London, 19 December 2023 – Feldberg Capital (‘Feldberg’) has appointed Kat Austreng as Associate Director working out of its London office, as it continues to grow its UK business.
Kat will be responsible for supporting capital raising across Europe and is Feldberg’s first new hire since it acquired UK real estate investment managament business Brunswick Property Partners earlier this year. Her role will involve maximising the company’s international reach, fostering stronger collaboration between Feldberg’s UK and German teams, and facilitating product development and investment in UK programmes from continental Europe and vice versa.
Kat’s initial focus is on ReForm, Feldberg’s new brown-to-green workplace fund, targeting real estate investments in amenity-rich central London zone 1 locations with excellent connectivity and strong growth characteristics, such as Soho, Fitzrovia, Marylebone and Bloomsbury. The Fund reached first close on its fundraising in October, and last week announced it had completed on its first acquisition, with the purchase of 8 Bloomsbury Street, a 33,448 sq ft office building in London WC1.
Kat joins from CBRE Capital Advisors, where she advised clients on both lending and equity transactions. She was also Vice Chair of CBRE’s UK Women’s Network. Will Amies, Managing Partner and Head of Business Development at Feldberg Capital, said: “We welcome Kat to our team here at Feldberg. Investors see the value-add brown-to-green strategies ReForm is employing as highly relevant in the current market. Kat will play an important role in ensuring they understand the opportunity, our credentials and what sets the fund apart from others in this area.”
Kat Austreng, Associate Director at Feldberg Capital, said: “I am excited to be joining such a mission driven team with market leading ESG capabilities. There is currently a structural shift in the office sector with a growing division between best-in-class green workplace assets and older, less energy-efficient offices that need to be repurposed. Feldberg is perfectly positioned to capitalise on this opportunity, transforming assets to be fit for the future, at a time when valuations are highly attractive. I look forward to discussing our plans for ReForm with both existing and new investor partners.”
ReForm has already received significant backing from a cornerstone UK institutional investor and has a fundraising target of £300 million, which will provide firepower of around £500 million including leverage. It is one of the first UK funds to link a proportion of the manager’s performance fees to pre-determined ESG targets, creating significant alignment between investors’ ESG ambitions and financial returns.