Hines makes senior hire in capital markets push

Hines has recruited James Morrow from DWS Group as a managing director for its European capital markets team, to boost its fundraising activity in the region. Morrow (pictured) previously worked at asset manager DWS for seven years. Before that, he was a client portfolio director for real estate and infrastructure at Aviva Investors for three years until 2013. In his new role he will be based in London and lead on capital raising in Europe excluding Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Morrow’s hire is the latest in a string of capital markets appointments at the firm. In March, Hines hired Mohammed Fayad to lead on capital raising in the Middle East and Africa. Fayad is based in Dubai and joined from investment firm Safanad, where he was a senior executive officer. Additionally, in January Sebastian Wohlers joined the firm as a managing director in the capital markets team from global investment management firm Barings, where he was responsible for German-speaking investor coverage. He is based in Frankfurt and leads Hines’s capital raising activity in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Michael Krause, managing director for investment management, moved into a newly created role last year leading investor relations for the EMEA capital markets team, based in London. He was previously a separate account manager at Hines and has been with the firm for 13 years. The hires bring the EMEA capital markets team at Hines to a total of nine people, under the leadership of senior managing director and head of EMEA capital markets Michael Haas. Haas said: “While capital markets activity has clearly reduced since the outbreak of Covid-19, especially compared to last year’s success, we are confident in it rebounding, particularly for our flagship activities across Europe, the US and Asia – based on both our existing and new relationships with institutional partners. “This will be supported by the meaningfully expanded capital markets expertise in EMEA.” Last year, Hines recorded €2.35bn of commitments from its European clients – the highest level since its European presence was established in 1991. In Q4 2019, Hines launched HEVF 2, the second iteration of the Hines European Value Fund. It has raised more than €710m since first closing in December. Meanwhile, the open-ended Hines Pan-European Core Fund has raised more than €850m over the past 18 months. To send feedback, e-mail pui-guan.man@egi.co.uk or tweet @PuiGuanM or @estatesgazette Photo courtesy of FTI Consulting