MSREI bolsters in Europe with double senior hire

The real estate investment management division of Morgan Stanley has added two senior professionals to its ranks in Europe.
 
Gareth Dittmer joined the platform this month as executive director and head of investor relations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while Maximilien de Wailly has agreed to join as head of France at the start of next year.
 
The hire of Dittmer, who joins from London-based real estate investment management firm Rockspring Property Investment Managers, comes at a time when MSREI is understood to be ramping up its capital raising activities for successor investment vehicles to its Morgan Stanley Real Estate (MSREF) VII Global, the latest in its series of global property funds.
 
A US focused fund has been reported as incoming already and it is believed that Asia vehicles are also being considered. In September, MSREI hired Martijn van Eldik, from CBRE Global Investors, to perform an equivalent function in Asia, based in Singapore. He started the role last month.
 
Meanwhile, de Wailly’s hire represents something of a return for the man, who left the bank previously to join RREEF, the real estate and infrastructure investment management arm of Deutsche Bank. RREEF has lost a number of senior professionals in recent years during a spate of platform uncertainty that saw it subject to a takeover by Guggenheim Partners. While the platform has since been reconsidered an integral part of Deutsche Bank, that has not stemmed further departures including senior executives of its opportunistic investing team.
 
A long-time investment bank executive, de Wailly also previously worked for Archon Group, the investment management affiliate of Goldman Sachs.
 
MSREI declined to comment.