Wellington Management has poached four executives from Pimco’s commercial real estate (CRE) debt team to launch its private real estate credit platform.
The asset manager has hired Ravi S. Anand as its new head of private real estate credit. Most recently, he was executive vice president, global co-head of CRE debt and head of US private CRE debt at Pimco. Prior that he worked at real estate private equity firm CIM Group and GE Capital Real Estate.
Wellington has also appointed Zeyu Chen as portfolio manager, Michael Chen as principal and Lucas Dias-Lam as an associate, who all previously worked together at Pimco.
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“This highly skilled and experienced team is a significant and timely expansion of Wellington’s ongoing efforts to build a global, scalable, private investing platform that provides differentiated solutions and investment capabilities for our clients,” said Emily Bannister, head of private credit at Wellington Management. “We are confident that this team brings strong and valuable origination, underwriting, and structuring expertise that will enhance our current suite of offerings.”
The team, based in New York, will focus primarily on originating senior and subordinated loans across property sectors in North America, with the potential to expand to global markets.
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“There is growing and persistent demand for debt solutions within the global commercial real estate markets,” said Anand.
“This comes at a time where structural shifts in the banking industry continue to constrict supply of capital, providing a unique opportunity for private managers to fill the lending gap for institutional real estate owners and operators.”
Wellington manages more than $1.2tn (£0.93tn) across fixed income, equity, real assets, and alternatives, including over $180bn in structured credit, real assets, and REIT strategies.
The firm’s private credit platform spans investment-grade private credit, growth lending and CLO equity.
Wellington recently announced the final close of its inaugural Wellington CLO Partners Fund I with $194m of capital commitments.
