Mount Kellett Capital Management has hired Martin Kandrac from The Blackstone Group to add to its opportunistic real estate team in London, PERE has learned.
Kandrac joined the firm – which is reportedly raising a $4 billion fund – this month having spent the past 12 years at Blackstone where he was a managing director in the real estate group primarily involved in hotel acquisitions throughout Europe and more recently, retail acquisitions in central Europe.
Before joining Blackstone he worked at Goldman Sachs Real Estate Principal Investment Area (REPIA) in New York, London, and Hong Kong.
New York-based Mount Kellett is a multi-strategy investment firm that targets global distressed deals, special situations, and opportunistic investing and was started after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 by Mark McGoldrick, co-founder and head of Goldman Sachs’ Global Special Situations Group who worked at Goldman between 1997 and 2007.
Nick Weber, previously co-head of head of Goldman’s Special Situations Group is head of Mount Kellett’s European business while Jason Maynard, also a veteran of the Goldman special sits funds, is head of Asia.
Mount Kellett was unable to comment at press time, but the company now has six real estate professionals in London covering opportunities in Europe. The team includes James MacNamara, who joined in April 2010 from Perella Weinberg Partners and prior to that was at Deutsche Bank.
According to reports, the company closed its second fund on $4 billion in April 2012. It is also reportedly in the market with its third fund, Mount Kellett Capital Partners Fund III, for which it held a first close on $900 million in November. Fund III is also targeting $4 billion like the predecessor fund.
The company has around 115 employees with offices in Dallas, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Mauritius and currently manages around $7 billion of assets.
Last year it was reported to have taken part in the acquisition of the John Hancock Center in Chicago alongside the Hearn Company, and Lynd.
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