Eva Poon

Marcus Shepherd, former European chief financial officer for Australian fund manager Valad Property Group, is joining the firm in January.

The deal, which includes residential land in Arizona, California and Florida, follows on the firm’s $150m JV investment with Riverway Properties to target the Houston residential market.

Naresh Naik, former head of asset management for Lehman Brothers in India, joins the private equity real estate unit of Morgan Stanley as an executive director and head of asset management in its Mumbai office.

Urdang Capital Management, which closed its second value-add vehicle earlier this year, has sold 14 buildings in Georgia for $48m.

The New Jersey-based private equity real estate firm has added a 91,388-square-foot industrial building to its portfolio. The deal is the latest in a US industrial buying spree for the firm.

Latin America is fertile ground for real estate GPs thanks to repricing in the wake of the credit crunch, according to JER president and COO, Michael Pralle speaking at the PERE conference in New York today.

The $280m real estate JV vehicle between Blue Vista Management and Place Properties - Place/BV Student Housing Fund - has invested $47m in two student accomodation deals in the US. The fund targets the acquisition and development of off-campus student housing.

The Oregon Investment Council has made a $100m commitment to Guggenheim Fund IIA. The investment was conditional on the vehicle raising $300m, including at least $50m from new capital sources.

Peter DiCorpo joins the Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm as chief operating officer. It follows CBRE Investors' appointment last month of former GE Real Estate executive, Shaun O’Connor.

Newly launched First Investment Bank is reportedly targeting deals ranging from $50m to $1bn, according to CEO Jamal al-Hazeem. Kuwait-based Gulf Investment House and Boubyan Bank, as well as Abu Dhabi-based Noor Capital, were part of the investor group in the Islamic bank.