BC Partners launches real estate unit with industry hire

Stéphane Theuriau joins as managing partner and head of RE following more than eight years at French property developer Altarea Cogedim.

BC Partners has launched into real estate and has hired a managing partner to lead its push into the asset class, Private Debt Investor sister title Private Equity International exclusively reported.

BC Partners Real Estate will pursue a pan-European opportunistic investment strategy covering all real estate sectors, making direct and indirect private equity real estate investments as well as controlling and minority investments, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. The new real estate platform will sit within the firm’s existing structure.

Stéphane Theuriau joined the London-based firm on 21 May, according to a Companies House filing. It is understood his first task will be to build out the team.

Theuriau previously served as co-manager and chairman at Paris-based real estate developer and fund manager Altarea Cogedim, according to a February statement from the firm announcing his departure. He left “to develop a new business by creating a European property investment fund,” the statement noted.

Theuriau spent nine years at Altarea Cogedim particularly focusing on office property, according to the statement. The firm raised €600 million for its property investment vehicle AltaFund in November 2011, according to its website.

The appointment marks BC Partners’ entry into real estate. The firm closed BC European Capital X, a 2016-vintage buyout vehicle, on its €7 billion target in January.

“There is a unique opportunity to leverage the firm’s proven network, investment excellence and infrastructure to develop a new leading real estate strategy,” Theuriau said in a statement obtained by PEI. “There is strong demand in the market for a synergistic, private equity approach to real estate investing and I look forward to working closely with the team to help us capitalise on this opportunity.”

The hire comes as BC Partners is also in the process of continuing the build-out of its private credit team, which the firm launched last year and hired former Apollo Investment Corporation president Ted Goldthorpe to lead the effort. The firm has launched a business development company, purchased a Canadian alternative credit manager and also raised private capital.