Specialist valuer John Foord says Asia growth ‘strong overall’ despite US-China trade tensions
John Foord, the specialist valuation and appraisal practice headquartered in Singapore, saw its global team grow in size by 15 percent in 2018, and the firm expects to match this growth in 2019.
Andrew Slevin, chief executive officer at the practice, said that in 2019 the firm will expand its staff in research, professional valuation and data science roles, as well as upskilling its marketing team.
“Growth in Asia overall has been strong despite some clear challenges, for example the US-China trade tensions. Looking forward, we expect there to be some variation in growth across the different Asian countries as they experience separate sets of challenges,” Slevin told SIRC Today.
The CEO said he plans to build on current progress at John Foord by refocusing the business to align with insurers and asset owners’ priorities across the region.
“In particular, we have identified strong demand for a better understanding of how replacement costs could be impacted by changing tariffs, adjustments in supply chains and slowing economic growth in China.”
He said that staff retention and training remain top priorities in Asia, particularly in light of the need to transform traditional business approaches to incorporate new techniques and opportunities. Educating stakeholders on the importance of adequate insurance cover, in a market where underinsurance is a perennial problem, continues to be an issue.
“In 2018 alone we spent 4,720 data science man hours on developing new techniques to offer clients better insights into replacement costs.
“We have been developing a comprehensive analytics platform, accessible to clients, where we can provide data on current costs more quickly and more accurately. We intend to launch this over the next 12 months.
“Longer term, we are building a separate tool that will be able to deliver predictive analysis for clients where, in real time, we can identify factors or movements that could shift replacement costs outside pre-agreed thresholds for large portfolios,” Slevin concluded.
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