Evercore adds RE secondaries exec from Aberdeen

Evercore is building out its offering in the real estate secondaries market.

The advisor has hired Dimme Lucassen as a London-based managing director, according to his LinkedIn profile. He will advise on real estate GP-led deals in Europe, Secondaries Investor understands.

It is not clear where he sits in the firm’s organisational structure and Evercore did not return a request for comment.

Jarrett Vitulli, a New York-based real estate secondaries specialist who joined Evercore in 2015, was promoted from managing director to partner in February last year, Secondaries Investor reported.

Lucassen joins from the private equity real estate team at Aberdeen Standard Investments where he spent seven-and-a-half years working on primary and secondaries investments in the real estate multi-management team. Before that he spent 10 years at the Amsterdam office of Schroders where he was a private real estate fund manager, his LinkedIn profile notes.

“We thank him for his contribution to the REMM business and wish him well,” the team’s global head Mark Wilkins told Secondaries Investor, adding that his investment management responsibilities have been shared among the 13 remaining members globally.

Real estate secondaries volume reached a three-year high last year with $7.2 billion trading, an 86 percent increase on 2018, according to data from Landmark Partners. Fund recapitalisations rose 86 percent to $3.9 billion, the first time such transactions have accounted for more than half of the annual total.

Real estate GP-led deals from last year include the restructuring of Avanath Capital Management’s 2010-vintage Avanath Affordable Housing I, backed by UBS Asset Management, Secondaries Investor reported.