Former EQT Real Estate head Rackind to join Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse Asset Management has hired former EQT Real Estate executive Robert Rackind to lead its global real estate platform, PERE has learned.

Rackind has been appointed as the global head of real estate at the firm, where he will succeed Rüttimann Raymond. The latter is retiring at the end of the year after serving in the role since 2020, according to a release. Based in Zurich, Rackind will report directly to the firm’s global head of investment, Filippo Rima.

Bringing over 30 years of industry experience to Credit Suisse, the real estate veteran was most recently a partner at EQT Real Estate, the property arm of Stockholm-based private equity firm EQT that he established with Edouard Fernandez in 2014. Following Fernandez’s departure in 2017, he took up sole leadership of EQT Real Estate.

Rackind left EQT after participating in the firm’s $1.8 billion acquisition of Pennsylvania-based Exeter Property Group in 2021. During his time at EQT Real Estate, he had grown the platform’s assets under management to €13 billion, including the €10 billion inherited from Exeter. Beyond assisting in the Exeter transaction, Rackind was instrumental in building EQT Real Estate’s European real estate team and completing two fundraisings. The first was EQT Real Estate, a value-add fund that attracted €460 million from investors in 2017. The second was EQT Real Estate II, which amassed €1.3 billion, including co-investment capital.

Prior to joining EQT, Rackind was the founder and partner of global real estate investment and development company Wainbridge. Before that, he was an investment manager for Europe at Valad Property Group (now Cromwell Property Group), head of asset management at London-based manager CPIM and a development director for Hines in Paris and London.

“With a consistent focus on European markets throughout his career, combined with deep experience across all aspects of value creation in direct and indirect markets, through several economic cycles, Robert Rackind’s experience and expertise will be invaluable as we look to build up our real estate business further across the region,” Rima said in a release.

Credit Suisse covers both direct and indirect real estate investment with assets under management of SFr40 billion ($40.9 billion; €38.2 billion).