Barings appoints Asia Pacific real estate chief

Real estate investment manager Barings has named John Ratcliffe as its head of real estate in the Asia Pacific regions, in a newly created role. Ratcliffe joins Barings from Challenger Real Estate, a division of Australian-listed Challenger, where he spent 12 years as executive director of transactions and capital raising. Previously, he worked in asset management at Australian high-end residential and mixed-use developer Niecon Developments. Ratcliffe will be based in Sydney, and will be responsible for developing the business’s pan-Asian and Australian real estate platform covering both equity and debt. His role will initially focus on sourcing investment opportunities in Australia and Japan, before pursuing expansion in China and other geographies. Ratcliffe will report to Charles Weeks, head of Europe and Asia Pacific real estate equity. Weeks said: “Our real estate activities in Asia have traditionally focused on working with our clients to deploy capital into the US and Europe. By having John join the firm we are now building the capability to invest locally.” To send feedback, e-mail pui-guan.man@egi.co.uk or tweet @PuiGuanM or @estatesgazette