Federated Hermes, the global investment manager, has appointed Dinesh Gautam as associate director in the real estate debt team.
Gautam, based in London in Federated Hermes' divisional headquarters, will report to director Paul Robinson to support the origination, structuring and execution of real estate loans, the firm said.
Federated Hermes said he will work with the team as it "continues to originate lending opportunities" and structure the right loans "to ensure income capture, and deliver long-term, risk-adjusted returns" for its investors. Federated Hermes has its global headquarters in Pittsburgh.
The firm added him at a time when access to capital to finance commercial property development has been limited. Some real estate professionals said they are hopeful recent interest rate moves by the Bank of England will make more money available for such projects.
Gautam joined from Bank J Safra Sarasin, where he was responsible for the underwriting, execution and restructuring of senior debt mandates secured against commercial real estate assets for high-net-worth families and United Kingdom corporations.
The private credit division of Federated Hermes has over $2 billion of assets under management. It works in Europe across direct lending and real estate debt investment strategies.
The latter was launched in 2015 and seeks to deliver "stable, uncorrelated, through-the-cycle returns from sustainable real estate assets, with a relative value approach to selecting opportunities, underpinned by an asset-focused and conservative" underwriting.
This appointment is part of the business’ growth strategy and follows the appointment of Robinson as director, origination and structuring in early 2024.
"Federated Hermes’ unique approach to originating attractive investment opportunities and prudent underwriting has enabled it to create a market-leading platform which I look forward to building on," Gautam said in a statement.
Also in a statement, Vincent Nobel, head of asset-based lending at Federated Hermes, said Gautam's "experience will assist us in sustaining our asset-focused and effective underwriting strategy.”