EXCLUSIVE: TPG RE partner departs

TPG Real Estate partner Robert Weaver has left the private equity firm after three and a half years, PERE has learned.
Weaver, who joined the company in December 2011 and was based in its New York office, left the company last week for a new, undisclosed opportunity beginning in August.

His decision to leave for a new position outside of TPG coincides with the near-culmination of fundraising for TPG’s first ever dedicated real estate fund, TPG Real Estate Partners II. The company officially launched the vehicle just over a year ago and as of May this year had assembled approximately $1.6 billion of commitments. It is expected to close on or just above its $2 billion target at the end of September.

As PERE reported at the time, Weaver’s hire at the end of 2011 was a further sign that TPG was gearing up to launch a dedicated real estate fund. Only two other real estate partners existed at the time, being Kelvin Davis who led TPG’s North American buyout group from 2000 to 2009 and still heads up real estate, and Avi Banyasz who was previously a managing principal at Westbrook Partners and also remains with the group as co-head of real estate alongside Davis. 

Weaver had been a 20-year stalwart of Morgan Stanley. In his most recent role at the bank he was responsible for the global coordination of Morgan Stanley’s private capital markets group, including the coverage of global institutional capital sources for all real estate investment banking services. The early part of his career was spent in the firm’s investment banking department principally focused on mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, and public financings.

It is not yet known where his next role will be.

TPG has not publicized details of its fundraising to date but various investors have made public disclosures. For example, in June The New Jersey Division of Investment (NJDOI) had agreed to invest $125 million, although this resulted in a reduction by the same amount to its original $350 million commitment to TPG/NJ RE, a separate account that invests in a range of real estate-related strategies. The state established the account in February 2013.

TPG Real Estate Partners II’s strategy is to invest in niche property sectors where it can build platforms; out-of-favor sectors; distressed assets and corporate platforms; real estate operating companies; and situations where an executive leadership change can drive a turnaround.

Prior to the fund’s launch, real estate investments were divided between a TPG private equity fund and separate accounts and eventually funneled into an investment vehicle called TPG Real Estate I that was created in 2009 as a prelude to the launch of its first commingled blind pool real estate fund.

In addition to a real estate equity fund, TPG also has a debt and origination unit called TPG Real Estate Finance Trust. Between them, the two divisions have invested in $3 billion of real estate in North America and Europe since 2009.