Cummings switches roles at Carlyle

Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group has named Daniel Cummings senior advisor for international real estate investments.

Cummings, who is based in Washington, joined the company in 2000 as a managing director focused on property and new product development. He takes up his new position starting today.

Cummings will help find real estate investments and develop new investment vehicles in Europe, Asia and other regions, according to a press release. He will also continue to be a member of the investment committee for the Europe and Asia real estate funds.

Cummings joined Carlyle from global real estate investment management firm, LaSalle Investment Management, where he was a veteran of 20 years and managed a $22 billion portfolio of public and private real estate investment activities in North America and Europe. He was also a member of the board of directors of his parent firm, Jones Lang LaSalle.

He takes up his new position at a time when Carlyle, which has around $10 billion global real estate investments, has been stepping up its exposure in Europe and Asia. Since the start of the year the private equity group has bought properties and sites in the UK, France, Germany and Spain.

In March it announced the creation of a £750 million joint venture with Skelton Development in the UK. Called Carlyle Skelton Development Group (CSDG) the JV has made five investments in development property worth £350 million. The latest acquisition – announced last month – was Temple Way House in Bristol for £21.3 million, which it bought from Topland Group, the private property company run by Eddie and Sol Zakay.

Other investments include an office building in Waterloo, which has the potential to be redeveloped into a hotel; an office redevelopment in Mayfair; and a retail and residential development in Poole on the south coast.

Elsewhere in Europe this year Carlyle has bought a development site in Madrid as part of a joint venture; a site in Hamburg; and a portfolio of 34 assets across France from La Banque de France.

The firm has been busy in Asia too. In May it revealed a joint venture with SOW to create mid-sized retail properties in non-metropolitan areas of Japan.

Last July, it established Carlyle Asia Real Estate Partners, a $410 million real estate fund, which could invest in up to $1.5 billion worth of real estate in Asia.