Duncan Holmes is "stepping back into coalface asset management" after joining Sterling Property Ventures as a director, leaving PGIM Real Estate after eight years.
Holmes has around two decades' real estate experience and enters Sterling to head up its asset management function, which has a target to grow its assets under management to £1 billion. At PGIM, he was responsible for a circa £5 billion mixed UK portfolio.
He tells CoStar News that part of the appeal of joining Sterling was the possibility to be more hands on with asset management once again, as well as the chance to shape the relatively new division, which was established only last autumn.
Sterling had previously concentrated on development, but set up its asset management and investment arm after hiring Adam Crickmore, the former director of UK commercial fund management at Edmond de Rothschild, and Neil Ridley, who has 30 years’ experience in UK real estate.
Holmes tells CoStar News: "As you get further into your career, the natural process is to elevate and start running teams, I have absolutely no problem doing that, but I wanted to get back to a bit of coal-face asset management.
"Sterling has an established development platform in place, it just needed this last piece of the puzzle to offer the range of development and portfolio management and I thought I could get in there early and help start to shape this facet of the business, how it interacts with its existing assets, as well as shaping the philosophy and strategies behind the next phase, building a team and momentum around that."
He adds: "I've been around for over 20 years and have got a lot of experience, but I feel like that wasn't being fully utilised in a larger institution, so I wanted to put my expertise into a platform that is seeking to grow and develop."
Holmes says that his transition into the Sterling team, which he joined four weeks ago, was aided by previous exposure to the company, after working with them when at his former employer. He has also had spells in commercial and residential property management at M&G Real Estate and NB Real Estate.
One of Sterling's early deals this year came in the form of the acquisition of restaurant and pub owner Mitchells & Butlers’ Birmingham headquarters from Legal & General for £46 million. It also made a larger £236 million acquisition of a mixed portfolio of seven assets from BlackRock last month, acting on behalf of British Airways Pensions Trustees.
Those deals meant that the group increased its assets under management to around £450 million, close to halfway to its £1 billion target. Holmes says the team is "open to all opportunities" in terms of its future investments, adding that the company benefits from existing investor capital "in the right places".
He adds: "We do have an ambition to get to £1 billion [of assets under management], we will remain true to our entrepreneurial niche, but to broaden our investor base and to start attracting capital, we need to get towards that target.
"We are totally agnostic with asset classes, for us it is about sourcing the pricing mismatch that we believe exists in many opportunities.
"The big houses tend to gravitate towards major locations because that's perceived to be less risky, offers greater transparency, proven market dynamics. We can afford to take a little bit more risk with the kind of investors we've got, but you still have to invest prudently."