Managers

The London and Hong Kong-based hedge fund manager is planning to wrap a $150m real estate opportunity fund around a strategy to unlock opportunistic returns from development and distressed real estate in Myanmar, Mongolia and Vietnam.

More than half of the limited partners for the Pennsylvania-based private equity real estate firm’s second value-added industrial fund came in during the final round of capital-raising.

Senior executives of AEW Europe and LaSalle Investment Management explained how the popular theme among investors of wanting tight investment parameters for their opportunistic managers contradicts the definition of opportunistic investing and could lead to missed deals.

The global head of the New York-based private equity firm’s real estate group is due to move into a less active role as the platform’s chairman in 2013, as part of a long-term succession plan for the business.

The A$150bn retirement fund has acquired an initial A$400m of Australian logistics properties from Goodman and plans to invest with the ASX-listed group in A$500m more. The deals down under are intended to spark a global investing joint venture.

A partnership between The Blackstone Group and Morgan Stanley has purchased a portfolio of distressed property loans in Australia from Lloyd’s Banking Group at a significant discount. The assets, valued at A$1.8 billion, were acquired on behalf of the firms’ respective global opportunistic funds, BREP VII and G7.

The Los Angeles-based private real estate firm has attracted $1.4 billion in commitments to its commercial real estate debt investment vehicle and related sidecars. The firm is due to launch a successor fund early next year.

A formerly unified LP universe is dividing based on those building customised accounts and those sticking to the traditional fund commitment route, Hamilton Lane CEO Mario Giannini said.

The Miami-based real estate firm’s latest commingled vehicle closed on $76 million to develop middle-income residential development projects in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Uruguay. The value-added vehicle already is 50% committed to projects.

With a new commitment to Hines, the bank is now focusing on Eastern Europe. PERE Magazine June 2012 issue.