Peakside Capital has appointed Frank Schäfer as managing director and head of business development, signalling aspirations to magnify the company’s investor base and further broaden its range of investment products.
The 46-year-old joined on 1 January and is responsible for investor relations, capital raising as well as product development.
Prior to Peakside, Schäfer was managing director in Frankfurt at US investor-developer Tishman Speyer where he was responsible for establishing Tishman Speyer Investment Management KVG and expanding the institutional investment management business. He previously held various positions at Credit Suisse Group in Zurich and Frankfurt, including global head of product & business development of the real estate investment management division and managing director of Credit Suisse Asset Management Immobilien KVG in Germany.
Peakside celebrates its 10th year in business in 2020 and manages assets worth over €1.5 bn. It was established mainly as an opportunistic and value added real estate investment manager in Central and Eastern Europe. It is particularly focussed on Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, with a smaller venture in Slovenia. The firm employs more than 30 people in Frankfurt, Warsaw, Prague and Luxembourg.
Stefan Aumann, founding partner, explained how the company planned to continue with its current business lines and to add to them. It is currently investing PREF III, which reached a €200 mln hard cap and firepower of €650 mln in September 2018. One of the immediate capital missions in 2020 will be to launch the next fund in the PREF value-add fund series, PREF IV.
Aumann further explained the firm has frequently been offered lower yield investment opportunities that it has passed up because it lacked both the mandate and appropriate investment capital. Peakside hopes that Schäfer’s experience and contacts will help take advantage of such investments by increasing its core and core-plus products.
Aumann added: ‘With Frank Schäfer, we have been able to win an experienced sales and product development specialist for our management team. He has a broad network of contacts among institutional investors built over many years. With his extensive experience, we will be able to expedite the further expansion and diversification of our institutional business.’
Schäfer described Peakside as having an entrepreneurial spirit with an ambition ‘to take the platform to the next level'.
