REAL ESTATE - Boutique investment firm London & Capital will boost its real estate investment team under a new head of real estate funds.

The appointments come as part of a restructuring effort that will see Iain Keys assume overall responsibility for real estate. Keys previously identified and selected commercial properties for its UK real estate fund, which has posted a 77% return since its launch in 2003, UK public sector fund and German real estate fund.

London & Capital has also added an investment appraisal specialist, Phillip Kennedy, and a real estate asset manager, Carl Minter. It is currently recruiting a UK acquisitions manager and a senior fund manager to direct existing funds and launch new ones.

The firm hopes the restructuring will grow the institutional side of its real estate business from its current ratio of 35% institutional investors to 65% private investors.

London & Capital plans to launch a series of new real estate funds in the near future, including at least one Asian fund. A spokeswoman for the firm said the new funds would be “along similar lines to current funds”.

“We’ll be using the same model and adapting it to international markets,” she said.

In the next few months London & Capital will appoint country managers in the UK and Germany. In future, it will also appoint country managers to handle its emerging markets investments.