M7 Appoints Hugh Ellingham as Non-Executive Chairman

12th November 2014 – M7 Real Estate, the pan-European investor and asset manager, specialised in multi-let light industrial properties, has appointed Hugh Ellingham as non-executive chairman to work closely with the senior management team as the company expands its platform across Europe and builds on its family of proprietary funds and joint venture partnerships.

Richard Croft, CEO of M7 Real Estate, said: “Hugh is a property entrepreneur whose skills in financial structuring and M&A, plus his considerable experience in building up businesses, will guide M7 in its future development. He brings an international insight to our business, which has already undergone rapid growth and change in the past 18 months as it has expanded into mainland Europe.”

Ellingham, 57, brings more than 35 years of real estate experience, the last six years as CEO of the property arm of Richardsons Capital and of Jersey-based advisors Atlantic Partners. Before taking these roles, he spent four years as Managing Director of Somerston Capital, which built up a 4,000-bed hotel portfolio, operated under the Holiday Inn Express brand and sold for £450 million in 2007. Prior to that, Ellingham worked for 25 years at Richard Ellis, which became part of CBRE, in a variety of senior and international roles.

Hugh Ellingham said: “M7’s market leading data systems and extensive experience of multi-occupied real estate make it ideally positioned to generate high returns in the current market cycle and to create reliable long-term income streams from substantial portfolios of mainly short-term leases. This will become a growing requirement across all sectors of the European property market and offers significant upside potential for those, like M7, with the necessary combination of strategic skills and local coverage.”

Founded in 2009 with an initial focus on the U.K., M7 has more than doubled its staff to 63 people in the past year as it opened offices in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Paris and Warsaw. The expansion of M7’s platform stems from joint ventures it has formed with H.I.G. Capital, Oaktree Capital Management and Starwood Capital Group to invest in continental European markets. In the UK, the company moved into a new headquarters building in the summer in London’s up-and-coming Bankside district.