Multi Development's former CEO Glenn Aaronson has taken the helm at Aevitas Property Partners, a Dutch-based property group with $250 mln (EUR 200 mln) in seed capital from US pension fund Washington State Investment Board.
Multi Development's former CEO Glenn Aaronson has taken the helm at Aevitas Property Partners, a Dutch-based property group with $250 mln (EUR 200 mln) in seed capital from US pension fund Washington State Investment Board.
Aaronson will manage Amsterdam-based Aevitas in partnership with managers Jean-Philippe Milot and Iliyana Popova, two former executives of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing in Europe, as well as Pirelli's former director Michele Vitucci who will assume the post of Chief Financial Officer, and Shiv Wallia as managing director. Prior to joining privately-held retail specialist Multi in 2007, Aaronson was a managing director at Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing in Frankfurt.
Aevitas will deploy the EUR 200 mln capital commitment from the $81 bn US pension fund for a global investment strategy, with an initial focus on southern Europe, Turkey, and India. Aevitas said it will be looking to invest in controlling, entity-level interests in private real estate operating companies.
The company will work in tandem with two other managers acting on behalf of the WSIB, Principal Enterprise Capital Holdings, and Evergreen Capital Partners.
Principal Enterprise Capital in particular received a $500 mln mandate from WSIB in April, bringing the total capital commitment by WSIB to the group to $2.3 bn. PEC is an affiliate of Chicago-based Principal Financial Group.
The Washington pension fund directly owns several real estate operating companies, but primarily invests in such entities through intermediaries. It currently has some $8 bn in real estate assets worldwide.
