5 Nov 2014

M7 Real Estate Appoints Chris Pope to Open Paris Office in European Platform Expansion

5th November 2014 – M7 Real Estate, the pan-European investor and asset manager specialised in multi-let light industrial properties, has appointed Chris Pope as managing director to expand the company’s European platform by opening its first office in France.

Pope, 53, was head of portfolio management in Patrizia’s Paris office. He oversaw asset management for the Tamar European Industrial Fund (TEIF), which is being acquired and delisted from the London Stock Exchange by the M7 and Starwood joint venture, MStar Europe. Also joining Pope in the new French office on the outskirts of Paris will be his colleague at Patrizia, Olivier Brunet, who will be taking a senior asset management role for M7.

Richard Croft, M7’s Chief Executive, said: “Chris and Olivier give immediate momentum to M7’s growth ambitions in France. They bring first-hand knowledge of the TEIF assets plus a wealth of experience in the French light industrial and warehousing market, where our joint venture partners and we see tremendous investment opportunities. This will be M7’s fifth new office opening in continental Europe since the start of 2013 and it will not be the last.”

Pope’s career in real estate spans 30 years, about half of which have been in Paris, where he established the Kenmore office in 2004. Previously he also worked for RBS’s Paris real estate finance team and in DTZ’s London office in various agency and asset management roles.

Brunet, 35, was responsible for the asset management of Patrizia’s portfolio of light industrial and warehouse assets, mostly in the Paris region, while he spent six of his 10 years in real estate working for Regus’s accounting team in the French capital.

MStar Europe’s public offer for TEIF was accepted by 96.4% of shareholders last month, allowing the compulsory purchase of the remaining shares and the delisting of the company. The offer for TEIF valued its portfolio of 36 properties at approximately €130 million. TEIF’s 27 French assets comprise almost 170,000 sq. m. of space, which is currently divided into 186 units.

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