Canadian institutional investor Ivanhoé Cambridge has expanded its European platform with the opening of an office in Berlin and the appointment of Christian Daumann as head of Investments for Germany.
In his new role, Daumann is tasked with bringing forward the implementation of the company's pan-European strategy and further expand the German real estate portfolio. He joins a strong European investment team with offices in Paris and London.
'We are delighted to welcome Christian to our European team and continue our activities in Germany with him,' said Karim Habra, head of Europe at Ivanhoé Cambridge. 'Last year, we pursued a pan-European strategy, with Germany as one of the primary target markets.'
The investment focus will be on manage-to-core and value-add strategies, especially in the office, logistics and residential asset classes in Germany's most dynamic cities.
Daumann has a 24-year track record of commercial real estate investment, asset management, fund management and distressed debt investing.
After starting his career at Landesbank Helaba, he joined Morgan Stanley in 2006 where, in his capacity as vice president, he was responsible for real estate asset management for core funds in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria. From 2008 to 2012, he headed the LNR Group, part of Cerberus, increasing the German property assets to €4.5 bn.
Subsequently, he became a member of the management board of the German-British company CR Investment Management and supported the expansion efforts of the group in the areas of underwriting, consulting and servicing at the European level. From 2015 to 2018, he was Chief Investment Officer at Hamburg Trust, partly owned by Colony Capital.
Ivanhoé Cambridge has been investing in Germany since 2007. Most recently, the company acquired nine residential properties in Berlin together with Round Hill Capital. It is currently finalising other transactions, the company said.
