UBS Asset Management appoints global head of real estate

Following its integration with Credit Suisse, UBS Asset Management has promoted Jon Hollick to the role of head of global ex DACH real estate, PERE has learned.

According to an internal memo sent out Friday and seen by PERE, Hollick’s role represents a new position for the Zurich-based manager, which he assumes with immediate effect. Hollick is now responsible for overseeing the firm’s regional real estate teams, bringing them closer together and growing the global business around specialized thematic and sustainable investing capabilities. Hollick formerly oversaw the firm’s European real estate strategy and investments as head of real estate EMEA ex DACH.

The development comes around seven months after PERE reported the departure of Robert Rackind from Credit Suisse Asset Management, where he served as global head of real estate since June 2022. UBS announced the acquisition of fellow Swiss bank Credit Suisse in March last year as part of the Swiss government’s attempts to avoid a banking crisis. At the time, around 180 staff at Credit Suisse were due to be integrated with UBS’s 500-plus staff.

Hollick will continue to report to Joe Azelby, head of real estate and private markets at UBS Asset Management. A source familiar with the matter confirmed that Azelby, who joined the firm in 2019, remains responsible for the overall real estate and private markets division, which covers direct real estate, infrastructure equity and debt, food and agriculture investments, as well as indirect exposure to real estate, infrastructure, private equity and private credit managers through UBS’s multi-manager business.

The firm has yet to appoint a successor for Hollick’s former role. The new head of real estate EMEA ex DACH will report into Hollick, as will the other regional real estate heads, John Mowat (APAC) and Matt Johnson (US). Also reporting into Hollick are Kurt Edwards, who heads up taxable real assets, and Jennifer Jones, who leads the real estate partnerships team.

The firm’s DACH real estate business is led by Daniel Brüllmann, who will continue reporting into Azelby, as will Eric Byrne, who leads the multi-manager real estate business.

According to Hollick’s LinkedIn page, he joined UBS as real estate fund manager in 2010 and became managing director in 2020. Prior to UBS, he spent three years at Knight Frank Investment Management as assistant fund manager.

When UBS agreed to purchase Credit Suisse in March, it was estimated that the merger of UBS Asset Management’s real estate and private markets business with Credit Suisse Asset Management’s real estate platform could total $160 billion in real estate assets under management.

In October last year, a CoStar report claimed UBS had begun selling off assets from the €3.5 billion Credit Suisse Real Estate Fund International. A month later, PERE revealed UBS Asset Management’s real estate arm had committed £105 million ($129 million; €121 million) to recapitalize a core residential portfolio from London-based manager Matter Real Estate into a new closed-end fund.