2023’s headlines are changing weekly; how are you making sense of interest rates, structural shifts in core portfolios, recapitalisations and valuations in your current real estate capital strategies across Europe?
Spend time with CIOs, CEO’s and Chairperson’s with Capital at risk across European real estate asset classes in a private and collegial setting. Available only to our Retreat GRI Club Members, and by invitation only to Real Estate CEOs of substantial property owners, this Retreat Member meeting will address pressing issues currently keeping leaders awake at night.
Discussion will touch on
Inflation - When will the fog clear?
Geopolitical Risks & Market Volatility - Are they effectively being priced into our investment strategies?
War Chests - When will they open and where will the capital flow first?
Debt or Equity - What’s more expensive, what’s more risky?
Refinancing & Distress Deals - Where are prices likely to land
Executive Director - Senior Economist, Global Geopolitical Strategist, Global Research
Standard Chartered Bank
Philippe Dauba-Pantanacce
Executive Director - Senior Economist, Global Geopolitical Strategist, Global ResearchStandard Chartered Bank
France
Philippe is responsible for Global Geopolitical Economic analysis, based in Paris. He joined the Bank in 2007 and was previously an economist covering the Middle East and Turkey. Philippe is in close contact with policy makers and multilateral institutions, and comments regularly in global media. Before joining the Bank, he worked for HSBC Asset Management, for the French embassy in Washington, and in the US Congress. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics and a Master’s in business from the University of Paris (Dauphine), and Master’s degrees in international relations from Sciences-Po (Paris) and Columbia University. Philippe was recognised by Coalition Greenwich as one of the Most Helpful Analysts in Emerging Markets in 2021.
Philippe is responsible for global geopolitical economic analysis, assessing global risks and their economic implications. After eight years covering the Middle East, he is leveraging his expertise in regional geopolitics to inform his global coverage. Philippe is in regular contact with policy makers and multilateral institutions. He participates in think-tank projects and regularly comments in global media. Before joining the Bank in 2007, Philippe worked for HSBC, for the French embassy in Washington and in the US Congress.
Economics or geopolitical risks: what are the biggest threats to Europe’s outlook?
Ukraine war, tensions with China, the US election cycle coming back already: the themes investors talk about most
Looking ahead, what should we be paying attention to in 2024?
Laurent Diot is CEO of HARVESTATE Asset Management. He was previously the CFO of NEXITY, leading French developer, from 2008 to early 2014. He has served as Vice President of NEXITY in charge of international operations and CEO of NEXITY International (2002-2007) and as Vice President, Business Development of NEXITY (2000-2002) in charge of mergers and acquisitions. Before joining the CGIS (Compagnie Générale d'Immobilier et de Services) in the Vivendi group as Director of Audit and Strategy (1996-2000), he served as project manager at the Compagnie des Eaux et de l'Ozone (Générale des Eaux Group). He holds a degree from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (H.E.C.).
Before founding TRUSTONE REIM, Jean-Philippe was Deputy Director within the Investment team at BNP PARIBAS REAL ESTATE and led the team dedicated to Families and Institutional Investors which he had launched 10 years before.
He worked on all types operations: development, yield investment, property trading transactions and supervised more than 500 commercial Real Estate transactions. Jean-Philippe started his career structuring Real Estate investment funds. He then moved to BNP PARIBAS where he held various positions in the Real Estate market. Jean-Philippe graduated from IEP Paris and ASSAS University, Paris.
Distinguished entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in real estate, Christo is the Founder and Chairman of AG Capital, a prominent residential and commercial property investor, and asset manager in Central and Eastern Europe. Under Christo's leadership, AG Capital has earned a reputation as a trusted and innovative multi-asset class real estate investment and management group of companies with AUM of EUR 500M.
In addition to his role at AG Capital, Christo actively contributes to the professional community as a member of reputable organizations, including the YPO and the Harvard Business School Alumni network.
Mr. Bashir joined the firm in 2020 and is Chief Executive Officer of Europe. In this role Mr. Bashir leads the expansion of Harrison Street’s European strategies and he is also responsible for overseeing and growing the firm’s team of professionals across the U.K. and Europe. Mr. Bashir brings over 20 years of experience in private equity real estate, operations and corporate finance to Harrison Street. Prior to joining Harrison Street, Mr. Bashir was most recently President and Chief Operating Officer at Round Hill Capital, a real estate investment and asset management firm with a global footprint. While at Round Hill Capital, he managed a business with an $8+ billion portfolio as well as a team of 260 people across 15 offices.
MANAGING DIRECTOR & HEAD OF REALTY EUROPEH.I.G Capital
United Kingdom
Riccardo is Managing Director and Head of the H.I.G. Realty in Europe. He is located in H.I.G.'s London office and is responsible for investment origination, transaction structuring and oversight of the European portfolio.
Audrey Klein has held Head of Fundraising roles at several firms but is best known for starting the European business out of London for the Park Hill Real Estate Group, a Division of Blackstone, which she ran for 9 yrs. Prior to joining Park Hill, she ran her own business for 5 yrs marketing alternative asset funds across all asset classes to European investors comprised of pension funds, banks, family offices. She is a graduate of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of business where she received an MBA, and is also a graduate of Emory University with a degree in Economics. She is a Partner at Spencer House Partners (www.spencerhousepartners.com).
Managing Director, Co-Head BGO Strategic Capital PartnersBentallGreenOak
USA
Cherine Aboulzelof is Managing Director, Global Co-Head for BentallGreenOak's Strategic Capital Partners ("BGO SCP") and sits on its global investment committee. BGO SCP provides strategic capital by way of asset and portfolio recapitalisations, structured transactions, co investments and fund investments to GPs. Prior to joining BGO SCP platform in 2017, she has been responsible for Europe investments with two different real estate investment managers, investing across a number of real estate sectors in Europe between 2005 and 2017. She started her career in investment banking with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. She holds an M.B.A from INSEAD and a graduate degree from EM Lyon. She is a French, British and Lebanese citizen.
Coley Brenan, Partner & Head of Europe, KSL Capital Partners. KSL is a leading private equity firm with $7.0 billion of equity capital commitments raised since 2005 and a 20-year track record of making investments exclusively in travel and leisure businesses. Through its investment vehicles, KSL has owned and operated some of the largest and most renowned hotel and resort properties in the United States and Europe, comprising 15,500 hotel rooms, 500 restaurants, 350 retail stores 250 golf courses and 630,000 members.
Managing Director, Head of EuropeQuadReal Property Group
United Kingdom
Jay Kwan joined QuadReal as Managing Director, Head of Europe in February 2018. His focus is on building the international portfolio, with an emphasis on investing in Global Cities in the U.K. and Europe. Jay was formerly an MD at TPG Real Estate, the real estate investment group of private equity firm TPG, specifically focused on European investments. Prior to joining TPG in 2016, Jay was a Partner at Grove International Partners (formerly Soros Real Estate Partners), where he spent 13 years investing in three continents across all asset classes at both the corporate and asset level. Jay began his career at Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners in New York in 2001. Jay graduated with a BA in Economics and Political Science from Columbia NY
KRF Capital is an independent investment firm focused on Real Estate, Infra, Renewables and Technology. We focus on scalable opportunities across public/private companies across he US, Europe, UK, and LatAm. We source, underwrite and manage risk adjusted investments and we regularly co-invest.
Our experience includes complex, challenging and innovative equity and credit mandates which we successfully execute. Our team has transacted from the perspective of the lender, borrower, seller and buyer given we have worked on the Buy-Side, Sell-Side and Advisory. We leverage our expertise to structure and negotiate optimal investments.
Mr. Colwell is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at LCN Capital Partners, a real estate private equity firm based in New York, London, and Luxembourg, with over $8 billion in AUM, where he jointly oversees all the aspects of the firm's investment activities and operations globally. Previously, Mr. Colwell was a senior corporate finance/M&A executive at Goldman Sachs for 18 years. Mr. Colwell received his M.B.A from Columbia Business and his B.A. in History and Science from Harvard College where he graduated with Honors.
Mr. Dejanovic is Head of European Real Estate overseeing Cerberus’ European investments in commercial and residential properties, real estate-related portfolios, and real estate operating companies. Since joining the Firm in 2006, Mr. Dejanovic has assisted in establishing Cerberus as a leading real estate investor in Europe and one of the largest private residential landlords in Germany. Additionally, Mr. Dejanovic leads the Firm’s non-performing loan (NPL) platform in Europe, which has been the leading purchaser of European NPLs since 2013.
Gábor Futó is a mathematician turned investor and real estate entrepreneur. He co-founded Futureal real estate group two decades ago. Under his leadership, the group has become one of the leading real estate developer/investors in Europe with 200+ projects on over 40 million sqf of new developments. Gabor Futo is also the founder and majority owner of Cordia group, a residential developer and investor active in 6 countries, the Helloparks logistcs platform and Finext Capital, his family office.
A previous gold medalist of the International Mathematical Olympiad, Gábor received his MSc in Mathematics from Eötvös Loránd University, his MBA from London Business School and has been visiting fellow at Harvard University.
Richard Croft is the Chief Executive of Martley Capital Group, a full-service real estate investment management platform whose activities cover real estate investing, asset management, credit markets and fund management. In addition to his duties at Martley, Richard is Senior Adviser to M7 Real Estate. Prior to Martley, Richard founded M7 Real Estate in 2009 which was sold to Oxford Property Group, a leading global real estate investor, asset manager and business builder in 2021.
Richard is Chairman of the CSF Group, a Non-Executive Director Maya Capital Pinnacle Group and trustee of The Chicken Shed Theatre Trust.
Richard has been involved in over €15 billion of real estate transactions during his 30+ years of experience.
Richard Georgi began his career at Goldman Sachs in 1987 where he eventually headed up the Whitehall Funds in Europe. In 1999, Mr Georgi partnered with George Soros to raise a global real estate fund which then became Alpine Grove Partners. Since 1999, the Firm has raised funds and separate accounts totaling over $6.5 billion of equity commitments, and has invested into 29 platforms which controlled over $23 billion of real estate around the world. Mr Georgi is a graduate of Harvard Business School with distinction and Williams College cum laude where he was NCAA Division 1 ski racer. Mr Georgi actively supports Habitat for Humanity and Human Rights Watch among other non-profit organizations.
Clark Coffee is the Chief Investment Officer and Head of European Commercial Real Estate Debt at AllianceBernstein (AB). His previous business, Lacarne Capital, was acquired by AB in 2020 to establish the firm’s real estate debt business in Europe. Previously, Coffee was head of Tyndaris Real Estate, where he was responsible for building the business into a top-10 real estate debt fund in Europe. Prior to that, he co-headed origination for Deutsche Bank’s European commercial real estate credit business and oversaw the risk management and restructuring of more than €2 billion of troubled loans during the global financial crisis.
Dirk Brandes is Member of the Executive Board and Head of Real Estate Finance at NATIXIS Pfandbriefbank AG based in Frankfurt am Main. The Bank combines the special abilities of a Pfandbrief bank with the commercial business resources of Natixis S.A., the corporate and investment bank of Groupe BPCE. The main markets are Germany, France, Italy, Spain and United States. Prior to joining NATIXIS in 2016, Dirk Brandes was Head of Business Origination at HSH Nordbank AG, Hamburg. Previously, he was Head of Commercial Real Estate at DG HYP, Hamburg.
Nikoletta heads investments, across asset classes, for Latsco Family Office, based in Geneva, Switzerland.
LFO is a single family office, which serves the family of Marianna Latsis (Greek shipping family) with offices in Switzerland, UK and Greece.
LFO principals hold interests in Real Estate, Shipping, Energy, Infrastructure, Technology and Entertainment.
LFO invests both in direct property assets, as well as real estate funds and property companies. It is a reference shareholder of GEK TERNA and DIMAND, both listed on the Athens stock exchange.
Nikoletta holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and a MSc in Operations Research from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She has lived and worked internationally.
Robert Balick is a Managing Partner with BauMont Real Estate Capital and is the Chairman of the firm’s Investment Committee. He is responsible for management, strategy and the capital formation at BauMont. His roles also include the sourcing of investments and challenging investment assumptions from the early stages of underwriting.
Prior to co-founding BauMont, Mr. Balick was a senior managing director for CarVal Investors based in London where he led the firm’s real estate investment activities in Europe.
Rob Rackind has 30 years of experience in real estate, as partner and founder of multi-sector and multi-jurisdictional real estate platforms. Rob joined Credit Suisse Asset Management (Switzerland) Ltd. in June 2022 as Managing Director and Global Head of Real Estate based in Zurich, covering both direct and indirect real estate investment solutions. Global Real Estate of Credit Suisse is the largest direct real estate investment manager in Switzerland, and among the top 15 largest worldwide, with assets under management of approx. CHF 40bn. Prior to CSAM, from 2015-2022, Robert was the founding partner of the real estate platform for EQT AB. There he grew the platform from EUR 0 Euros to EUR 15bn over a 7-year period.
Managing Partner/ Director of Strategy and Corporate DevelopmentGrupo Azora
Spain
Cristina García-Peri is Senior Partner and Head of Strategy and Corporate Development for the Azora Group. Prior to joining Azora in 2011, she worked for 16 years in the investment- banking sector at both Merrill Lynch (2 years) and JP Morgan (14 years), where she held various positions across M&A and Equity Capital Markets, and for 10 year, she was Managing Director responsible for Corporate Equity Derivatives for EMEA as well as Equity Capital Markets for Spain and Portugal. Cristina holds a bachelor degree in Economics from ICADE (Spain) and an MBA from Harvard Business School (USA). Cristina is Board Member at Bankinter, a Spanish IBEX 35 banking institution, where she Chairs the Nominations and Sustainability Committee.
Sindo Oliveros is the CEO and CIO of Kaust Investment Management, the investment management arm of the financial endowment for King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Previously, he managed the pension plan and endowments at the World Bank and was a member of the senior treasury team that managed more than $100 billion for the bank and for external clients. He advised central banks, pension plans and sovereign wealth funds on multi-asset management. He also headed the World Bank's capital markets and financial engineering department. He has held several positions at the International Monetary Fund working on adjustment programs in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and was assistant professor at the University of Minnesota.
Global Head of Real Estate and CO-CEOPictet Alternative Advisors
Switzerland
Zsolt Kohalmi is Global Head of Real Estate and Deputy CEO of Pictet Alternative Advisors. Zsolt brings over two decades of pan-European investment experience and has invested in excess of $20 billion into all real estate asset classes in more than 20 European countries throughout several investment cycles. Zsolt is also an active member of the World Economic Forum, part of the NZCC Expert Group members (Net Zero Carbon Cities program).
Eric has over 22 years of experience in the real estate sector, principally as a developer and investor. He is a US national and spent the majority of the last 15 years in Europe, initially investing in Belgium, Germany, and the Slovak Republic. Eric has completed over €1 billion of real estate transactions throughout US and Europe. In 2002, he launched and built Bifrost Investment Group (predecessor to Revetas Capital) into a leading CEE investment and asset manager. Since 2009, he has actively developed a platform to restructure and recapitalise distressed real estate in CEE, leading to the formation of Revetas Capital. Since then, Eric successfully restructured and recapitalised over €600 million worth of real estate assets in the region
Executive Vice President, EuropeOxford Properties Group
United Kingdom
Joanne McNamara is Executive Vice President, Europe of Oxford Properties, a leading global real estate investor, developer, and manager. In this role, Jo is responsible for all aspects of Oxford’s business across Europe.
Jo is a member of Oxford’s Executive Committee and Investment Committee. Jo was one of Oxford’s first team members in London, joining the European investment team in 2010, and over the past decade has contributed to and led many of the organization’s most significant investment and development transactions. Jo was most recently responsible for the operating performance of Oxford’s European business and leadership of the 40+ person European team.
Ramón Camiña is a founding partner at Cale Street Partners, a real estate investment and finance firm focused on the United Kingdom, Western Europe and North America. Since its inception in 2014 Cale Street has raised €7.6bn from a single sovereign wealth investor and has provided innovative structured debt and/or equity capital solutions to investors, operators and developers in ten countries across nearly every major real estate asset classes and in multiple currencies. Before joining Cale Street, Ramón spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs in London where he was the head of the real estate finance activity in EMEA.
Partner & Head of Real Estate, EuropeApollo Global Management
United Kingdom
Mr. Orf joined Apollo in November 2010 and is a Partner & Vice-Chairman of Apollo’s Principal Finance and Real Estate businesses segment focusing on transaction development for both real estate equity and debt, operating partner outreach, significant limited partner matters and general ambassadorial work across the platform. He serves on the Investment Committees of the Apollo North American Real Estate and the European Principal Finance funds. Previously Mr. Orf was responsible for Citigroup’s global real estate investment activities. He has spent the majority of his career investing in the European real estate markets since he arrived in the UK in 1991 whilst working for Goldman Sachs.
Founder, co-Managing Partner & CIO, DFIDeutsche Finance International
United Kingdom
Gavin Neilan is the Founder, Co-Managing Partner and CIO of Deutsche Finance International (DFI) a pan-European real estate private equity platform with over €4 billion AUM and offices in London, Munich, Madrid and Luxembourg. The firm focuses on thematic value add and opportunistic strategies investing through discretionary pan-European funds, co-investment vehicles and separate managed accounts. Gavin has 20+ years’ of industry experience, having been involved in more than €10 billion of transactions across Europe, America and Emerging Markets. He is a qualified lawyer, holds an MBA from INSEAD and studied law at UCL. DFI is part of Deutsche Finance Group, a privately owned global real estate investment company with over €11 billion AUM.
Nitin has over 25 years of rounded investment experience spanning private equity, private debt, capital markets and M&A. From 2013-2022, Nitin was Head of Direct Investments at L1 Treasury, responsible for all private equity, private debt and special situations investments within L1 Treasury. From 2013 -2019, Nitin was also a Partner in Pamploma Capital Management responsible for private debt and special situations in the credit opportunities fund. Prior to that, Nitin led the European Real Estate and Principal Finance businesses of Nomura and Bear Stearns. Nitin started his career at SG Warburg & Co (now part of UBS) in M&A.
Saul Goldstein is the founder and CIO of ActivumSG, a European focused real estate private equity fund manager with €2bn of equity under management. Prior to establishing ActivumSG, Saul headed the European real estate investment team advising Cerberus Capital Management companies on German and European investment opportunities. In a nine-and-a-half year career at Cerberus, Saul helped to open and run investment advisory offices for the Cerberus management companies in four countries. He advised on investments in real estate, real estate debt, NPLs and operating businesses in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Matteo has over 25 years’ experience in the real estate investments and finance sector, of which almost 10 with GWM. Prior to joining GWM Matteo was managing director of BNP Paribas, CIB division, heading the RE division for Europe ex-France and before that he held a similar role within the global RE group of Lehman Brothers. Matteo executed over €20 bn of RE transactions in Europe, including investments in offices, healthcare, retail, and residential asset classes and private and public debt and equity fund raisings. Matteo has executed over €15 bn of RE transaction in Italy, with counterparties including institutional investors, property companies, public entities, and professional investors.
Prior to forming Crosstree, Nick was with The Blackstone Group, most recently as Managing Director and Head of the UK Real Estate team based in London. Nick has led deals in most real estate sectors including office, retail, industrial, residential, student and healthcare, covering both public market and private transactions. Before joining Blackstone at the beginning of 2006, Nick worked at Broadreach Capital Partners in Silicon Valley and practiced as a corporate and structured finance lawyer in both London and Hong Kong. Nick received a BA in Modern History from Oxford University and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He completed his law degree at Exeter University.
Partner - Global Co Head - Real EstateQuilvest Capital Partners
United Kingdom
Michael has over 27 years of experience in real estate private equity, having worked in Europe, Asia and the U.S. He started as one of the initiating members of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds in Europe, out of London and NYC. He was then a Founding Partner of Soros Real Estate (later Grove), building up the firm’s business in Asia with close to $2.0bn in equity invested across a variety of asset classes. He is now responsible for Quilvest funds that invest in the EMEA region and a member of the firm's global Investment Committee. Michael sits at the boards of numerous investee companies. He also sits at the board of the Hellenic Public Properties Company, the largest company for management and development of public assets in Greece.
Mohamad is the CEO of SFO Capital Partners. He is also a member of SFO’s Board of Directors and its ESG Committee, and chairs the firm’s Executive and Investment Committees. Mohamad has been leading all aspects of the firm’s development since 2013.
With over 18 years of experience, Mohamad has been involved in more than USD15 billion of transactions in both advisory and principal roles across the real estate, hospitality and financial services sectors. Prior to joining SFO, Mohamad held positions at Kingdom Hotel Investments, JLL and Gulf Merger where he advised and acted on behalf of institutional investors and family offices on cross border transactions including mergers and acquisitions, direct investments and asset management.
Global Head Asset Finance / Managing DirectorHelaba
Germany
Director of Asset Finance at Helaba / Global Head of Asset Finance / Managing Director responsible for Helaba's global Asset Finance business with teams in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, New York, and London.
Travis Pritchett
President and Chief Operating OfficerHarbert Management Corporation
USA
Travis Pritchett is President and Chief Operating Officer for Harbert Management Corporation (“HMC”), an investor in alternative investment strategies. Travis is a member of HMC’s senior management team with management responsibility for HMC’s global real assets group consisting of four platforms - European value add real estate, US value add real estate, US Seniors Housing, and Infrastructure. Travis received a BS from Davidson College and an MBA from the University of North Carolina.
Tyler is the Founder and CEO of Seaforth Land. He has over 30 years of international real estate experience across Asia, North America and the UK in property development, investment banking, principal investment, and investment management. He is a passionate and vocal proponent of good design, sustainability, diversity, and transparency in our industry. Tyler was ranked #35 in the “Estates Gazette 2014 Power List 50” as one of the 50 most influential people in the UK property industry.
Founding Partner & Managing DirectorOrion Capital Managers
United Kingdom
Van Stults is a Founding Partner of Orion Capital Managers, a pan-European RE private equity investment firm. He has over 30 years of real estate investment management experience. Van, with his partners, created the opportunistic Orion European Real Estate Funds I, II, III, IV and V and the core fund, Orion Income Return Partners, which combined have €15 billion of investment capacity. The Orion Funds target a wide range of RE investments throughout EU. Prior to Orion, Van spent 15 years with LaSalle Partners in the US and EU where he was a Main Board Member and a Managing Director. He is a Global Trustee of the Urban Land Institute and received his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business
Our discussion co-chairs kick off the knowledge exchange. After that, you can join it as much as you like:
peer-to-peer, capital to product, and behind closed doors.
What is a Club Meeting An in-person private meeting exclusive for Club Members. Spend time and participate in interactive discussions with the most senior players in the market.
Who can join Senior investors, lenders, asset owners, and developers active in the real estate market. Exclusive event for members with a Bronze, Silver, Platinum, and Diamond level membership.
How to join Click in “Join the event”. If you’re not a member yet, fill up the form for apply or upgrade your membership.
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With the largest commercial real estate team in Europe and one of the biggest worldwide, CMS is well positioned to help investors, funders, developers, landlords and occupiers navigate all aspects of the real estate market and maximise their assets. Whatever the size and scope of your project or deal, with almost 800 real estate lawyers in 46 countries we have the resources to meet your needs quickly and efficiently, offering expert advice. We have been active in real estate in our markets for decades, so we understand the culture, the economic context, the local legal context and the history.
Cédric Dujardin est nommé depuis Septembre 2019 Managing Director dans l’équipe Investissement Immobilier de BlackRock. Basé à Paris, il sera en charge de la gestion des fonds immobiliers de BlackRock en France, Italie et Belgique, sous la responsabilité de Justin Brown, Head of Real Estate Europe. Cédric Dujardin dispose de près de 20 ans d’expérience dans l’immobilier et la gestion de fonds, avec une expertise liée à l’impact environnemental et sociétal des actifs immobiliers. Avant de rejoindre BlackRock, il était Directeur des opérations immobilières pour la France, la Belgique et le Luxembourg chez DWS. Il avait précédemment été Directeur Investissements Europe chez Ivanhoé Cambridge et occupé différentes fonctions chez Gécina.
Inflation - When will the fog clear?
