Legal & General has announced a new appointment to its real estate team within its asset management private markets division.
Toby Creamer has joined the London based team in the newly created role as head of European transactions and will support the firm in sourcing and executing real estate transactions into mainland Europe, as tipped by PropertyEU last week.
With over 13 years of experience in European and UK real estate, Creamer joins Legal & General’s asset management division from CBRE Investment Management (CBRE IM), most recently as a portfolio manager of a €4 bn fund.
Whilst at CBRE IM he was a core member of the team that built the Europe Value Partners (EVP) series, raising and investing €2 bn over two funds within Europe. Prior to this role Creamer was a senior manager at Rockspring Property Investment Managers and an analyst at AEW Europe.
In his new role, Creamer will be focused on supporting the growth of L&G’s European real estate investment capabilities by sourcing, creating and executing long income transactions and other strategies – particularly in Western Europe.
He will work with the current UK team who have executed a significant quantity of transactions in the UK on behalf of Legal & General Institutional Retirement with an emphasis on sale & leasebacks and development fundings plus the capability to export structures adopted in the UK such as income strips and ground leases.
Creamer will report into Gordon Aitchison, head of transactions and will work closely with Neil Dovey, head of annuity transactions as well as Derek Gilby, long income fund manager on a day-to-day basis.
Commenting on the appointment, Aitchison said: 'We are delighted that Toby has joined us at such a pivotal moment for the business.
'His experience in European property markets will be integral to us developing a credible growth strategy in the regional support of our clients whilst forming part of our Group’s refreshed vision to scale its private markets capabilities.'
Said Creamer: 'I’m excited to be joining L&G’s Asset Management team following its recent strategic changes.
'Underpinned by L&G’s strong heritage in UK real estate, I’m thrilled to build on these strong foundations through new European transactions, further raising the firm’s profile in these markets.'
Creamer's appointment forms part of the firm’s ambitious growth strategy, aimed at expanding its presence in Europe and internationally.
Having opened offices in key markets across Europe and Asia during the past decade and expanded its team of regional experts, we believe there are strong foundations on which to build and position L&G’s asset management division for future growth.
