Alantra appoints experienced partner to head up its UK Real Estate & Hospitality team

Alantra, the global mid-market investment banking firm, has appointed Hoong Wey Woon as a Partner to head up its UK Real Estate & Hospitality team.  With over twenty years of experience in the sector, Hoong Wey has completed over £5bn of real estate transactions in the past decade.  He joins Alantra from KPMG where he spent four years as Co-Head of its real estate corporate finance division, building up a team of over twenty people.  Hoong Wey will head up the sector team in London, where Alantra sees significant opportunities for investment and where the market for real estate investment is forecast to remain strong despite Brexit-related uncertainty. 

Alantra Group already has an experienced 20 strong Pan-European Real Estate sector team and has closed over 100 real estate transactions across Europe in the past decade. Key real estate transactions advised by Alantra include advising:

• Gladman Developments on its £100m refinancing with Guggenheim Investments
• Caledonia Investments on the sale of The Sloane Club
• Palatine Private Equity on funding Westleigh Homes
• Sigma for the creation of The PRS REIT*
• Springfield Properties IPO*
• Ground Rents REIT
• Palladium Hotel €500m JV with Azora Capital
• TPG on its 75% acquisition of Tempore Properties (€330m)
• Varde Partners in the creation of a JV with Sareb to develop over 17,000 residential units

It aims to build on this track record by establishing a market-leading real estate corporate finance team in the UK that will capitalise on the Group’s international reach and provide independent advice on M&A, portfolio transactions as well as equity and debt raisings.

According to Alantra, UK commercial real estate transaction volumes exceeded £60bn in 2018.  Platform deals and corporate acquisitions continue to dominate the market, illustrating robust levels of activity in traditional asset classes such as retail, office and industrial. Furthermore, the volume of activity in operational real estate (e.g. hospitality, student accommodation and build-to-rent) is also increasing at an accelerated level and accounted for over £10bn of transaction related activity in the UK last year. Alantra also sees strong demand from annuity funds to acquire assets producing long term income streams that can outperform inflation.

Hoong Wey Woon, Partner at Alantra and Head of UK Real Estate and Hospitality commented: “The fundamentals for the UK and European real estate markets remain robust and we are seeing strong demand from local as well as international investors including North America and Asia. The UK real estate market is by far the most mature and transparent market in Europe and sees the highest transaction volumes in the region. It also attracts capital from across the globe and remains one of the key gateway countries of the world.  For these reasons, Alantra sees a great opportunity to leverage its existing pan-European real estate offering and to continue to build a strong presence in the UK. The Group’s independence, international reach and mid-market focus is unparalleled and I am delighted to be joining such an experienced team.”

Andy Currie, Managing Partner of Alantra’s UK advisory business, said: “We are delighted for Hoong to join the team and he comes at an exciting time for the business as we continue our international expansion in order to provide truly independent advice to clients.  Alantra already has a successful real estate team in place and therefore continuing to build a market leading real estate corporate finance team in the UK, was the next logical step in our growth.  London is a hub for investment in the sector, which is led by institutional investors that are rethinking their strategy as well as visionary entrepreneurs who are disrupting current practices. They are looking for advisors that are truly independent and sophisticated as well as having deep knowledge of the market and its key players”.

*Alantra capital markets activity is carried out in the UK through N+1 Singer, where Alantra holds a stake of 27%.