LONDON-Madison International Realty, based in New York City, hasopened its first office here, and has hired Sean Kelly-Rand as thedirector, to secure opportunities with UK and Ireland-basedinvestors. Kelly-Rand is a former European-based executive withLehman Bros.

“We felt that it was the appropriate time to expand, as we areexperiencing heightened demand from existing core real estateinvestors for the kind of exit strategies we offer,” says RonaldDickerman, Madison founder and president.

The company provides equity capital to real estate owners andinvestors seeking to provide an exit strategy for their existinginvestors, de-lever their properties or who wish to monetize aportion of their ownership position. The firm invests only insecondary transactions as principals on behalf of its privateequity funds, with more than $1 billion in capital commitments.“We’re basically professional substitute investors,” Dickermansays.