Christoph Wittkop, formerly managing director and real estate country head for Germany at Barings, has founded a new firm, Sonar Real Estate, which will capture part of Barings' local third party business.
Wittkop's new venture has agreed with Barings to spin-off its German non-core third party asset management and advisory mandates to Sonar Real Estate. Barings Germany will retain and continue to manage its investment management assets.
According to Wittkop, who plans to launch the venture in December from an office in Hamburg, the firm should kick off with around €1.2 bn assets under management.
Sonar will focus on commercial property in the office, retail and logistics sectors, specialising in core/core+, value-add and opportunistic. Special attention with also be paid to in-house or partnership development projects in these segments.
Wittkop said: 'Following our success at Barings, my co-founders and I are looking forward to the challenge of once again leading and expanding an owner-managed company at Sonar Real Estate. Our competent and experienced team, who have successfully worked together for many years, have an excellent network in the industry.
'We know what makes the market tick and how to manage, with success, challenges that are off the beaten track. For this reason, and in view of our impressive track record in recent years, we are firmly convinced that Sonar Real Estate will quickly become established as a competent partner for domestic and international investors in Germany.'
The target clients will be German and foreign investors seeking an entrepreneurial local partner in Germany and, if required, a co-investor, with a primary focus on value-add and opportunistic, the firm said.
The existing business of club deals and separate accounts from German institutional investors in regulated vehicles will also be further expanded.
For this, Sonar Real Estate will take over the mandates previously awarded to Barings by investors via the investor-KVG Institutional Investment Partners (2IP), active since 2012. Some €750 mln of the assets under management are already administered by 2IP.
In addition to Wittkop and Matthias Gerloff (head of German institutional investors and fund management), the other founding members of Sonar Real Estate are Nick Puschkasch (head of the Eastern Region and head of asset management) and Daniel Jäde (head of development and project management), all of whom transition from Barings Germany.
Sonar Real Estate begins its operation with offices in Hamburg, Berlin and Dusseldorf, and 17 employees. A new office in Frankfurt will shortly be established, which will be managed by a further managing partner from January 2021.
Wittkop, a qualified business economist and real estate economist, has been active in the real estate sector since 1997. Prior to joining Barings, he was a co-founder and managing director of Pamera Asset Management, until the company was acquired by Barings in 2014.
Between 2005 and 2010, as partner and CEO of asset manager Resolution, he headed the management of a real estate portfolio for well-known investors, focusing on value-add and opportunistic properties. Other positions held during his long career include roles at UBS Global Asset Management, Deutsche Bank and Eurohypo.
Photo L-R: Daniel Jäde, Christoph Wittkop, Matthias Gerloff, Nick Puschkasch
