will spend time there. . . I would probably try to help GLCs and non-GLCs . . . to groom talent, to make organisation changes so that they can be international. I mean I take pride that we have gone international and we have nine listed companies that have gone international, so I would have some experience that people may want to tap into, so I will help them. I may make my own investments, my own personal entrepreneurial investments. . . I might even go and do some research."
Published June 23, 2012
Mr CapitaLand starts long goodbye
He introduced Reits and ECs to S'pore and stamped S'pore mark overseas
By Felda Chay
LIEW Mun Leong, the 66-year-old straight-talking president and CEO of CapitaLand Ltd who proved his critics wrong by showing them that a bureaucrat can turn into a successful businessman, will be leaving the property giant come June next year. CapitaLand said yesterday that Mr Liew, among the highest-paid CEOs here, has notified its board that he will not seek a further extension when his current appointment ends. His departure comes after two extensions to his appointment - a three-year extension in 2008 when he hit 62, and a further two years in June 2011.
Mr Liew's retirement will cap 17 eventful years at the helm, starting with his appointment as president of Pidemco Land - which in November 2000 merged with DBS Land to form CapitaLand. "Seventeen years is a long time. . . If I bring up a boy, he would be ready for national service," said Mr Liew yesterday at a press briefing to announce his impending departure. The group is now on the hunt for a successor, and has engaged a headhunter to look at both internal and external candidates for the job.
A civil engineer by training, Mr Liew spent 22 years in the civil service before joining the private sector in 1992 - a move that was met with much scepticism. "When I went into the private sector, people said, 'how can you go and run companies? You are a civil servant'," recalled Mr Liew yesterday.
In 1996, he took on the role of president of Pidemco Land and Singapore Technologies Properties, amid doubts over whether he was up to the demands of the job. Questions continued to linger when he was named CEO of CapitaLand - which in its first two years turned in losses. Detractors also scoffed at the group's overseas strategy.
The naysayers are now silent.
Said Mr Liew yesterday: "When we first started in 2000, nobody believed that we could go overseas. All the reporters wrote us off. All the analysts wrote us down. I think they were logical because at that time, nobody could believe that you can do real estate overseas, because real estate is such a local business, in China or Vietnam or Japan.
"So the question was, how can you go down there (in China) and compete with the Chinese? How can you go to Vietnam and know what the Vietnamese like? But we proved to them that it can be done."
Today, the bulk of CapitaLand's revenue and earnings come from foreign shores. In 2011, 64.4 per cent of its turnover of $3.02 billion came from contributions from its overseas ventures. Close to 60 per cent of its $2.09 billion in earnings before interest and taxes were from foreign operations. Net profit last year was $1.06 billion.
Veterans in the property industry say that Mr Liew has done a remarkable job taking CapitaLand to where it is today. Said Tan Tiong Cheng, chairman of Knight Frank: "He wasn't quite a property person when he first started, so people thought that he wasn't a suitable candidate (to head Pidemco and CapitaLand).
"But I think he's done a great job. He brought many innovative ideas to the local property scene."
For instance, Mr Liew "was the first to get the Reit (real estate investment trust) market going", said Mr Tan.
"It wasn't well-received at first, but it was something new, and it was relevant to the market and gave it depth."
CapitaLand first tried to introduce Reits to the local market in 2001 with the public offer for its $740 million SingMall Property Trust (SPT). It later canned the offer, citing a poor market, but reintroduced the Reit listing months later in 2002 under the name CapitaMall Trust (CMT).
On its first day of trading, CMT closed at a 3.1 per cent premium above its IPO price - a sign that listed property trusts had been accepted as a form of alternative investment.
Yesterday, Mr Liew said that the introduction of Reits to the local market was one of the milestones of his career, as it gave property firms a "methodology to do evaluation of properties by yield, and not just by capital values" - which is more speculative, he said. "I think I am very proud of that," he added.
Mr Liew is also credited to have pioneered the highly popular executive condominium (EC) concept in Singapore, with Pidemco Land the first to introduce such developments to the market.
On his plans after stepping down, Mr Liew appeared open to possibilities, saying that he may make his own investments, or help other GLCs and non-GLCs by sharing his experience with them.
"I'm not retiring. I'm just changing career, changing job, changing scenes."
One thing's for sure, though. He would not be doing anything related to real estate, he said.
"I will continue to chair, for example, the Changi Airport Group, which is going through a big phase. I will spend time there. . . I would probably try to help GLCs and non-GLCs . . . to groom talent, to make organisation changes so that they can be international. I mean I take pride that we have gone international and we have nine listed companies that have gone international, so I would have some experience that people may want to tap into, so I will help them. I may make my own investments, my own personal entrepreneurial investments. . . I might even go and do some research."