How a 'milk round' job led to a career in Asian property

WILDGEESE - EMIGRANT BUSINESS LEADERS ON OPPORTUNITIES ABROAD:Colin MacDonald, Chief executive, Fine Grain Property, Singapore

IT’S NOT too often these days that you meet an upbeat Irish property professional, but then the real estate downturn and economic slowdown are not really issues in Singapore. This year it is expected to be the fastest-growing economy in the world.

In more than 20 years since he left Mount Merrion in Dublin for Asia with his B Comm from UCD, Colin MacDonald has never been overawed by prevailing economic conditions in making decisions.

“Back in 1989, the choices available to us in recessionary Ireland were to do an MBA or take up a job with what were then the Big Six accountancy firms or to travel. My option was always to travel. HSBC on the ‘milk round’ was very interesting and I joined in January 1989,” he said.

MacDonald never felt chased out of Ireland. “The paradigm was that one didn’t really question it. You had spent summers abroad in France and Germany and on the J1 in the US, so this was an exciting opportunity. And frankly, this was early January, you’re broke, and an offer letter arrives with a cheque for £500,” he said.

There followed three months of training with HSBC in Hong Kong: “I remember ringing home and everyone being worried about the cost of the call.”

Then came three months in Los Angeles, followed by his first posting in Singapore at a retail branch in the auspiciously named MacDonald House, where he met his Singaporean wife, Gillian.

Taipei followed in August 1991, then a period in the lending department in Bahrain, “a massive learning curve” after the bustle of southeast Asia. During this time, he became chairman of Bahrain Rugby Club, which gave him an early taste of the food and beverage business.

“Then in 1994, it was back to Hong Kong. But in 1996, I decided to leave the bank . . . My main driver was to move down to Singapore and marry my wife,” he said. In Singapore, he got together with former HSBC colleagues to open Father Flanagan’s, an Irish pub, in 1997.

“That went well. There was less competition then and we quickly learned from our early errors as newcomers to the food and beverage industry in Singapore.” Later that year, he was approached by Singapore’s largest private property developer, the Far East Organisation, owned by the Ng family. This led to him working on the conversion of the colonial Post Office into what is now the plush Fullerton Hotel.

“Having seen my HSBC background and what I’d done with Father Flanagan’s, they thought I could do it, and we turned it into a 399-room hotel. This was a remarkably entrepreneurial family, which allowed me remarkable exposure to all their projects.”

After he left Far East when the hotel opened in 2001, his business grew to include Molly Malone’s, a brasserie upstairs and the waterfront BQ Bar. “By 2003, I had five bars and restaurants and three young children, so I began to think about exiting the food and beverage business and getting into the property side,” he said.

In 2007, he set up Fine Grain, a property asset management company, with partners including his brother, Alastair. “When we went fundraising in Ireland, I realised I’d never worked there except in Pizzaland and Parks Hotel as a student. This was my first business experience in Ireland.”

Fine Grain raised €25 million, two-thirds from Irish and one-third from Singapore investors, and bought an 55-apartment building on Beech Road, on the edge of the Central Business District. This they turned into an eight-storey boutique office building. “We invest in properties and we work with others helping them manage their building. I had experience in looking for what the end-user wants, and there was a gap in the market for media and advertising group tenants,” he said. Among their tenants are the BBC and ad agency WPP.

“I noticed when I first started working at Fine Grain that my responses were often more Asian than Irish. The fundamentals are the same – relationships are very important, integrity and the importance of being effective.”

MacDonald believes the Singaporean and wider Asian business culture has been radically influence by the effects of the Asian financial crisis in 1998 and Sars in 2003.

“These events were a sobering wake-up call for people in Asia, and led to people changing how they behaved, and how banks behaved. The lessons learned in property and banking when we experienced similar challenges in South East Asia a decade ago are very relevant to Ireland today,” he said. He believes the crisis in Ireland and the steps being taken, will yield opportunities.

He’s been very involved in the Irish community in Singapore, becoming president of the Irish Business Association in 2001, a role he has carried out since then. Late last year, the it officially became the Irish Chamber of Commerce.

“There is a young demographic coming to Singapore,” he said. “ I can’t think of an example of someone who has come out here and not been successful.”