Travel Diaries – a debrief of our latest trip to Singapore

By Harry Hall, Director of Fundraising and Sam Woodward, Investor Relations and Fundraising Manager

Sam and I work within the Funds team, the asset management unit within LendInvest. Our role is to raise capital for the funds business from investors around the globe. These can include pension schemes, insurers, private wealth managers and fund of funds.

What was the purpose of your trip, why Singapore and how will this help with your role? 

Our Singapore trip was to meet clients and find opportunities. Building relationships from the UK over video is difficult, so it’s a fantastic chance to meet clients face to face in their home city. Over 4 days we had 15 meetings with both existing clients and prospective investors.

What was the biggest difference vs meeting clients in the UK?

The humidity…

On a serious note, we actually found Singaporean clients very familiar with both real estate investing and the UK market itself. The differences are less about geography, and more about understanding each individual client’s circumstances and the challenges they are trying to solve

What was the highlight of the trip? 

Professionally, we had some really positive client meetings and came back with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. There was a nice mix of fund investmentopportunities, as well as blue-sky conversations around strategic partnerships, to help solve specific clients needs.

Personally, we went to the top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel for a cocktail. The view over the city all lit up was incredible. 

Did you get to explore the city whilst you were there? 

Our meetings were located all over the city, so that itself gave us a good tour. We generally finished around 5:30pm each day, so would change and head straight back out to take advantage of the evenings and explore.

What was the nicest thing you ate? 

The nicest thing was probably the local delicacy, chilli crab. Initially we accidentally ordered $700 worth, but luckily managed to amend the order just in time to something much more reasonable. We both have an embarrassingly low spice tolerance, but this was just right.

Do you have any other trips planned?

Travel is quite a large part of the role, and something we plan to do as often as possible. Our next trip is to Hong Kong and South Korea, likely stopping in Singapore again on the way home. We will also have regular trips to Switzerland, and are looking into a Middle East roadshow.

Fancy joining our funds team? We are recruiting for an Associate Director  and a Fund Sales Junior Associate.