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The Interview: Eddie Haddad, Reuters Asia
Issue 36 - Nov 07

With the prominence of the financial service industry,
Reuters financial informational capabilities are driving the
organisations real estate development across the region. Eddie
Haddad, ASEAN Managing Director, Reuters, tells Ashford
Pritchard how that change is taking place.

When Paul Julius Reuter hit upon the idea of using carrier pigeons to ferry up-to-date stock prices between London and the continental bourses in the mid 19th century, it is hard to imagine the role the company he founded would play in enabling global business. Today, while Reuters is renowned among the general public for its scoop revealing newswire, its commercial performance is still strongly connected to the divestment of both news and market data to financial
services and corporate clients.

For Haddad, the real estate Reuters occupies has an important part to play in bridging this positioning gap. This fact, he acknowledges, may have been overlooked when the organisation first began to seriously grow its Asian business. “15 years ago, we created these hubs in the four main centres and had satellite sales offices, something that really didn’t suit us from a branding point of view.” While Reuters had the largest Asian operation by far in their commercial space he argues, the main shortfall in the strategy was that to a certain extent: “the market didn’t perceive that because they couldn’t see us.”

building profile
Reuters is known to occupy landmark buildings in New York’s Time Square and London’s Canary Wharf, but until recently their Asian operations did not have the same sort of high profile location. With the opening of a new office in Singapore’s Central Business District (profiled in our projects section p45) heralding a new strategy for Reuters in Asian financial districts, Haddad is keen to note that regional real estate strategy is at the centre of this transformation.

“In Tokyo we’re moving into a building modelled on what we’ve done in Singapore. In Hong Kong, we’ve renewed in Gloucester Tower (in Taikoo Shing), and will be renovating to a similar quality. In Beijing, we’ve just moved into Finance Street, where all of our customers are.” The upshot of all this activity, says Haddad is that, in terms of real estate at least: “by early of next year, we will have addressed this whole issue of Reuters prominence in major Asian financial markets”.




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branding: inside and out
Branding and real estate go, in Reuters case, hand in hand. This is seen
on the facades of their offices across the world, where large external LCD screens play the diverse range of content that is the company’s core competency, elivering everything from images of Tiger Woods to regional stock market prices. In Singapore, this concept has been brought within the building; Reuters have partnered with the landlord to offer content and screens in the lobbies and lift cars.

An upgrade of CBD sales offices is also being used to re-position Reuters, explains Haddad. The addition of innovative training and demonstration spaces, and a fresh corporate fit-out, were completed with the goal of: “showcasing our brand and our capabilities to our clients,” he says. In the case of the Singapore office, he was very hands-on up front with the relocation, involved not only in setting the objectives and working closely with Reuter’s facilities team, but even
scouting location scouting and lease negotiation. The result is a space
which “has my fingerprints all over it.”

timing
With exuberant commercial real estate markets across major Asian markets, Reuters timing has been impeccable. Haddad readily admits that “had we been trying to do some of the things we’ve just completed now, it might have been very difficult. But our timing has been very good both here in Singapore and in Japan and, to a lesser extent, Hong Kong.”

In May, Canada's Thomson Corp agreed to buy Reuters Group Plc for US$17.2 bil, creating the world's biggest financial news and data company. Luckily, the geographical fit of their organisations, coupled with the different scale of their Asian operations means that: “the combination should be OK in terms of facilities,” says Haddad. It would seem that, having dealt with their real estate issues in Asia, Haddad and Reuters can concentrate on working together with their new partners. RFP
   
ISSN 1994-9464
Key title: RFP magazine
Abbreviated key title: RFP mag.
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