AFIAA hires Norges’ Feix as global head of transactions

AFIAA Swiss Foundation for International Real Estate Investments has appointed Sebastian Feix as head of global transactions.

Feix, who has more than 14 years of transactional experience in the industry, joined the Zurich-based property company from the London office of Norges Bank Real Estate Management, the property investment arm of Norway’s €900 billion sovereign wealth fund, Norwegian Government Pension Fund (NGPF).

In his new role at AFIAA, Feix will take a lead on all of the firm’s global real estate investments, which have traditionally been offices in Europe, the US and Australia, and will answer to the firm’s chief executive officer Igo Bofinger.

While at Norges, where he served as investment manager for two years, Feix was responsible for identifying and supervising the acquisition of properties on behalf of NGPF. Prior to Norges, he also worked for German real estate investment manager Commerz Real, as head of UK real estate, and London-based property services firm CBRE UK where he was a director.

A spokesman for AFIAA said Feix had overseen and conducted more than €3.4 billion worth of transactions during his real estate career.

“With his detailed knowledge, broad network and international experience, Sebastian Feix is ideally qualified for this responsible position. I am thrilled that he will be joining our management team,” said Bofinger.

Over the past three years, AFIAA has completed transactions, largely for office assets, in Washington DC; Austin, Texas; and Philadelphia as well as Finland, Germany, Austria and Spain.

Its most recent deal was the July sale of the HQ South office building in Brisbane for $103 million to UK real estate investor M&G Real Estate.

AFIAA, which was founded in 2004, manages the real estate investments of several Swiss pension funds. The firm has offices in Zurich, New York and Sydney and has assets under management of €1.6 billion, as of December 31, 2016.

The firm’s parent company is Avadis Group, the Zurich-based asset manager, which manages more than 11 billion Swiss francs ($11.2 billion; €9.7 billion) on behalf of 130 Swiss pension funds.