PARIS-AXA Investments plans to invest more than $13 billion (up to 10B EURO) in European real estate markets over the next five years, and managing it will fall to AXA Real Estate.
The global insurance and real estate firm is also building a dedicated team of infrastructure pros who will help develop the investment platform. Charles Dupont, a 15-year infrastructure specialist has been hired to direct that unit.
“Our decision to increase our exposure to the infrastructure debt asset class is in line with our global investment strategy,” said Laurent Clamagirand, AXA Group chief investment officer. “It meets our need to find long-term investments and diversify our credit portfolio in order to match the guarantees we offer our clients, and also demonstrates the role insurance companies can play in financing the real economy.”
Dupont has over 15 years of experience in infrastructure markets, both within the private equity side, as well as with major operating infrastructure businesses. He is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration. AXA Real Estate intends to bolster Dupont's team with additional appointments in the near future. Dupont will report to Isabelle Scemama, who is AXA Real Estate's Head of Real Asset Finance.
“Having established AXA Real Estate's Commercial Real Estate debt platform in 2005, we are now able to leverage the success and size of that market leading business, to place ourselves at the forefront of the infrastructure debt investment market,” said CEO Pierre Vaquier. “Charles has extensive expertise in infrastructure with diversified experience from the various sides of the business. I am delighted that he is joining AXA Real Estate, complementing the skills of the teams we have built under Isabelle Scemama's leadership and is able to contribute to the launch and subsequent development of this new infrastructure debt investment platform.”
On behalf of AXA, AXA Real Estate aims to underwrite infrastructure loans of up to $670 million (500M Euro) backed by assets located in established global economies, with a primary focus on core
European economies. AXA Real Estate has already identified a strong pipeline of potential investments.
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