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Head of Projects
Head Of Marketing
Head of Human Resources
Senior Project Manager
Project Manager
Personal Assistant to the Executive Committee
Manager, Corporate Secretariat & Compliance
Finance Manager
Senior Finance Executive
AREA GROUP is a privately owned group with a diverse portfolio of businesses focusing on delivering industrial and educational investment oppurtunities.
Unit 2-1, Level 2, Tower 8,UOA Business Park, No.1 Pengaturcara, U1/51A Seksyen U1, 40150 Shah Alam, Selangor. Malaysia.
Tel: +603 5590 9883
Dato’ Stewart LaBrooy is the Executive Chairman of AREA Management Sdn. Bhd. a subsidiary of AREA Advisors Pte Ltd (AREA) an appointment he has taken since his retirement as CEO and Executive Director of Axis REIT Managers Bhd (ARMB) on 31 December 2015. With a career spanning over 40 years in the industrial space, he has spent well over a decade since 2005 in heading Axis REIT and establishing REITs as an important component of the capital markets.
He was appointed Executive Director of Axis REIT on 22 March 2005 and Chief Executive Office (“CEO”) of Axis REIT since August 2008. Axis REIT was the first REIT to be listed in Malaysia and the first Shariah-compliant industrial REIT in the world. Under his leadership, Axis REIT has won several awards, among them, the APREA Best Practices Award in 2010, 2011 and 2013. Axis REIT has provided its investors with total average annual returns in excess of 25% over the 10 years he helmed the business. Axis REIT still trades today at a 30% premium to its NAV.
Since its inception, AREA was established as a boutique advisory firm providing advice on investing in industrial properties in Malaysia, UK, Australia and Germany. Our investor base ranged from pension funds and family offices to institutional investors and to date we have provided advice and concluded investments exceeding USD$2.5 billion.
AREA has decided to expand its advisory role to include funds management. It set up the AREA Industrial Development Fund 1 (AIDF 1) a company that will undertake the investment management activities and AREA Management Sdn Bhd (AMSB) which was set up to undertake the management of the projects of the fund in Malaysia. AREA Advisors Pte Ltd was re-designated as the Funds Management Company.
AREA, through the establishment of its Funds, intends to roll-out 2-3 industrial parks of 150-400 acres each. It intends to co-invest in the development of these parks by working with strategic partners & landowners. These industrial parks will provide the Malaysian Industrial Real Estate Market a paradigm shift in quality and services to its clients. In November 2015 AIDF 1 launched its first maiden project – a 1,200,000 sq. ft. e-commerce hub in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.
In 2017 Dato’ LaBrooy and the AREA team established and launched the world’s first unlisted Shariah compliant Education Asset based REIT (Alpha REIT) which has a planned listing in 2021. He currently serves as its Non Independent Non Executive Chairman of the Board.
Dato LaBrooy has been writing on a regular basis on Property and REITs for the local mainstream print and online media for the past five years or so, and is known and recognised as the “REIT Guru” in the country. He is also a prominent speaker on the subject of Industrial Estate Development and Conventional and Islamic REITs in the region, having been invited to deliver papers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Istanbul, New York, London, Saudi Arabia, Philippines and Malaysia.
He is a Board member of the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA), an organization that represents and promotes the real estate asset class in the Asia Pacific region. It is the industry body for the suppliers and users of capital in the real estate sector. He served as the founding Chairman of the Malaysian REIT Managers Association (MRMA), from 2010-2015, an organization he helped set up in 2010 to give Malaysian REIT Managers a single voice for the purpose of engagement with the Regulators and Ministry of Finance.
Dato’ Stewart LaBrooy is also a director of a number of public and private companies involved in property development, services and property investment.
He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) degree and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Studies from the University of Sheffield and is a member of the Institute of Engineers, Malaysia.
Rajesh graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of New South Wales, majoring in Accounting and Finance. He started his career in Arthur Andersen and has since accumulated over 20 years of work experience in real estate finance, research, corporate advisory and investment banking across the Asia Pacific region, the Middle East, Europe and Australia.
He was a key advisor to one of the largest mining companies in the world, making a multi-billion dollar land acquisition and investment in Malaysia. He has also been actively involved in the Malaysian property sector, having worked in the property consultancy firm of Hall Chadwick Asia. Before becoming the CEO of AREA, he was the Head of Special Projects at Axis Real Estate Investment Trust.
He is also a Director and the shareholder of Area Edureit Sdn Bhd which is the holding company of the ALPHA Reits.
Remakantan (Rema) graduated with an Honours Degree in Business Administration from the University of Hertfordshire, UK. He is also a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) registered with FPAM.
Rema has 23 years’ experience as an entrepreneur and investment advisory. He has raised over RM100 Million in equity and debt for technology-related companies that he co-founded and clients he advised.
As an entrepreneur, he set-up technology companies covering niche segments such as fabless semiconductor design, low-temperature co-fired ceramics technology and thick film technology. As a consultant, Rema has worked with international agencies such as APCO and Vriens & Partners (Singapore), and independently provided advisory on fund raising, strategic planning and execution, governmental engagement and securing government incentives.
As a way of giving back, Rema founded a social enterprise focused on energy poverty eradication, where he worked closely with regional and local NGOs such as MERCY Malaysia to provide low-cost energy solutions for the marginalised.
Prior to joining the AREA Group, he advised on the successful set up of a Private Equity Manager.
Low is the Chief Financial Officer at Area Management Sdn Bhd and has held the position since 2017.
A graduate from the University of Malaya, with a first-class honours degree in accounting, Low is also a Chartered Accountant in Malaysia, ASEAN Chartered Professional Accountant and a Certified Public Accountant in Malaysia.
Low has more than 15 years’ experience in auditing, corporate finance, financial and management accounting across a variety of industries including property development, property investment, construction, investment holding, manufacturing and trading.
Previously, at Ann Joo Resources Berhad, Low was responsible for the Group financials and corporate exercises and leading the trading division financials. Prior to that, Low was with Ernst & Young, where his responsibilities include audit/assurance and advisory services.
Yii is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Area Management Sdn Bhd since Nov 2021.
She comes with 18 years of experience in the field of construction, specializing in the delivery of large turnkey industrial projects and buildings. Her industrial project portfolio includes multinational and local clients such as Coca-Cola, Jotun, Scientex, and Lam Soon to name a few.
Before joining Area Management, she served for 14 years as the Managing Director of Sungai Besi Construction & Engineering Sdn Bhd, a leading industrial construction firm in Selangor.
Prior to her managerial role at Sungai Besi Construction & Engineering Sdn Bhd, she served for 4 years as the National Sales Manager for BlueScope Lysaght Sdn Bhd for their pre-engineered building division, covering Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, and Singapore
She is a qualified Civil Engineer and a fellow member of The Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM).