The past few weeks have been busy in terms of hires and business expansion for a group that rebranded two years ago.

Investor services group IQ-EQ has built a real estate team in Asia, coming after client director Neil Synnott relocated to Singapore and following appointing team manager Denish Leang.

The group has been active in Asia for more than 25 years, with offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan. Together, IQ-EQ Singapore and IQ-EQ Hong Kong are home to the group’s Asian real estate servicing hub and act for more than 220 funds with combined assets under administration of more than $44 billion.

IQ-EQ has been busy since it was rebranded from SGG Group in March 2019. Earlier this month, it acquired US investment management services provider Constellation Advisers - a second US deal in 12 months for the global services group following its purchase of Blue River Partners last year.

Synnott joined IQ-EQ Luxembourg in 2017 and moved to Singapore at the end of 2020. With more than 15 years’ international financial services experience and a specialism in real estate funds, he holds responsibility for a complex portfolio of international real estate and private equity clients. 

Leang handles day-to-day servicing of IQ-EQ Singapore’s real estate fund clients. Prior to joining the firm, Leang was a manager within PwC’s Financial Services asset and wealth management division, specialising in private equity and real estate. With a solid auditing background, Leang’s past experience also includes multiple years at EY specialising in real estate and internal audit with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). 

“IQ-EQ has firmly established itself as a leading global service provider in the real estate investment space. As a group, we administer numerous multi-jurisdictional real estate structures across a broad range of transactions, involving multinational corporations, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and pension funds,” Synnott said.

“Given the increasingly high level of real estate investment activity into, within and from Asia – including among many of our own clients – the timing seemed right to consolidate and build a team in the region that is dedicated to this sector. We’ve been welcoming many exciting new real estate service mandates in Asia and have ambitious growth plans for our business, so watch this space,” he said.

Other members of the IQ-EQ Real Estate team in Asia include Gary Chiu, IQ-EQ’s head of delivery for Asia (based in Hong Kong), and Jimmy Leong, chief commercial officer for Asia. The team will continue to expand in the coming months, the firm added.