Amro Partners has hired Leo Hertog as managing director, chief investment officer within its dedicated student housing arm Amro Student Living, to accelerate the firm’s growth in Europe and support its planned expansion into the UK student housing sector in 2025.
Hertog will also take on the interim role of acting co-head for Northern Europe alongside Pablo Garcia-Morales Osorio, replacing Rainer Nonnengässer who will depart the firm at the end of this year to take up a new position within the industry.
Hertog brings with him over fifteen years’ experience in sourcing, acquiring and managing real estate investments across Europe, including student housing, residential, retail, hotel and offices.
In his most recent role as director of real estate at APG Asset Management, Hertog managed more than €2.2 bn equity in pan-European student housing and residential assets, including development projects.
Since 2015 he has managed investments in more than 50 student housing assets and developments in key European cities such as London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Florence, Vienna and Dublin.
Hertog was formerly a director of UK student housing provider Scape Living and managed the £1 bn GCP Student Living Plc take-private, alongside IQ and Blackstone. He was a board member of The Social Hub (formerly known as The Student Hotel) with a hybrid student housing accommodation and hospitality business model.
He managed APG’s investment in the integrated company since 2015 and, together with GIC, acquired Aermont’s controlling stake in the company valuing it at €2.1 bn. He has also sat on numerous other boards, investment and advisory committees relating to real estate investments undertaken by APG.
Based in London, he will work closely with Amro Chairman and CEO Raj Kotecha, European Managing Director for Investment Pablo Garcia-Morales Osorio and the in-country investment teams to originate, structure and deploy capital across Amro’s existing student housing markets of Spain, Germany, Netherlands and Portugal, as well as its planned expansion into the UK student housing space.
Hertog commented: 'As a vertically integrated developer and operator with local teams in 5 key European countries, Amro Partners is very well positioned to create a sizeable next generation ESG-leading student housing platform.
'The European student housing market has excellent fundamentals: growing demand, a severe supply-demand imbalance and a large number of existing (public) student housing assets which fail to meet student expectations nor ESG standards.
'Combined with the proven counter-cyclical performance, student housing is top of every investor’s wish list. Leveraging my strong experience and relationships in the European student housing space, I look forward to working with the team to build on their track record and grow the company’s presence in existing and new markets.'
Amro Partners chairman and CEO, Raj Kotecha, added: 'Leo is well known to the Amro team and we are delighted to have him join us at this crucial stage in our growth journey.
'He brings a wealth of experience to the table which will prove invaluable as we strengthen our proposition as a specialist European living sector asset manager working with larger scale institutional capital partners.
'Rainer Nonnengässer leaves with our very best wishes for the future and I’d like to personally thank him for his important contribution. We are at an advanced stage of closing our investment partnerships for Northern Europe and I look forward to announcing these together with new senior team hires for the region in the coming weeks.'
