Global investment banker and asset manager Alantra has hired real estate specialist Lahlou Khelifi as a managing director, its first in the property sector.
Khelifi specialises in real estate finance and advisory and will be part of the group's French team, based in the Paris office.
He has over 30 years of experience in the finance and real estate sector in Europe and also in South America, Asia and North Africa and Africa where he was involved in over €3 bn of real estate disposal.
He started his career at the French Caisse des Dépôts in 1987 where he worked on several real estate projects as Kléber Palace in Paris or Antigone in Montpellier.
In 1996, he was appointed deputy general manager of Sefimeg where he managed a real estate portfolio of 1 million m2 of office and retail space and 10,000 residential units. Two years later he joined Goldman Sachs in charge of the Whitehall portefolio for the management of real estate investment in France, Germany and Switzerland.
In 2005, he joined Doughty Hanson Group, where he worked on the 2nd European fund raising campaign. In 2006, he became managing partner at Lazard bank where he worked on several projects as the Gan Tower, Cœur Défense, Royal Monceau Hotel.
He was appointed CEO of Mercialys, the real estate subsidiary of Casino Group, in 2013.
Santiago Eguidazu, executive chairman of Boston-headquartered Alantra Groupe said: 'We are excited to welcome Lahlou who joined our French team and our first managing director in the real estate sector. He bring us his wealth of expertise and relationships as a cornerstone of our expanding real estate practice.'
