REAL ESTATE - The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), one of the world’s largest fund managers, is recruiting a real estate investment manager for its European portfolio.

The new fund manager will manage direct investments, including joint ventures. The London-based new hire will also be responsible for due diligence on new investments.

The real estate arm of GIC, which was set up in 1981 to manage Singapore’s foreign reserves, relies for part of its portfolio on joint ventures and strategic alliances. The new role will involve maintaining continuing “flexible and typically longer-term” relationships with local partners.

Although the firm said it was looking for a fund manager who was both “ambitious and innovative”, it says its strategy focuses on “the search for value, not market fads. We aim for sustained good investment performance rather than bursts of short-term gains.”

GIC Real Estate’s investment strategy is both top-down and bottom-up. Its asset-allocation process sets the direction for its investment programme, with deal sourcing and evaluation handled locally.

Elsewhere, Aareal, the German real estate bank, has lost its UK and US heads. In a statement released on Thursday, the Wiesbaden bank said London-based Paul Stoneham was to leave the bank “at his own demand”. Paul Stone, who has worked for the bank since 2000 and was provisional co-head of the London branch during 2005, will take over from him.

Greg Allen, CEO of the bank’s US division, was apparently fired in early June. Michael Carter, previously managing director, has taken over the US operation. The bank gave no indication whether Carter’s was an interim appointment.

The personnel shifts follow the bank’s expansion early this month into Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) with the financing of one of the region’s largest office complexes. The UK’s London & Regional Properties acquired Warsaw’s Rondo 1 complex for €260m.

The firm said the deal – its largest financing project in the region to date – reflected its “commitment to continuously expand its presence in these markets”.