Citi has bolstered its London-based commercial real estate finance team with the appointment of Tom Jackivicz from Morgan Stanley.
Jackivicz joined the bank this week to head commercial real estate loan origination and distribution after 24 years at Morgan Stanley.
For the past nine years he has been based in London, recently as a managing director working in securitisation within the bank’s capital markets team.
The hire signals Citi’s positioning itself for growth opportunities as investors return to European real estate looking for finance for big-ticket assets and non-performing loan portfolio deals.
Citi’s mandate involves using its balance sheet to provide commercial real estate finance across Europe with the primary aim of distributing loans to clients through syndication and securitisation.
Since fully restarting the ?business in 2011, Citi has completed a number of headline deals, including a €500m (£410m) loan jointly with Royal Bank of Canada to Lone Star for its €1.1bn purchase of German property company TLG Immobilien.
Last year, it teamed up with Ares Real Estate to bid for Deutsche Postbank’s €1.9bn predominantly UK commercial real estate loan book, in the Project Tower process, but was pipped by GE Capital Real Estate.
Citi’s commercial real estate finance business is headed by Wesley Barnes. Fred Jallot heads structured credit for Europe and Marcus Giancaterino heads commercial real estate lending globally.
As the European commercial market recovers, investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are preparing for more activity. Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan are also said to be recruiting for heads of real estate finance.
bridget.oconnell@estatesgazette.com
