http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/arch...-management-jv

Published June 28, 2012

Credo forms property fund management JV

It teams up with Republic Investment Management, plans to boost investment sales business

By Kalpana Rashiwala


[SINGAPORE] Home-grown property agency Credo Real Estate, which is best known for en bloc sales, recently ventured into property fund management.

"We have entered into a joint venture with Republic Investment Management, a local fund management company that does not operate in the property space. They will do what it takes to raise capital while we will put the capital to good use," Credo managing director Karamjit Singh told BT recently.

About 18 months ago, Credo entered a niche area of helping estates of deceased, trustees, families and family-owned companies sell their real estate.

It also hopes to build up its existing business of investment sales of commercial and industrial buildings and land. Plans are also underway to boost residential project marketing. "Our approach is to steer our relationship with residential developer clients away from the traditional 'supplier of marketing manpower' role in favour of being a strategic partner who helps them identify new trends and make sense of changing market behavioural patterns," says Mr Singh.

Other existing businesses include valuation, and research and consultancy.

The firm began life on April 15, 2002, as a two-man outfit operating out of a small office in the Asia Insurance Building, which has since been transformed into Ascott Singapore Raffles Place. After two moves to Equity Plaza and 80 Robinson Road, Credo is now based at DBS Building Tower 2 where it has a staff strength of about 50, of whom one-fifth are involved in collective sales. In addition, some 170 associate agents under Credo Property Services operate out of KeyPoint at Beach Road. Associates are remunerated on a commission basis only.

Mr Singh says mergers and acquisitions are always on the cards. "However, we need to be very circumspect in this respect. Merging needs to result in much more than the sum of the parts. We would also need to be clear and comfortable with the potential partner's culture and guiding principles, which should match ours."

The alternative route towards expansion is organic growth, driven by finding the right people, he adds. "We don't want to grow for the sake of growing. We prefer to expand our suite of services as and when we find good people." Core values that Credo looks for in its employees are integrity, professionalism, energy and humility. "Integrity is just so important that we would, for example, rather not have a superstar in our midst where we are not totally comfortable with his or her integrity," says Mr Singh, adding that humility is vital to prevent complacency from setting in.

Credo was set up by Mr Singh and Mr Melvin Poh, who later left the firm to set up his own property development outfit Fission Group.

The two men met when they were working in the investment sales department of Jones Lang LaSalle and decided to strike out on their own when they were both 30. "It's just as well that we did it at that point of time when we knew we had the energy," says Mr Singh, who is now 40.

Besides Mr Singh, Credo's seven shareholders include deputy managing director Tan Hong Boon and executive director Yong Choon Fah.

Mr Singh also pays a tribute to his parents for inspiring him to be an entrepreneur. His father, a textile engineer by training, worked for others for some years before starting his own textile trading business in the High Street area in the 1970s.

His mother is also an inspiration. "She has very good business sense ... she is a big picture person and she's got that sixth sense and helps me shape broad directions, even now.

"Among the values that she holds very dear is a consultative approach. She is not the iron-fist type of person. She stresses open communication to pre-empt interpersonal problems and emphasises humility, tolerance and mutual respect. She is a strong anchor in my life."

The most critical period for Credo was the global financial crisis, which struck in 2008. Instead of dwelling on negative measures to deal with the crisis, the group focused on making positive changes.

"We chose not to cut salaries or retrench anybody, though we did trim our shareholders' allowances. The strength of the company is the people that we have and confidence that the people have in us, and their morale. We're here for the long run and we don't want to move merely with the tide," says Mr Singh. The team started looking for new business, new ideas to sail through the crisis.

"We identified quite a number of developers who had bought en bloc sale projects, who all wanted to stall the redevelopment process. They didn't want to force their way to the market by selling when the demand wasn't there. What they chose to do was to rent out the buildings.

"So we formed a crack team to identify users who were prepared to take on master leases in these sold en bloc projects. It worked well for these developers who wanted some source of income to tide over may be a two or three-year period. And then we had a role to play."

The period also coincided with a time when Singapore's population was on the rise and there wasn't much new stock coming onto the market.

Mr Singh readily credits Credo's success to its people. "We've been very fortunate, by the grace of God, to have very good people. They are a joy to work with."

He cites as an example Credo's young valuers in their 20s who work into the early hours to clear a backlog of cases. "They have put in so much commitment, dedication towards work and meeting deadlines. And they do so with the best of work attitudes.

"It's a joy and inspiration to be working with such colleagues with that kind of work attitude. That's just to give you an example. And we have, I would dare say, a team that looks well beyond immediate turfs or territory, looking out for one another. That's very important."

Summing up, Mr Singh lists Credo's biggest accomplishment thus: "It's building up the team of professionals that we have and working with them to develop a culture of camaraderie, mutual trust, respect and unity. I think that is probably our biggest strength, biggest asset and achievement."