Allianz Real Estate further expands its capability by hiring Megan Walters as Global Head of Research

Alongside opening offices in London, Stockholm and Luxembourg, the firm has attracted several industry experts, including Michael Cale as Co-Head of Debt Investments and Karen Horstmann as Head of Equity Acquisitions in the US, Kari Pitkin as Head of Business Development for Europe, Shripal Shah as Head of Debt Origination in London, and Jenny Lindholm as Director Nordics in Stockholm. Key appointments within the Asia Pacific team include Chiang Wei Ng, Head of Asset Management, and Charles Kwak, Head of Transaction Services.

“2019 has been an active year for Allianz Real Estate – both from an investment perspective and in the way that we are developing our business. We recently announced our AUM had reached EUR67.1bn, and we have achieved the first milestones of our third-party ambitions. This was achieved through launching our European Debt fund and announcing the first equity deal in which we have acquired and will manage an asset on behalf of a joint venture including a third-party institutional investor wishing to invest alongside Allianz” said Francois Trausch, CEO Allianz Real Estate. “But growth cannot be sustained without the necessary infrastructure which is why we have opened three new offices this year, bringing our total to 21, and hired a range of industry experts around the world.”

Joining Allianz Real Estate on 1st November, Megan will report to Chief Investment Officer, Olivier Teran, and will initially be based in the firm’s Singapore office before relocating her family to Europe. With over 20 years of experience in global real estate, Megan joins from JLL Asia Pacific where she was a member of the JLL Global Research executive team and held the position of Head of Research Asia Pacific.

Olivier Teran, Chief Investment Officer, added: “The sophisticated nature of our clients mean that we are in a strong position to add new strategies each year. Our growth comes from those new strategies – be that new geographies, asset classes or ways of investing. The breadth of strategies that we are now overseeing, alongside our move to managing real estate for third parties, requires us to structure our research team as a global department and I am pleased to welcome Megan as head of the global team.”