Hines hires PGIM exec Alfonso Munk amid management restructure

Alfonso Munk, the former Americas chief investment officer at PGIM, is joining Hines in the same role, as the Houston-based international real estate investment firm reorganizes its management structure to become more centralized.

Munk, who will start as Hines’s chief investment officer for Americas next week, will be one of three regional CIOs. Alex Knapp and Lee Timmins will act as the Europe and Asia CIOs, respectively. Knapp has worked at Hines for more than 15 years and Timmins was hired in 1988.

The three, who will report to global chief investment officer David Steinbach and chief executive of capital markets Chris Hughes, will sit on one global investment board.

Munk told PERE that his hire is part of Hines’s plans to move away from having many dedicated fund teams to a more centralized global investment management structure to offer existing investors a single point of contact.

He said Hines also plans to raise more institutional and retail capital through various investment structures, including joint ventures, separately managed accounts and commingled funds following this management restructure. These products will all sit under one investment management group and will be grown to scale – both in terms of the deal size and amount of capital raised – for each region.

“We are trying to increase the offerings that we have and the size of those products,” Munk said.

As the Americas CIO, Munk says a large part of his role will include being ready to “hunt” in addition to maintaining relationships with investors. He envisions targeting large portfolio acquisitions, but also mergers and acquisitions, to grow the business.

Each region – the Americas, Europe and Asia – is in a different part of the cycle and thus will have different opportunities, Munk noted. For the Americas, the firm will focus its efforts on core and core-plus strategies and be more cautious towards higher-risk strategies and development opportunities. In terms of sectors, residential or “living sector” – which includes student and senior housing in addition to multifamily – and industrial property types will continue to be the main theme.

Munk declined to give any specific numerical targets, but said the firm aims to potentially double its AUM in the Americas. Globally, Hines currently has $124.3 billion in assets under management.