Pimco Shakes Up Real Estate Leadership
The global co-head of Pimco’s commercial real estate private lending is leaving at the end of the year, less than a year after being promoted to the role, PERE reports.
Ravi Anand joined Pimco in 2018 and became co-head of the investing giant's private real estate lending arm at the same time as Roman Kogan. Kogan, who joined the company in 2020, will take over as sole leader, PERE reported.
Kogan is an executive vice president and portfolio manager for private real estate debt, per his LinkedIn and Pimco’s website. He will be working alongside Pimco Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager Will Dionisio, according to PERE.
The person who has held those titles most recently, Zeyu Chen, has also left, PERE reported.
The firm has also made some new hires, including Matt Michalovsky as its head of U.S. commercial real estate equity. Michalovsky is coming to Pimco after almost three years as managing director at Denver-based investment firm ArrowMark Partners, per his LinkedIn, but was at Pimco from 2012 until 2022 as an executive vice president, PERE reported.
The exits and new hires at Pimco follow several shakeups over the summer that included the departure of Christoph Donner, CEO for the U.S. at Pimco Prime Real Estate, per PERE.
Donner’s exit was a planned retirement. Pimco Prime’s head of U.S. asset management, Peggy DaSilva, has taken on Donner’s role in addition to her existing role and reports to global CEO François Trausch, according to PERE.
Devin Chen and John Lee also left senior roles at Pimco over the summer, PERE reported. Chen moved to a role at Principal Asset Management last month, his LinkedIn shows, while John Lee's LinkedIn now lists him as chief operating officer at BioMed Realty. Three other executives were promoted, including Seray Incoglu, Jungil Cha and Nick Minto.
Some of Pimco's vast real estate holdings have run into difficult waters in recent years. The company acquired office REIT Columbia Property Trust in a $3.9B deal in 2021 and wound up with a portfolio of distressed assets shortly thereafter.
As a Pimco subsidiary, Columbia Property defaulted in February 2023 on a $1.7B loan tied to seven office buildings in four cities spanning 5.5M SF. The firm recently obtained an extension on the loan, pushing maturity out to July 2025 with a six-month extension option. The deal came with a new appraisal, which wiped $700M from the properties' values.
Pimco is owned by German insurance giant Allianz SE and has more than $1.8T in total assets under management. It was merged with Allianz Real Estate in 2020, and Pimco's two real estate arms, Pimco and Pimco Prime Real Estate, managed a combined $189B in real estate investments at the end of March.
