Morgan Stanley Names Co-CEOs of Real Estate Investing
Morgan Stanley's John Klopp
Morgan Stanley via Bloomberg
John R. Klopp has been named co-chief executive officer and co-chief investment officer of Morgan Stanley's real estate investing business.
John R. Klopp has been named co-chief executive officer and co-chief investment officer of Morgan Stanley's real estate investing business. Source: Morgan Stanley via Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley, the sixth-largest bank by assets, named John Klopp and Olivier de Poulpiquet as co-chief executive officers and co-chief investment officers of its real estate investing business.
Klopp and de Poulpiquet will report to Jay Mantz, who was named vice chairman of the unit, said Alyson Barnes, a spokeswoman for the New York-based firm. Owen Thomas, who was chairman and CEO of the real estate investing group, will remain chairman and will continue in his primary role of CEO of Morgan Stanley Asia, Barnes said.
Morgan Stanley had $43.6 billion of property assets under management as of June 30, according to its website. The bank is trying to return the unit to profitability after the firm recorded about $4.4 billion of real-estate losses in 2008 and 2009 amid the worst commercial property rout in about 20 years.
Klopp, 56, joined the firm as head of investing in Americas real estate and global property debt in February, after more than 20 years at Sam Zell’s Capital Trust Inc. and its predecessor. De Poulpiquet, who began his career at Morgan Stanley in 1994, rejoined the firm in April after leaving for Pirelli & C. Real Estate SpA in 2003.
Klopp will be based in New York, while de Poulpiquet will operate from London, Barnes said. Mantz was previously president and CIO of the group.
Fleming’s Role
Morgan Stanley also established an executive committee to oversee the real estate investing business. Greg Fleming, who joined the firm in February as head of asset management, will chair the panel.
Morgan Stanley raised $4.7 billion for a new global real estate fund earlier this year, the largest fund to close since 2008. The total funds raised were less than half the firm’s target before the financial crisis.
Morgan Stanley had an $887 million investment in real- estate funds as of June 30, the bank said in a regulatory filing. It said 49 percent of the fair value of its real-estate funds is likely to be liquidated in the next 10 years. The bank also had a $1.59 billion investment in private-equity funds and $1.75 billion in hedge funds, the filing said.
The Volcker rule, which was passed as part of the financial-overhaul bill in July, limits a bank’s total investments in such funds to 3 percent of its Tier 1 capital, which is $53.5 billion for Morgan Stanley. U.S. banks may have as long as a dozen years to cut their stakes under the law.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael J. Moore in New York at mmoore55@bloomberg.net.
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