CBRE hires new debt chief in CEE

CBRE has hired Petr Svoboda to head up its new debt and structured finance team for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the real estate advisor said in a statement.

Prague-based Svoboda will advise CBRE’s clients on all aspects of debt financing for real estate projects including senior, junior, mezzanine and bridging finance. It is CBRE’s first such appointment in the region, a spokeswoman for CBRE told PDI.

The move is part of a wider move into debt advisory. CBRE has grown its debt and structured finance team in the UK and Western Europe significantly in response to changes in the lending market and has arranged more than €2.5 billion in commercial property loan finance, for clients of all sizes, over the last 18 months. 

“Over the last few years the European debt market has altered significantly, with the emergence of new lenders and a shift in the types of real estate property transactions being undertaken… We are now beginning to experience similar changes in Central and Eastern Europe, therefore expanding our real estate financing offer to ensure we meet all our clients’ needs was the next logical step in our growth strategy,” Jeff Alson, head of capital markets Czech Republic, said in a statement.

Svoboda joined CBRE on 1 January from Komercni banka, a unit of Société Générale, where he worked for six years in the real estate finance team in Prague. He was responsible for key commercial projects across all real estate sectors including the second biggest ever transaction on the Czech market when VGP industrial portfolios was acquired by PointPark Properties, owned by private equity firms TPG and Ivanhoé Cambridge. Prior to that Svoboda spent four years at Bank of Ireland in Dublin.