Industry News

Andy Mercer has joined Colliers to lead the ongoing development and implementation of a market-leading ESG strategy for the firm’s property management clients in the UK and across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Andy has a strong track record in the industry, joining from JLL where he was Head of Energy Services. At Colliers, he will be Head of ESG for the UK and EMEA within the Property Management team working with Andy Hay, Managing Director of Property...

Schroders Capital – Matthew Baddeley has joined as a retail investment and asset management specialist in the Manchester real estate team. Baddeley joins this newly-created role at Schroders Capital from RDI REIT and brings 15 years of asset management experience across all sectors, with a most recent focus on retail warehousing and shopping centres. Baddeley has previously also worked at The Crown Estate and Savills. Charles Twist has joined as an office asset management specialist in the London real estate...

Lydia Dutton has been appointed director and regional sustainability lead, a new role at the property consultancy. Dutton will join the firm’s ESG consultancy team and will be based in Birmingham in the UK with a national remit. She will be responsible for driving CBRE’s environmental and sustainability agenda in the regions, providing external advisory service for clients. Dutton has worked for over 15 years in sustainable real estate. She also previously co-founded a circular economy tech startup. Dutton joins...

Heimstaden has appointed Amit Kumar as Head of UK Operations for the company’s growing portfolio of residential properties and to build its in-house management capabilities as the platform gains scale. Amit has spent the past 14 years managing operations for housing and hospitality businesses in the UK. He joins Heimstaden from Savills, where he was the General Manager of the 603-unit Allegro Living apartment complex, Birmingham’s largest. “Amit is a great addition to our expanding team in the UK. His...

DWS has launched its sixth real estate debt fund, raising an initial EUR150 million for the European fund. The asset manager said the European Junior Real Estate Debt Fund is expected to reach a total volume of EUR500 million. The European property debt fund will focus on building a subordinated loan portfolio secured by high-quality pan-European core/core-plus real estate, targeting a high single-digit rate of return at a maximum loan-to-value of the portfolio of 75per cent, DWS said. Jens Witzke...

AXA IM Alts, a global leader in alternative investments, acting on behalf of clients, and Swiss Life Asset Managers announce that in a new joint venture they have agreed to the acquisition of leading Spanish fibre business lyntia Networks from Antin Infrastructure Partners. lyntia Networks is a leading wholesale operator in the Spanish telecommunications market and the only neutral provider operating both lit and dark fibre, where it is the market leader. It owns and operates a high quality nationwide...

Housing landlord Heimstaden is taking over 149 homes from the Mooiland housing corporation. This concerns 68 single-family homes and 81 apartments that are part of fully owned complexes. The houses are located in Emmeloord (101) in Eefde (43) and in Wichmond (5). The transfer of the homes will take place on May 31, 2022. Heimstaden will manage and rent out the homes itself. The Mooiland housing corporation is mainly active in and around the Northeast Brabant region. Outside of that...

Aviva Investors has sold a mixed-use building in Denmark that it acquired from Patrizia two years ago. In January 2020, Aviva Investors and Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) announced the acquisition of the 24,500 square metres mixed-use retail, leisure and office asset situated in the centre of Copenhagen’s retail district. Patrizia invested EUR200m to buy Galleri K as a co-investment with a German scheme In September 2015. Aviva Investors said since the acquisition in 2020, it has been...

Oxford Properties Group (“Oxford”), a leading global real estate investor, asset manager and business builder, and Novaxia, a leading French urban investor and developer, have entered into a long-term strategic partnership (the “Partnership”) to invest in and, primarily, develop much needed new supply of life science real estate in France. Novaxia will act as development manager and co-asset manage alongside Oxford with the Partnership targeting approximately EUR1 billion (CUSD1.4 billion) of investment over the next few year. The fast growth...