Schäfer-Surén to head new hotel/leisure unit at Internos

Internos Real Investors, the EUR 1.5 bn owner-managed real estate fund management firm, has announced the appointment of Jochen Schäfer-Surén as partner and head of Internos’ Hotel and Leisure Division, with effect from 1 January 2011. He will also join Internos’ Executive and Investment Committees.

With 25 years of experience in the industry, Schäfer-Surén has until this year served as Head of Hotel & Leisure Fund Management and a member of the Global Executive Committee at Invesco Real Estate, where he was responsible for founding the Hotel and Leisure Fund Management business. During his 10 years at Invesco Real Estate, he designed the strategy for and raised EUR 350 mln equity for Invesco’s first European hotel real estate fund. Until this year, he was responsible for the fund’s acquisitions of a diversified portfolio of hotels worth approximately EUR 700 mln, as well as its asset and fund management.

Under Schäfer-Surén's management, this hotel fund, now fully invested, has achieved target dividend returns every year since 2007 and a stable NAV. While at Invesco, he was also responsible for a EUR 300 mln separate account mandate for hotel investments on behalf of the Generali insurance group.

Prior to this Schäfer-Surén worked at investment bank Lazard & Co as well as for the Meridien, Hilton and Trusthouse Forte hotel groups in New York, Paris and London. During his career he has managed over EUR 3.5 bn of hotel and leisure transactions in Europe, North America and Asia.



Jochen Schäfer-Surén, commented: “I am delighted to be joining Internos as a partner since Internos clearly now has the dynamism and platform to grow and as an owner managed business can offer investors unparalleled level of service, stability of senior staff and alignment of interest. I look forward to building a dedicated hotel and leisure team as part of the wider Internos business. Given the start of a recovery in the hotel sector and real estate investment markets, I see this as an excellent time to use our combined experience to offer investors enticing opportunities in this specialist sector.”

Internos’ Executive Chairman, Jos Short, commented: “Both Andrew Thornton and I have worked closely with Jochen in the past; when I was head of Lazard & Co’s real estate investment banking group and Andrew, as COO of Invesco’s European real estate business, worked with him for seven years which included the design, capital raising and closing of Invesco’s first successful hotel real estate fund.

“We are delighted to have a professional of Jochen’s calibre join Internos and are extremely excited by the opportunity of building Internos’ Hotel and Leisure Division. In the coming years, we are likely to see significant opportunities emerge in this sector and with Jochen on board will be able to leverage its European platform and seize opportunities as they arise.”