Commerz Real has named Johannes Anschott interim CEO as it searches for a successor to replace Andreas Muschter who is leaving to join European hotel investor The Student Hotel as CFO.

Muschter had been CEO of the €34bn manager since January 2013 and was responsible for asset management and acquisitions as well as the “transformation of the company into a sustainable digital asset manager”, Commerz Real said.

He had already been a member of the board of management as CFO since December 2009. Prior to this, he was responsible for the merger and acquisition activities of the Commerzbank Group.

Commerz Real said Anschott will take on the interim CEO role in addition to his current responsibilities which include asset structuring, financing, treasury, infrastructure and renewable energies, movable leasing and sales since April 2016.

Prior to this, Anschott had worked for Commerzbank in Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and London since 2000, among other things as country manager UK chairman of the management for key accounts in northern Germany and Scandinavia.

Michael Mandel, the chairman of the supervisory board of Commerz Real, said under the management of Muschter Commerz Real has developed into a leading German and international asset manager for real asset investments.

“We would like to thank him for the extraordinarily successful collaboration and wish him all the very best for the future.

“At the same time we are pleased to be able to have Johannes Anschott, a highly experienced member of the board of management, at the reins of the company during this period of transition.”

Mandel said the move had already been planned for some time but was delayed as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.

“In this respect, we would once again like to expressly thank Andreas Muschter for having securely guided Commerz Real through the lock-down phase.”

“After many years in a large group of companies I am attracted by the exciting task of developing at international level a relatively young company with an innovative concept,” Muschter said.

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