Helaba has appointed Christian Schmid of Aareal Bank to replace the bank's departing head of real estate, Juergen Fenk.
Fenk, who has responsibility within the Helaba board of managing directors for the real estate lending and real estate management divisions, is leaving the bank at his own request in September after deciding not to stay for a second five-year term.
Attracting Schmid (pictured) from rival listed German bank Aareal will be seen as a coup for Helaba. His current role at Aareal is managing director covering business and syndication management in the bank’s structured property financing division.
Last year, he led one of Europe’s largest loans, a facility of up to €1 bn for Invesco Real Estate’s flagship open-ended fund, bringing in Allianz as a club lending partner on a complex deal involving several jurisdictions and currencies.
The year before the pair had partnered on a transaction to provide €630 mln to NorthStar Realty Finance Corp for the investor’s acquisition of a €1.1 bn pan-European office portfolio.
Schmid has had a 28-year career in banking, joining Aareal in October 2012, from Eurohypo where he was head of debt capital markets. Before that he worked for 13 years at Deutsche Bank.
Led by Fenk and his existing team, Helaba has been driving better management of its balance sheet through increasing debt distribution, something which sources said Schmid is eminently qualified to continue.
Fenk is expected to take a new role in real estate, after he leaves the bank.
