Keber to depart Hines – Exclusive

The senior managing director was responsible for the Houston-based real estate investment firm’s global capital raising efforts for more than four years.

Chris Keber, senior managing director at Hines, is leaving the Houston-based real estate investment firm after a four-year tenure, PERE has learned.

The executive resigned last month but will remain a consultant to the firm through April, a company spokesman said. Christopher Hughes, chief executive of Hines’ capital markets group, will reallocate Keber’s responsibilities among other members of the group in New York, London and Seoul.

Keber joined Hines in November 2012 and was based in the firm’s New York office. As part of Hines’ capital markets team, he was responsible for global institutional capital raising and structuring of commingled funds, programmatic joint ventures and separate accounts. 

Before Hines, Keber was a director of global capital raising and investor relations at Greenwich, Connecticut-based private investment firm Starwood Capital Group from March 2010 to November 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile. Earlier, he worked in the real estate private funds group at Credit Suisse and as a managing director at Trinity Partners/Trinity Capital Advisors, a real estate services and investment firm.

One of Hines’ most recent capital raises was a €1.3 billion separate account with Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), Germany’s largest pension scheme. The mandate, which was announced in January 2016, will focus on identifying, acquiring and managing core-plus, value add and redevelopment high-street retail assets in major markets across 20 countries in Europe.

Last week, Hines announced that it formed an 800 million reais ($261.07 million; €246.56 million) joint venture with Brazilian real estate developer Vitacon. The partnership aims to develop a 1.5 billion reais portfolio, for which Vitacon will be responsible for development, management and sales.

Founded in 1957, Hines currently has a presence in 192 cities across 20 countries. Since 1991, the firm has sponsored 52 investment funds and numerous one-off vehicles totaling more than $41.8 billion of equity, for real estate acquisitions and development on five continents. Hines currently has $93.2 billion of assets under management, including $47.9 billion in fiduciary investment management, and $45.3 billion in third-party property management.