Managers

Partners aims to expand European RE business with senior appointments

The firm is aiming to increase its allocation to the region to 40 percent of its overall property portfolio.

-

Partners Group has made two senior appointments in Europe as the firm plans to boost its investment activities in the region, PERE can reveal exclusively.

Rahul Ghai, co-head of Asia private real estate at Partners Group, will become the co-head of Europe private real estate alongside Mike Bryant and will relocate to London from Singapore at the end of March.

It is understood that Ghai will succeed former European co-head Lars Kreutzmann, who left the group at the end of last year to pursue new opportunities. To facilitate a smooth transition, Ghai became involved in the group’s European investments earlier this year, when he led the £253 million ($350 million; €289 million) portfolio acquisition of UK industrial properties from Paloma Capital.

Ghai will also continue to work closely with the team in Asia. But PERE understands from market sources that the firm has hired a new managing director in Asia to lead and strengthen its private real estate business in the region.

In addition to expanding Ghai’s duties, Partners has also hired Anne-Jan Jäger as a managing director based in Zug, Switzerland. Prior to this, he was an executive director at Tristan Capital Partners overseeing real estate investments in Northern Europe.

With a goal to achieve a 40/40/20 percentage allocation to private real estate across the US, Europe and Asia, respectively, Partners plans to scale-up investments in Europe to bring it level with its US exposure, Ghai told PERE.

Since 2016, the US has seen the largest investment volumes and individual investment sizes within Partners’ private real estate business globally. PERE can reveal that the US accounted for 50 percent of the firm’s real estate investment activity in 2020, with Europe and Asia taking up 32 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

“Europe is the home market and a very deep region. We should be able to do a lot more,” said Ghai. The firm is understood to have raised a total of $2.5 billion for real estate in 2020, bringing its assets under management in the asset class to $17 billion. Partners plans to boost its direct real estate investment across the three regions, Ghai added.