US-based privately-held developer-investor Hines has announced the appointment of Xavier Musseau as president of Hines France effective October 1.
The appointment signals the completion of the period of transition with Patrick Albrand, which began last summer.
Albrand, who founded Hines France with Olivier de Dampierre, is stepping away from his leadership role to assume a more strategic focus after more than 25 years at the helm. Appointed managing director in 1995, Albrand took over as president of Hines France in 2014. He played a particularly decisive role in establishing the platform for Hines in France and its subsequent development over the years.
When he first joined Hines in 2000, Xavier Musseau, aged 52, headed up the finance and acquisition team. Promoted to managing director in 2013, he put together a team responsible for investment management activities, covering the supervision of acquisitions, asset management and project financing.
In the past five years, Musseau has overseen over €4 bn of acquisitions involving office and retail buildings on behalf of Hines' funds and third-party sources of capital. He is also president of Hines SGP, Hines’ management company licensed by French Financial Market Authorities AMF in 2018.
Previously, Musseau spent 10 years in banking working for Credit Lyonnais, covering different domains including structured financing for the real estate sector.
Hines has traditionally focused on offices in Paris and La Défense business district and this will continue to be a main focus, according to Musseau. Investments are largely made through Hines' two European funds: the Hines Pan European Core Fund set up to acquire core assets driven by revenue, and the Hines European Value Fund, a closed fund with an opportunist acquisition strategy across all asset categories.
To supplement office, Hines has recently made its foray in the managed residential sector – with the appointment of Julien Dunand to the position of director of Living last year – as well as in the logistics segment with the development of last mile logistics platforms.
