Warburg Pincus’ Aznar to join ‘Cruz missile’

Pedro Aznar is joining Voras Capital Management, the alternative assets firm recently set up by Zoe Cruz, the former co-president of Morgan Stanley nicknamed the ‘Cruz missile’.

Aznar, who is based in Warburg’s London office, resigned from the firm recently according to sources, and will become global head of real estate assets at Voras. 

Like Cruz, Aznar is a former Morgan Stanley professional having worked for Morgan Stanley Real Estate funds, notably on acquisitions in Europe.

He joined Warburg in 2005 while the firm was raising a $1.2 billion global opportunities real estate fund, Warburg Pincus Real Estate I. Since then, the firm has folded its real estate platform into its general private equity business.

According to Warburg’s website, prior to Morgan Stanley, Aznar was at private equity firm, Bain & Company.

Voras, which is the Greek word for “north” and the name of a mountainous area near the small town in Greece where Cruz was born, has been recruiting recently according to reports.

On 9 October, the Wall Street Journal said Cruz had set up her firm nearly two years after being ousted from Morgan Stanley where a unit that reported to her suffered a $4 billion loss from a bet on the mortgage market.

The report added she had been talking to some former colleagues at Morgan Stanley and other people about joining her firm and that she planned to add staff in London and Asia.

One of the partners recruited was Ellen Brunsberg, who was managing director and head of European Securitised Products Group in the run up to the credit crunch. Warburg Pincus declined to comment and Voras could not be reached at press time.