News & Analysis

The European real estate firm, formerly known as Meinl European Land that targets shopping centers in Central and Eastern Europe, re-evaluates its development pipeline following the €800m investment by Citi Property Investors and Gazit-Globe.

The private equity firms are reportedly in discussions to buy Lehman’s investment management unit, which includes its $30bn private equity portfolio. The price of the investment management arm, around $5bn last week, may come down after Lehman’s bankruptcy filing yesterday.

Amid the turmoil of its parent company, AIG's investment arm continues its Asian expansion with the hiring of Michael Chae. The fate of the firm’s substantial private equity and real estate businesses remains uncertain.

Richard Klapow has left Macquarie Capital’s advisory arm in New York to join Alinda Capital Partners as a managing director, marking the third recent senior executive departure at Macquarie.

The US alternative asset manager, which has been active in Spain recently, has agreed a joint venture to develop a retail warehouse in Malaga, southern Spain.

The US firm and its newly installed president, Michael Pralle, has appointed the former head of asset management at Merrill Lynch for its European operation as well as a vice president of risk management in Latin America from GE Capital.

Global investment bank Houlihan Lokey has added four former JP Morgan real estate investment banking professionals to its business in a bid to expand the firm’s real estate practice. The JP Morgan team helped orchestrate the sale of 650 Madison Avenue to Carlyle and Ashkenazy.

The troubled Australian mall owner has confirmed a $714m agreement to sell 29 of its 30 assets to a private real estate investor has collapsed. The company says the investor ‘elected to terminate the agreement’ but insisted talks were continuing.

As part of a frantic weekend on Wall Street, Bank of America has agreed to acquire Merrill Lynch, including its investment management business. A spokesman said it was ‘too early’ to tell whether the deal would include Merrill’s private equity portfolio, or whether it would spin out as an independent firm.

The US-based infrastructure fund has also completed its first deal, with the purchase of a $363m stake in Florida-based Global Tower Partners from another Macquarie-managed infrastructure fund.