Probitas Partners Expands Real Estate Funds Placement Franchise
Posted on: 19/12/2006
Probitas Partners, the global alternative investment, placement and advisory franchise, announced today the addition of two professionals to focus on placing real estate, hard asset and other related alternative investment funds. Alan Bear and David Wherritt join the firm’s San Francisco office.
Probitas Partners recently closed two oversubscribed real estate funds. In 2006, KSL Capital Partners II, a travel and leisure-focused fund with an initial target of $750 million, closed on over $1 billion, and pan-European focused Benson Elliot Real Estate Partners II, with a target of €300 million, closed on €335 million. The expanded attention to real estate and hard asset funds continues Probitas Partners’ focus on the space; senior professionals at Probitas Partners have raised several billion dollars of capital for real estate funds over the past ten years.
Mr. Bear has over twenty years of real estate investment and consulting experience. He joins as a Principal who will lead Probitas Partners’ real estate fund selection and placement, leveraging the firm’s deep bench of investor and general partner relationships. Prior to joining Probitas Partners, Mr. Bear had his own transactional and strategic investment advisory services business. He has also served as a Managing Director for The Roulac Group and was previously associated with Arthur Andersen as the Director of Institutional Real Estate Services. Mr. Bear earned his BBA from the University of Wisconsin.
“I am particularly excited to join a market-leading placement franchise and take it to the next level. We maintain an exceptionally high bar in our fund selection and, to continue the successful real estate record established by the firm to date, we will likely raise only two or three of the best offerings in any given year,” said Mr. Bear. “As with all our placements, we maintain selection discipline by investing substantially as a firm in funds that we raise. We feel this strongly differentiates us in the investor community and aligns us long-term with our general partner and limited partner clients.”
Mr. Wherritt joins Probitas Partners as an Associate. Previously, he served as an Analyst in the Real Estate Private Fund Group of Credit Suisse where, as a member of a ten-person distribution team, over $17 billion in private equity commitments for twenty-six unique transactions has been raised since 2002. Mr. Wherritt holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley.
“We are pleased to have Alan and David join our team to enhance our real estate and hard asset presence,” said Partner, Michael Hoffmann. “We chose to expand our capabilities in the real estate markets now. While many investors have made significant investments in the largest opportunity funds globally, we see growing demand from sophisticated investors who seek focused, differentiated and outperforming return strategies that balance and complement their maturing portfolios. We are confident of our ability to continue to identify, invest in and place the best of those funds.”
Probitas Partners, founded in 2001, is an employee-owned, independent provider of global, alternative investment solutions. Probitas Partners has three integrated practices that include placement of private equity funds, portfolio management and liquidity management. The firm continues to select and raise capital annually for a limited number of the highest quality private equity funds globally and is a leading intermediary and provider of liquidity advice to institutional sellers as evidenced by the more than $1.5 billion in transfers it has completed.
To see how FranchiseUK can help you franchise your franchise business click here.
