2018 PERE Awards: a shakeup in the old order

While some familiar faces still featured, this year’s biggest winners notably included names that are rising in industry dominance.

It is not the same old, same old PERE awards this year, as the roster of 2018 winners will show.

Logistics specialist GLP took the crown from perennial winner Blackstone as the firm taking home the most trophies this year, with a total of six wins. Among them were three global awards: Firm of the Year, Logistics Investor of the Year and Global Industry Figure of the Year for founder Ming Mei. GLP also clinched the honors for Firm of the Year for Europe, Asia and China.

Blackstone, Greystar and Starwood Capital Group all came in second place, collecting four awards a piece. Blackstone, which came out on top with eight wins in 2017, was noticeably absent from this year’s global awards titles. Still, the New York-based asset manager won the most votes for Firm of the Year in Italy, Spain and the UK, and Asia Capital Raise of the Year for its record-breaking $7.07 billion Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia II fundraise.

Greystar, meanwhile, scooped up the prizes for Global Residential Investor of the Year and Global Alternatives Investor, as well as North America Deal of the Year for the privatization of student housing REIT Education Realty Trust, and North America Industry Figure of the Year for founder and chief executive Bob Faith.

Starwood took home the Global Hotels and Leisure Investor of the Year award on the back of its $1.1 billion sale of 14 UK hotels to Foncière des Régions. It also won the Firm of the Year award for North America, the Nordics and Germany.

Other multiple award winners included Brookfield, which won Global Deal of the Year and Global Retail Investor of the Year for its $15 billion take-private of mall REIT GGP. It claimed a third trophy for Global Capital Raise of the Year for its $15 billion Brookfield Strategic Real Estate Partners III capital raise.

Meanwhile, Gaw Capital Partners, Clifford Chance and industry newcomer Henderson Park each nabbed two trophies. Henderson Park captured awards for Europe Capital Raise of the Year with its impressive debut fundraise for Henderson Park Real Estate Fund I and Firm of the Year in France. Gaw Capital Partners prevailed with both Asia Deal of the Year for Hong Kong’s biggest retail transaction, the acquisition of a HK$23 billion ($2.9 billion; €2.6 billion) portfolio of shopping centers, as well as Asia Industry Figure of the Year for founder and chairman Goodwin Gaw. Law firm Clifford Chance dominated in Asia, beating out the competition for Law Firm of the Year in the fund formation and transactions categories.

As for the latest recipient of the PERE lifetime achievement award, we are pleased to announce that Karsten Kallevig, head of unlisted real estate at Norges Bank Investment Management, will join the ranks of previous honorees Barry Sternlicht and Patrick Kanters. At all of 44 years old, Kallevig has distinguished himself for helping to make Norges Bank one of the world’s largest real estate investors – ranking #11 in the 2018 Global Investor 50 – in just eight years.

Click here to see the winners in full.