Barings hires as it expands business

The US investment manager expanded its real estate debt market to Asia and hired an analyst to join the local team.

Abhishek Srivastava has been appointed as a senior analyst as part of Barings' growth plan in the region.

Srivastava joins from Commonwealth Bank where he covered infrastructure and real estate.

Before that he spent nearly four years as a senior analyst at Macquarie Group.

Barings will issue an aggregate of $259.3 million in loans in Australia, as well as a $120 million loan in New Zealand.

Incidentally, the property giant recently acquired Altis Property Partners which has since won $600 million in fresh commitments from global institutions for its real estate strategies.

"Expanding our loan book to APAC is an exciting and important step in the ongoing growth of our global real estate debt platform, which now has a combined total of more than $US30.6 billion of commitments," said Baring head of Europe and Asia-Pacific real estate debt Sam Mellor.

"All three loans have strong ESG credentials and the sponsors are highly regarded leaders in their markets, while residential real estate in Australia and New Zealand offers an attractive supply-and-demand dynamic."

Mellor added that the firm was uniquely positioned to provide financing solutions for borrowers as it has capital available across the risk-return spectrum from senior core loans, and whole loan transitional loans out to construction lending.

"We see a real opportunity in the APAC markets, driven by a gap in financing from traditional lenders."

Mellor said the deals complement Barings' real estate debt activities in the EMEA region and the property giant plans to further grow its loan book in APAC across residential, student housing, logistics, grade A office with strong ESG credentials and selectively in hospitality.