CBRE HIRES JAMES O’NEILL INTO EQUITY PLACEMENT TEAM
Global real estate advisor, CBRE, has appointed James O’Neill as a Senior Director into its Equity Placement business, part of CBRE Capital Advisors. The appointment is a key strategic hire for the Capital Advisors team as it looks to optimise the potential for growth of this important business sector, bringing together Investors, Developers and Fund Managers across global markets.
James joins from Legal and General Investment Management Real Assets (LGIM) where he spent five years as Head of the Client Capital Group, helping investors to access real estate investment opportunities. Prior to this he spent seven years at The Grosvenor Estate and four years at PWC.
In his new role James will be responsible for creating innovative equity and debt investment solutions that match investors needs with high quality investment managers and developers. The strength and depth of his existing network will further reinforce the team’s ability to partner CBRE’s investor base with international capital and service the continued growing appetite to invest in real estate.
In the past two years, CBRE’s Equity Placement team, led by Mark Evans, has raised and structured more than £6.85 billion of equity, including the recent £150 million equity raise for Octopus’ Healthcare Fund and the creation of a £100m funding line to support LendInvest’s new residential lending platform. The team forms part of CBRE Capital Advisors’ wider Corporate Finance capability, including Debt Advisory, Corporate Capital Markets and Strategic M&A advisory.
We are delighted that James has joined our growing Equity Placement team. The volume of global capital looking to deploy into real estate equity and debt strategies and diversify globally continues to grow and our clients are looking for increasingly innovative solutions. The strength of our Capital Markets offering, combining an innate understanding of the global real estate markets with comprehensive financial capabilities, means we are expertly placed to advise clients on the most creative structures.
I have long admired the skills and professionalism of the teams at CBRE and am very excited by the opportunities to continue to develop and expand the Capital Advisors business. I am looking forward to being part of a truly global business that can develop powerful, holistic solutions across all aspects of the real estate market.