(LONDON) – Hines, the international real estate firm, is set to launch Hines European Property Partners (HEPP), its new diversified, open-ended core-plus fund focused on key European markets. Jorge Duarte, who joins Hines from Barings, has been appointed as Fund Manager.
HEPP will leverage Hines’ expertise and boots on the ground presence in 16 offices across Europe to identify investment opportunities in Europe’s most dynamic urban centers and gateway cities. The Fund will seek to acquire and develop sustainable assets across a range of sectors including logistics, office, living – residential, student and senior housing. HEPP will launch later this year and aims to attract €1bn in investor equity to the strategy in the first 12 months from launch.
The Fund will combine Hines’ proprietary research framework with its execution platform to grow a portfolio of high-quality income-producing assets. The strategy will seek to maximize value at the asset level through active management while undertaking select developments to create next-generation products to hold.
HEPP will sit alongside its global sister funds, Hines U.S. Property Partners (HUSPP) and Hines Asia Property Partners (HAPP), providing investors with a family of regionally targeted, diversified, open-ended core-plus funds using the same combination of strong local teams and tailored investment strategies to suit relevant sub-markets. HUSPP and HAPP, both of which launched in 2021, have already secured c$2.5 billion in combined commitments.
HEPP will complement Hines existing European funds, the Hines European Core Fund (HECF) and the Hines European Value Fund (HEVF) series. Both HECF and Hines European Value Fund 2 (HEVF 2) have market-leading ESG credentials as recognized by GRESB, each with long track records of delivering strong returns for clients.
Jorge Duarte, who has been appointed Fund Manager of HEPP, brings to Hines two decades of experience in investment management and fund analysis. Jorge joins Hines from Barings, where he worked for over six years, most recently as Managing Director and Head of Core Investing in Europe. He was responsible for strategy and investment selection for an open-ended pan-European real estate equity fund and oversaw the fund’s launch. Jorge spent an additional five years at AXA IM Real Assets, where he worked as Fund Manager of a pan-European value-add fund, and a further three years as Country Manager – Southern Europe at Howard Holdings.
Alex Knapp, Chief Investment Officer for Europe, at Hines, commented: “The success of HUSPP and HAPP indicates the global appetite for diversified and open-ended funds capable of data-driven, cross-sector investment and value creation. HEPP will add to this family of funds, while benefiting from Hines’ established sector-leading credentials in ESG focused European development and investment through our Core and Value Funds. Our European team of more than 650 people, with 16 local offices is well-positioned to provide excellent deal pipeline along with the very best in execution quality.”
Jorge Duarte, Fund Manager of HEPP at Hines, added: “After spending more than 20 years in portfolio analysis and fund management, the opportunity to work alongside real estate specialists to establish a dynamic new vehicle in Europe drew me to Hines. The firm’s boots-on-the-ground approach, deep sector and technical expertise, and access to global capital is impressive and provides a strong platform to create another unique and high-quality vehicle for real estate investment in Europe.”
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About Hines
Hines is a privately owned global real estate investment firm founded in 1957 with a presence in 255 cities in 27 countries. Hines oversees investment assets under management valued at approximately $83.6 billion¹. In addition, Hines provides third-party property-level services to more than 367 properties totaling 138.3 million square feet. Historically, Hines has developed, redeveloped or acquired approximately 1,486 properties, totaling over 492 million square feet. The firm has more than 171 developments currently underway around the world. With extensive experience in investments across the risk spectrum and all property types, and a foundational commitment to ESG, Hines is one of the largest and most-respected real estate organizations in the world.
Since entering Europe in 1991, Hines has grown its European platform to include offices in 16 cities as well as a presence in 62 cities in 13 countries. Hines oversees investment assets under management valued at approximately €21.7 billion and provides third-party property-level services totaling 3.9 million square meters in Europe, in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, The Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.
Visit www.hines.com for more information.
1. Includes both the global Hines organization as well as RIA AUM as of 30 June 2021.
About the Hines European Value Fund 2 (HEVF 2)
HEVF 2 is a euro-denominated, Luxembourg-based investment fund launched in December 2019. Managed by Hines, its objective is to acquire a portfolio of core-plus and value add profile commercial real estate investments throughout the major European markets on behalf of an institutional investor group. Whilst the fund has broad flexibility across sectors, the portfolio is largely focused in Logistics, Residential and Office usages.
HEVF 2 follows its predecessor HEVF 1 (2017 vintage) in continuing the flagship HEVF series for Hines in Europe, alongside the Hines European Core Fund (HECF) open-ended core flagship vehicle.
About Hines European Core Fund (HECF)
The HECF was set up in 2006 with the aim of providing investors with a resilient income profile and benchmark’s outperformance, derived from a diversified portfolio of high-quality assets located in prime locations across major European cities. As of Q4 2021 the HECF portfolio was 97% occupied with an aggregate fund value of c.€2.8bn. The portfolio of the Fund comprised 35 assets including forward commitments, invested in 16 city markets across ten different European countries.
