Starwood Capital's coup of hiring BNP Paribas' Peter Denton is the latest example of real estate investment managers hiring bank executives to launch or beef up existing debt fund platforms.
Starwood Capital's coup of hiring BNP Paribas' Peter Denton is the latest example of real estate investment managers hiring bank executives to launch or beef up existing debt fund platforms.
Denton joins Starwood Capital as partner with the brief to lead the US-based firm's push into property lending in Europe. He will report to Starwood's international president Jeff Dishner, who is currently based in London as the company looks at Europe for distressed loan portfolio opportunities, as well as debt origination.
The appointment comes as Starwood is understood to be preparing the first closing of its first-ever European debt fund, targeting a size of over EUR 1 bn.
A well-known professional in the field, Denton was appointed head of real estate finance at BNP Paribas in April 2011. Before then, he run Westimmo's London office as branch head, where he managed its London-based real estate finance activities. He has held similar senior roles for EMEA real estate banking at Barclays Capital, Eurohypo and Deutsche Bank.
In March, Cordea Savills announced the appointment of two ex-bankers - Keith Davidson and James Tarry - to lead its entry into the European real estate debt market. Both join from Palatium Investment Management, where Davidson was managing director and Tarry was director. The two hires are part of Cordea Savills’ plans to set up a real estate lending platform with a view to transacting new senior and subordinated lending as well as acquiring performing and non-performing loans. The team will create investment vehicles to provide new investment finance or acquire existing financing arrangements at attractive risk-adjusted rates of return.
LaSalle Investment Management has also appointed a former banker as head of European Financing. Roberto Carrera joins LaSalle from pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, where he covered a number of positions including director of credit risk management responsible for underwriting structured real estate loans across Europe and director of global workout leading the restructuring of non-performing real estate loans in France, UK and Germany.
Read more about this trend in the April edition of PropertyEU Magazine. Click on the link below to subscribe
