Real Estate Equity Giant Lone Star Names New CEO

Lone Star Funds has appointed a new CEO and global president as it positions itself on the offensive. 

Donald Quintin, who has been with the company since 2010, will be stepping into the roles, the Dallas-based investment giant announced. He most recently served as president of opportunity funds, during which he oversaw fundraising and strategies surrounding the firm’s opportunity fund and residential mortgage fund. 

Lone Star has capitalized on past times of distress. In the last downturn, it bought distressed loan portfolios from banks in the UK, Ireland, Spain and Japan. Now, it is raising funds to once again turn trash into cash.

So far, it has raised $2B for its seventh opportunistic real estate fund, which has an equity target of $6B. However, the latest fund doesn't target the office sector.

In recent years, Lone Star became a significant investor in the hotel sector. In 2021, it bought five luxury hotels from Host Hotels & Resorts for $551M and made investments in the UK hospitality space.

Lone Star's founder and owner, billionaire John Grayken, remains listed as chairman on Lone Star’s website. Quintin is the first CEO and president of the firm, which Grayken had been run for nearly three decades.

A spokesperson declined to comment to Bisnow beyond the press release.

Since its first fund in 1995, Lone Star has organized 23 private equity funds covering commercial real estate, opportunistic investments and the U.S. residential mortgage sector, with aggregate capital commitments totaling approximately $87B. 

The firm has closed or committed to more than 500 investments in more than 2,300 transactions at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $257B, it said in a news release. It is one of the 40 largest private equity real estate managers in the world, according to PERE, with more than $6B raised in the last five years.