GERMANY - Sylvia Seeger has been named as the first German-language client relationship manager at Henderson's German operations in Frankfurt.

Seeger will now service the UK manager's German, Austrian and Swiss institutional clients for Henderson's property offerings, having previously worked in the administrative department at Henderson Global Investors.

"Henderson's German operations have now reached a size at which it makes sense to have someone in the Frankfurt office who services our German language clients," Michael Englisch, head of Henderson's German operations, explained to IPE Real Estate.

Henderson started its German real estate operations for institutional clients with a sales team two years ago. Prior to that five years ago, the manager signed a co-operation agreement with German private bank Warburg.

"Apart from the 50 German investors in our subsidiary Warburg-Henderson, we ourselves have over 20 institutional investors in Germany," he added.

With the recently-launched German shopping centre fund, Henderson hopes to increase its German investor base further although the fund is also open to international investors.

Englisch confirmed foreign investors have become increasingly interested in the German real estate market in the last two years mainly for portfolio diversification purposes.

Henderson has also increased its real estate team in London where the company combined its marketing and client relationship operations.

Michael Patrick was named new head of marketing for Henderson's European real estate business, having joined from Legal & General where he had a similar role.

Claire Tily now heads Henderson's multi-language client service operations in London and reports to Patrick.

"We increased our team in London because in future the fight for clients will become tougher as markets are no longer only developing upwards," Englisch explained.

"For investors a good risk/return profile will remain important in selecting a manager but ‘soft factors' such as client service and transparent reporting will become increasingly relevant."

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