Interviews: Mr. Pierre Vaquier, Chief Executive Officer, AXA Real Estate & Mr. Frank Khoo, Global Head of Asia

The AXA Group has been managing real estate portfolios for over 30 years. The different real estate units were consolidated with the strategic decision in 1999 to create AXA Real Estate Investment Managers. This was done so to complete the consolidation of AXA’s real estate management capabilities throughout Europe. At the same time, it was considered that there was a significant opportunity to leverage this infrastructure, in order to become a leading panEuropean real estate investment manager offering services to both external institutional investors as well as existing AXA clients. Since 2006, AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has expanded its presence in Asia with offices in Tokyo and Singapore. In 2010, AXA Real Estate Investment Managers became AXA Real Estate and expanded its global...

Read more »

Interview: Mr. Lee Hyun-dong, Commissioner, National Tax Service

Last year, Korea marked its highest level in foreign direct investments since the financial crisis, which is close to $12.8 billion, despite of instability in the financial market and the geopolitical security crisis. Korea also achieved the growth rate of 6.1% last year thanks to foreign investment, even amid a global trend of a decline in foreign direct investments. Though the number of foreign and foreign invested companies in the Korean market takes up only 2%, their contributions to Korean tax revenue is significant, reaching up to 18% of the national revenue. At the pan-governmental level, Korea is making every effort to attract foreign investment. Starting this year, the National Tax Service started issuing statements in English to help non-Korean speakers. Taxpayers are also now able...

Read more »

Interview: Joyce Lo, Associate Director – Head of Corporate & Investor Strategy, Sniper Capital

Sniper Capital was established in 2004 to capitalize on the many property development and investment opportunities offered by Macau’s burgeoning economy. Since then its business has grown considerably. Today the company employs 25 dedicated professionals working on a portfolio that has expanded beyond Macau's city limits to include the Western Pearl River Region of Southern China. Sniper Capital utlises a broad array of in-house capabilities to efficiently execute every aspect of the investment and development cycle. Its dedicated focus on research and acquisitions, project development, asset management, fund administration, capital raising and investor communications allows the company to act both independently and swiftly to maximise returns on each project.Joyce Lo, Associate Director...

Read more »

Interview: Mr. Lee Soo-won, Commissioner, Korea Intellectual Property Office

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) has a wide range of responsibility areas, ranging from patent and trademark examinations, to administering the IP Tribunal (the first stage of invalidation actions in Korea), and launching a Special Judicial Police force last year specializing in trademark infringement enforcement actions. Mr. Lee Soo-won has served as Commissioner of KIPO since his appointment in May 2010. Prior to his current position, he worked in the Office of the President as Secretary to the President for Economic Crisis Management. As Commissioner of KIPO, Mr. Lee is in charge of intellectual property (IP) policies. His top priorities are to enhance the quality of patent examinations; to maximize R&D efficiency through patent strategy and open innovation; and to facilitate...

Read more »