International property group Goodman was able to price a £800 million ($1.61 billion) commercial mortgage-backed securitization in July before the debt markets took a turn for the worse. The deal, lead managed by Calyon and Royal Bank of Scotland, was part of a £1.2 billion refinancing of Goodman’s Arlington Business Parks Partnership (ABPP) fund. RBS and Eurohypo acted as arrangers. "We were very pleased to get this deal away in a market that is deteriorating around us," says Jeff Pulsford, Goodman’s European CEO. "It gives the fund stability and confidence in cashflow."

The annual selection of the winners of the Real estate awards is based on polling on real estate firms’ performance and achievements over the past 12 months. The awards cover real estate practitioners in nearly 50 countries.

Property derivatives continue to grow in popularity, with new funds launching and increasing numbers of banks gaining licences to trade.

Aegon Asset Management has hired three property fund managers away from Morley Fund Management in a move to enhance its pre-existing property offering. Aegon’s new appointments include Geraldine Davies, who managed the £4.2 billion Norwich Property Trust at Morley. The other managers who left with Davies were Philip Clark, head of the Morley specialist funds team, and David Wise, manager of the Norwich Property Investment fund. The trio joined Aegon in June as directors in the property group.

An integrated approach to real estate has kept the bank at the top of the market for 38 years. Laurence Neville reports.

Australia’s Macquarie Bank is getting big in real estate. Stephen Girdis, its global head, speaks to Chris Wright about the bank’s worldwide plans.

Despite growing volumes of ABS derivative trading in the US, repeated attempts to introduce index derivative products to more effectively express nuanced views on ABS credit spreads in Europe have had mixed results.

In late May, Russia’s state-owned Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending opened the local mortgage-backed securities market with a deal that aims to lay the foundations for domestic issuance. AHML, the government agency established in the mid-1990s to refinance mortgages, has been a driving force in the development of Russia’s MBS law. This first public deal is seen as a test of this law, which should drive the development of Russia’s burgeoning mortgage market.

Morley Fund Management is building a dedicated property research team and has hired David Skinner to head it. Skinner has joined from Pramerica, where he was director of research, Europe. At Morley, he takes on the newly created position of head of property research, reporting to Nick Mansley, director of property strategy and indirect investment. At Morley, Skinner will lead the asset manager’s property research capability, taking a key role in business development and investment decision-making across Morley’s property funds. He will also contribute to the strategy and overall development of Morley’s property business.

The annual selection of the winners of the Real estate awards is based on surveys and assessments of real estate firms’ performance and achievements over the past 12 months. The awards cover real estate practitioners in more than 50 countries.

How Deutsche grew up fast in real estate

Henderson Global Investors has appointed Jérôme Sebaux as head of property finance in France. Based in Henderson’s Paris office, Sebaux will be responsible for the financial management of funds as well as the provision of related services to the fund and asset managers in Paris. Before joining Henderson, Sebaux was a fund controller at ING Real Estate Investment Management France. Before that, he was international financial controller at JC Decaux and an analyst at Sanofi-Synthélabo in Berlin.

"There is a lot of hidden value if you wait for the recovery in the German market"

Bank of America has hired Paul Ogden to the newly created role of head of market development for property derivatives. London-based Ogden reports to Markus Wolfensberger, managing director in structured securities. He joins from CB Richard Ellis /GFI Group, where he headed property derivatives development.

Blackstone’s landmark acquisition of Hilton Hotel Corporation in July could spark off a wave of deals in the hotel sector. The $26 billion deal makes Blackstone the number one hotel group globally and has alerted other private equity houses and real estate investors to the hotel market’s potential.

Lehman Brothers Asset Management has hired two portfolio managers from Rotterdam-based Robeco as part of the global expansion of its real estate business.

Siegfried Cofalka has been relieved of his responsibility as managing director of Oppenheim Immobilien-Kapitalanlagegesellschaft (OIK), the fund arm of listed German real estate firm IVG Immobilien, according a statement from the firm. His duties will be assumed by Peter Le Loux, chief executive of OIK. No reason was given for Cofalka’s departure.

NAI Global has announced an increase in its coverage of Scandinavia with the formation of NAI Finland – a full-service commercial real estate firm specializing in office, industrial, retail properties and land. NAI Finland was founded by Janne Nuutinen. Nuutinen has an extensive background in commercial real estate, acting as a senior consultant at Comreal, a leading property advisory firm in Finland.

ING Real Estate Investment Management makes a point of co-investing with its clients in its funds, particularly in those appealing to value-added and opportunistic investors, an area it is developing. Laurence Neville reports.

Hammerson, a £7 billion ($14.2 billion) UK-based property company, has sold 50% of its single largest holding as part of its capital recycling strategy. In July, GIC Real Estate, an arm of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, paid Hammerson £300 million for a stake in Westquay, a retail property in Southampton.

National Bank of Kuwait is a leading force in raising capital using Shariah-compliant instruments for property development in its domestic market and in the region. Nigel Dudley reports.

HSBC Investments’ multi-manager team has been expanded to incorporate a dedicated team of property fund selection experts.

Financing costs in Spain’s real estate sector are expected to soar following debt market investors’ rejection of the terms of a €7 billion credit line to the country’s fourth-biggest construction company. Fears that the local housing market might be set for a downturn were blamed for the deal’s failure.

As volatility spreads across the debt markets, the CMBS market is taking stock. Property derivatives are likely to increase volatility in the market and contribute to spread widening just as refinancing activity – a significant driver of CMBS volumes – slows. But as competition between commercial lenders and conduit lenders expands across Europe, the market is looking to new jurisdictions to maintain growth.

The UK hotel-based Reit market failed to launch as the widely anticipated initial public offering from Vector fell flat in June. The planned £2 billion deal was scheduled to be the UK’s first hotel-based Reit. This failure has not discouraged market players and analysts, who are still confident that the market will develop with time.

John Perkins will join Bank of America’s real estate investment banking group this month as a managing director with senior client coverage responsibility. Perkins will be based in New York and will report to Ron Sturzenegger, global head of the real estate investment banking group. Perkins joins BofA from JPMorgan Securities, where he has worked for the past 12 years on a broad spectrum of M&A, equity and debt capital-raising transactions for clients across the real estate, lodging and gaming industries.

Hypo Real Estate’s €5.7 billion purchase of Depfa Bank, announced on July 23, has not been an instant hit. The deal unites one of Europe’s biggest commercial real estate financiers with the continent’s second-biggest public-sector lender. The managements of the two banks were keen to talk up the complementary nature of the new entity’s businesses but analysts have offered lukewarm assessments at best.

Asian investors have been waiting some time for an Indian real estate investment trust. One has finally arrived but, perhaps inevitably, it’s nowhere near India.

HSH Nordbank has appointed Leopold Reymaier to the key account management team in Hamburg as senior vice-president. He will be responsible for originating loans as well as a range of services related to real estate.

René Beckert is to manage real estate structured finance Germany, South, at Aareal Bank’s Munich office as the division’s director. He will be responsible for operating real estate business in southern Germany.