Corestate names next CEO

Corestate Capital, the Zug-based private equity real estate firm, has named Sascha Wilhelm as chief executive officer.

Wilhelm was formerly the chief operating officer (COO) of Corestate and is a member of its investment committee.

As COO Wilhelm was responsible for the asset management division as well as human resources. Before his role as COO, Wilhem was managing director of Corestate’s Frankfurt, office and led the firm’s asset management division. Prior to this, Wilhelm was managing partner at the Seitz Real Estate Group, a German-based real estate service provider.

“Sascha is an ambitious and well educated real estate specialist who knows Corestate very well since its foundation in 2006. He has all the talent to bring the company to the next level,” commented Ralph Winter, founder of Corestate.

The chief executive’s seat had been vacant at Corestate since Phillip Burns left the firm in October 2013. Thomas Landschreiber, co-founder and chief investment officer, had been overseeing Burns’ responsibilities after his departure.

Corestate’s main focus is residential and commercial property investments throughout Germany.

But, last year Winter said the firm has set its stall out to invest in an “anti-cyclical” manner in Europe and expand its club-style deals from purely opportunistic to core-plus and value-add investments. To do so the firm has moved away from the traditional fund format and has adopted a deal-by-deal approach.

Back in February, Corestate formed a joint venture with Madrid-based asset management firm Inmobiliaria Espacio and its sister company OHL Desarrollos, a property development company.

The JV will see Corestate and OHL co-invest their own equity alongside selected investors in Spanish properties via club deals and separate accounts. The platform has no official target size but a spokesman for Corestate said the JV plans on investing up to “several hundred million euros” in Spanish properties.