Ivanhoé Cambridge hires LatAm execs – Exclusive

Adriano Mantesso and Jorge Margain are the first real estate investment professionals based in Brazil and Mexico, respectively.

Ivanhoé Cambridge has appointed its first Mexico and Brazil real estate leaders, PERE has learned.

The real estate arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec tapped Adriano Mantesso (pictured) as senior vice president, Brazil, and Jorge Margain as vice president, Mexico. Both are handling existing partnerships and investments, with a mandate to develop new opportunities in those areas.

The men are leading Brazilian and Mexican real estate activities out of new offices and report to Rita-Rose Gagné, the president of Ivanhoé’s growth markets division.

“We aim to develop new strategic partnerships in Brazil and in Mexico, where we already own and manage assets, and to grow our investments for the long term,” Gagné said in a statement.

Mantesso, who is based in São Paulo, previously spent five years in the same city at investment bank BTG Pactual, where he was head of real estate. Prior to that, he worked for almost seven years at Brazilian Capital, a real estate asset management company acquired by BTG in 2012.

Margain is based in Mexico City. He worked as PGIM Real Estate’s head of Mexico transactions for the last year, and previously was a senior director at Tishman Speyer.

In Latin America, Ivanhoé held interests in 7.8 million square feet of leasable area as of December 31, according to its annual report.

Ivanhoé has an 11-year partnership with Brazilian shopping center company ANCAR, the fifth-largest retail real estate company in Brazil, with 22 shopping centers under management, including 18 owned outright.

In 2014, Ivanhoé inked a strategic partnership called MIRA with private equity real estate firm Black Creek Group, according to an announcement at the time. Ivanhoé earmarked $500 million for MIRA to invest in mixed-use urban projects.

Last year, MIRA teamed up with several Mexican pension funds to create the first Investment Projects-backed Certificate (CERPI) to raise $207 million to invest in local real estate.

Ivanhoé managed about C$56 billion ($42 billion; €39.8 billion) in real estate as of December 31, according to its most recent annual report.