Former Blackstone and Royal Bank of Scotland executive Lorna Brown has joined Legal & General Investment Management Real Assets.
Brown has been appointed head of real estate debt, EMEA, at the pension fund having left Blackstone in the first half of last year.
The appointment at L&G is the latest sign of the company’s ambitions to strengthen its presence in the market as a lender and further highlights the evolving position of insurers and pension fund investors as providers of real estate debt. Last year, across infrastructure, corporate and real estate sectors L&G deployed £2.7bn last year across the UK, US, EMEA and Australia.
Brown joined Blackstone in 2011 to become managing director in its Blackstone Real Estate Debt Services (BREDS) division. She joined Blackstone from Royal Bank of Scotland where she was head of UK real estate restructuring and that move followed shortly after a deal for the private equity firm to joint venture with the bank to workout a £1.4bn distressed debt portfolio called Project Isobel. She joined RBS in 2000 and was involved in deal origination prior to her restructuring role that began at the onset of the global financial crisis in September 2008.
She will work alongside head of commercial lending at L&G Ashley Goldblatt. Steve Boyle, real estate lending manager, has left the company to join a debt brokerage firm.
Bill Hughes, head of LGIM Real Assets, said: “Our established private credit platform allows us to further capitalise on the synergies that exist across our infrastructure, property and corporate credit businesses. The growth of this part of the business is testament to our holistic real assets strategy, the increasing emphasis from our clients upon ‘outcome investing’, and demonstrates the deep cross sector expertise that we have embedded across the platform.”
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