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Busy work on the foundations of a mighty edifice

JPMorgan is building its French and Italian real estate structured finance business with a string of new hires, all taken from ABN Amro.

Shaun Stevens, senior product specialist, Fortis Investments

The doom and gloom in the US is in stark contrast to the joy and boom in Russia, where there’s an overwhelmingly bullish tone across all segments of the real estate market. Guy Norton looks at the formula for success employed by two leading Russian developers.

Prudential Property Investment Management has hired two directors for its UK asset management team.

Andrea Carpenter, Inrev

Land Securities’ announcement that it will split into three sector-focused specialist companies is unlikely to signal the demise of generalist UK Reits. Other large Reits, such as Hammerson and British Land, have indicated that they will not pursue the specialist route. However, now that their share prices have come under significant pressure, many UK Reits will have to reconsider their structures and strategies, making Land Securities an interesting market test case.

Fitch Ratings has rethought its methodology for rating and reviewing real estate asset managers. The original real estate asset manager methodology was based closely on Fitch’s general asset manager methodology, and this was also changed, in May 2007.

London-based Rutley Capital Management, the real estate private equity arm of Knight Frank, is preparing a fund focused on east Africa. The Rutley East Africa fund will aim to raise $200 million to invest in city-centre properties in the capital cities of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Mauritius and South Africa. The fund will formally launch by the end of this year.

Spirits were high at the Euromoney/Liquid Real Estate awards dinner held on September 25 at the Four Seasons. The event brought award winners from around the globe to London, with more than 200 in attendance. Simon Brady, Euromoney’s managing director, acted as host and presented the awards. The big winners on the night were Jones Lang LaSalle, CB Richard Ellis, Morgan Stanley, Eurohypo, ProLogis China, NBK and Clifford Chance. Paul Zenon, the comedian and magician, supplied his own special brand of after-dinner entertainment, simultaneously thrilling and terrifying guests. Playing cards and doves flew around the stage as he set guests’ garments alight and spun a pint of Newcastle Brown Ale around his head. The party lasted into the small hours, with guests chatting at the bar and taking to the stage for a dance.

Guy Ratcliffe, executive director, Morgan Stanley

Cash-rich Gulf-based funds are ploughing billions of dollars into real estate in the fast-growing economies of India and China, lured by eager regional and municipal governments and the promise of double-digit annual returns. The economies of China and India are growing at an annual rate of about 12%. US investment bank Merrill Lynch expects India’s property sector to expand to $90 billion by 2015 from $15 billion in 2005.