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From Cradle to Cradle – Unlocking Value Through Sustainable Investment

Marco Abdallah
Keynote

Marco Abdallah

Head of Engineering

Drees & Sommer

Marco Abdallah

Head of Engineering

Drees & Sommer

Marco Abdallah is Head of Engineering at Drees & Sommer UK. Since 2011, Marco has worked with Drees & Sommer engineering departments around the world, including the HQ in Stuttgart and as head of the department in Shanghai. Marco's areas of expertise include Green Building Design and Management and he leads on Drees & Sommer's Cradle-to-Cradle work stream. Significant past projects include a Research Campus for Novartis in Shanghai and Deutsche Bank's Headquarters in Paris.

Debt At The End Of The Cycle

Ravi Takhar

Ravi Takhar

Board Director

Urban Exposure

Francois Trausch

Francois Trausch

CEO

Allianz

Belinda Chain

Belinda Chain

Partner, Head of Asset Financing

Europa Capital

Alison Lambert

Alison Lambert

SVP, European Finance Director

Oxford Properties

Andy Birch
Moderator

Andy Birch

Portfolio Marketing Director

MRI Software

Ravi Takhar

Board Director

Urban Exposure

Ravi joined the Urban Exposure Business in 2005 and previously served as Chairman to the Business. He has over 25 years’ experience in the acquisition, financing and growth of financial businesses and since 2002 has been the CEO of AIM quoted Orchard Funding Group PLC, which specialises in insurance premium finance and the professional fee funding market. Ravi is also an independent non-executive director of Honeycomb Investment Trust plc, which specialises in the acquisition of loans made to consumers and small businesses as well as other counterparties and is listed on the Specialist Fund Segment of the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.

· He has previously held senior positions in several mortgage companies and as investment banker was a founding member of Nikko Principal Finance and Head of Mortgage Principal Finance at Investec Bank plc. Ravi qualified as a lawyer at Clifford Chance and, specialising in property finance, helped to secure the first mortgage-backed securitisations in the UK. He has an MA from the University of Oxford.

Francois Trausch

CEO

Allianz

Chairman of the Management Board, Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Allianz Real Estate

Previous career highlights

Chief Executive Officer Asia Pacific, GE Capital Real Estate International

Managing Director, GE Real Estate France

Development Manager, Tishman Speyer Properties

Associate Fixed Income, Goldman Sachs Group

Education

Harvard Business School (MBA)

ESCP École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (BA)

Belinda Chain

Partner, Head of Asset Financing

Europa Capital

Belinda is a Partner and Head of Asset Financing at Europa Capital, and is responsible for third-party financing and hedging of all Europa’s value-add pan-European investments. Before joining Europa in 2006, Belinda spent ten years in real estate investment banking at Deutsche Bank, Babcock & Brown and Schroders Property, in both the UK and Australia. Belinda started her career at Price Waterhouse as an accountant. She is also a member of Women on Boards in the UK and its mentoring programme. Belinda received a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance from Macquarie University in Sydney and completed her post-graduate qualification with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.

Alison Lambert

SVP, European Finance Director

Oxford Properties

Alison joined Oxford Properties in March 2012 as European Finance Director. Alison oversees Oxford’s European corporate finance function; her team is responsible for corporate accounting for all of Oxford’s European assets (current NAV of £3bn), financing new transactions, tax structuring and maintenance of overseas structures. Alison’s role involves a significant degree of stakeholder engagement, requiring frequent liaison with the finance team in Canada to ensure effective translation of accounting requirements and documentation across borders. Alison is also responsible for managing Oxford’s relationships with its European lenders and corporate advisors.

Prior to joining Oxford, Alison was a Director of KPMG Transaction Services in London. Alison specialised in giving financial advice to clients in real estate, public sector clients where there is a property or re-development angle and infrastructure. Alison also acted as the Director of Financial Planning and Investment at the London Development Agency for nine months.

Alison is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and has lived and worked in both Hungary and Brazil, together with project work in South Africa and Brazil. In her senior professional property position, Alison is an active proponent of improving diversity within the property industry and is affiliated with a number of networking organisations championing the cause of women in property.

Andy Birch

Moderator

MRI Software

Andy has a wealth of experience in B2B technology marketing, and is responsible for product go-to-market strategy across the MRI suite. While his expertise covers various areas and industries, he’s most recognised for his deep knowledge of trends, topics and themes within real estate investment – and is a regular contributor to panels and discussion groups on this subject.

Attracting Cross-boarder Investments Into London

What Is The Next Big Thing?

Samir Amichi

Samir Amichi

Head of Real Estate Europe Acquisitions

Blackstone

Alex Knapp

Alex Knapp

CIO

Hines Europe

Rob Rackind

Rob Rackind

Partner

EQT Partners

Seb D'Avanzo

Seb D'Avanzo

Head of Acquisitions

KKR

Wilson Lee

Wilson Lee

Founding Partner

Cale Street Partners

Mike Phillips
Moderator

Mike Phillips

UK Editor

Bisnow

Samir Amichi

Head of Real Estate Europe Acquisitions

Blackstone

Samir Amichi is a Senior Managing Director in the Real Estate Group and the Head of Real Estate Europe Acquisitions, based in London. Since joining Blackstone in 2011, Mr. Amichi has been involved in a number of Blackstone’s investments in Europe, including OfficeFirst, the Banco Popular portfolio, and the GE European portfolio.

Previously, Mr. Amichi spent seven years in Goldman Sachs International’s real estate private equity group focused on equity and debt investment opportunities in Europe and two years at The Richemont Group overseeing the set-up and growth of its global real estate investment business.

Mr. Amichi received an MS in Management from the HEC business school in Paris, where he majored in Economics.

Alex Knapp

CIO

Hines Europe

Alexander is Chief Investment Officer for Hines’ European business and leads its Investment Management platform in the region. He serves on Hines’ Global Investment Committee and Executive Committee and in these functions, he has a lead role in setting investment strategy to deliver successful outcomes for Hines’ investor partners.

Alexander joined Hines in 2008 and has led a wide range of commercial and residential investments across the risk spectrum. Prior to Hines, he spent five years at the Renzo Piano Building Workshop working in Paris and Genova, Italy. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University and a Masters in Real Estate Development from MIT.

Rob Rackind

Partner

EQT Partners

Robert Rackind joined EQT Partners in December 2014 and is Partner of EQT Real Estate Advisory Team. He has over 25 years of experience in the real estate industry working throughout Europe.

Prior to joining EQT Partners, Mr. Rackind was co-founder and Managing Director of Wainbridge Limited, a private real estate investment, development and asset management company. Previously, he held management positions for leading real estate investment, development and private equity companies where he was responsible for investing in and developing in excess of 300,000 square meters of commercial and residential space in cities such as London, Paris, Milan and Helsinki. Previously held management positions include Hines, HRO, Meyer Bergman and Cambridge Place Investment Management. During his time at CPIM, Mr. Rackind was responsible for the asset management of a €1.5 billion pan European value-add office platform.

Mr. Rackind has a Bachelor of Science in Valuation & Estate Management from the University of the West of England, Bristol.

Seb D'Avanzo

Head of Acquisitions

KKR

Seb d'Avanzo (London) joined KKR in 2016 and is Head of Acquisitions on the European Real Estate team. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. d'Avanzo was a principal at H.I.G. Capital working in the European real estate team and focusing on transactions in the U.K. and the Nordics. Before that, he was head of acquisitions for Solstra Capital based in London. From 2005 until 2011, Mr. d'Avanzo was at MGPA, the global opportunistic real estate investment firm, focusing primarily on Southern Europe and latterly the Nordics. He began his career in investment banking at NM Rothschild & Sons. He holds a M.A. from Oxford University and an M.B.A. from NYU Stern.

Wilson Lee

Founding Partner

Cale Street Partners

Wilson Lee is a Founding Partner of Cale Street Partners, a European focused real

estate capital provider that advises Cale Street Investments LP in providing creative,

“one-stop” solutions to best-in-class developers, operators, and institutions.

The partnerships were founded in 2014 and seeded with $1.5 billion of discretionary

capital from a sovereign wealth investor with a long-term patient approach to

investing. Cale Street has a flexible mandate which includes both senior and

mezzanine debt finance as well as joint venture equity investment.

Wilson has over 35 years of experience in the real estate market. Over his 18 years

at Lehman Brothers in New York and London, he held several senior management roles

in real estate, including starting and heading Lehman’s European principal investment

platform as well has being a member of both the Fixed Income and Investment

Banking Divisions’ European Executive Committees. He then founded UBS’ principal

finance business for Europe and Asia Pacific in 2005 where he was also a member of

the Global Real Estate Task Force and Global Fixed Income Risk Committees. He

then went on to become European Head of the Global Opportunity Fund at ING Real

Estate Investment Management in 2008.

Wilson graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. and Columbia Business School

with an MBA.

Mike Phillips

Moderator

Bisnow

Mike is UK editor of Bisnow. Before this, alongside three friends he bought pan-European property mag EuroProperty out of non-existence and re established it before selling the business to PropertyEU. Prior to that he was editor of Property Week, and has also worked for Estates Gazette.

Summary

  1) How are geopolitical uncertainty and Brexit affecting your business strategy? 2) Is there a lack of demand for debt funding because of forward-funding? 3) What is the current state of the European and London capital market? 4) Who is investing? And in what are they investing? What is the appeal? 5) Are debt funds lending on projects that don’t have full planning consent? What type of projects are they lending for and at what rates? 6) Why is sustainable decision making important for investors?

 

Venue

Le Meridien Piccadilly
21 Piccadilly
London W1J OBH


Agenda

Time Activity
7:00 AM
7:45 AM
Breakfast & Networking
7:50 AM
8:00 AM
From Cradle to Cradle – Unlocking Value Through Sustainable Investment

Marco Abdallah, Head of Engineering UK, Drees & Sommer

8:00 AM
8:50 AM
Debt At The End Of The Cycle

Panel Opening Remarks provided by MRI

8:50 AM
9:00 AM
Stretch Break & Networking
9:00 AM
9:45 AM
Attracting Cross-boarder Investments Into London

What Is The Next Big Thing?

9:45 AM
10:00 AM
Post-Panel Networking

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