Elwing leaves Greenhill

Fredrik Elwing, one of the best known placement agents in European private equity real estate, has left his current employer, Greenhill & Co.

Elwing, who joined the London office of the New York-based investment bank in 2010, ended his spell at the end of June and is now considering his options.

His amicable departure comes at a time when the fundraising climate continues to be a challenge. Not only are regulations leading to delays in gaining commitments and longer fundraising periods, but European investors are committing fewer fund managers as they seek to trim the number of relationships they have or consider alternatives such as going direct or entering into separate accounts or club investments. Meanwhile, the larger European firms that have been successful in raising capital tend to have in-house capital raising and marketing resources, negating the need for a fully blown placement agent.

Indeed, some big names in the private placement industry have already decided to go in-house. As previously revealed by PERE, Park Hill Real Estate’s head of Europe, Audrey Klein left the company at the start of this month to become head of marketing at Aerium, the pan-European real estate invest management firm with around €6.1 billion of assets.

In a short message to contacts on Monday, Elwing said: “Please note that I have now left Greenhill.”

He joined the company in 2010 as managing director in Greenhill's Real Estate Capital Advisory group. Prior to that, he was co-head of the Credit Suisse Real Estate Private Fund Group. He also spent three years with the capital markets group of Security Capital, three years at Lehman Brothers and eight years with Credit Suisse First Boston, marketing equities and equity related products to institutional investors in Europe and the Middle East.

His most recent mandates have involved Meyer Bergman, the London pan European retail property specialist, and Balfour Beatty which has been raising an infrastructure fund.