Allianz Real Estate has appointed Megan Walters as global head of research. This comes at a time of considerable growth for the firm which has made several high-profile new hires this year, alongside investing in its physical network by opening three new offices in 2019.

Alongside opening offices in London, Stockholm and Luxembourg, the firm has attracted several industry experts, including Michael Cale as co-head of debt investments and Karen Horstmann as head of equity acquisitions in the US, Kari Pitkin as head of business development for Europe, Shripal Shah as head of debt origination in London, and Jenny Lindholm as director Nordics in Stockholm. Key appointments within the Asia-Pacific team include Chiang Wei Ng, head of asset management, and Charles Kwak, head of transaction services.

“2019 has been an active year for Allianz Real Estate – both from an investment perspective and in the way that we are developing our business. We recently announced our AUM had reached 67.1 billion euros (US$74.95 billion), and we have achieved the first milestones of our third-party ambitions. This was achieved through launching our European Debt fund and announcing the first equity deal in which we have acquired and will manage an asset on behalf of a joint venture including a third-party institutional investor wishing to invest alongside Allianz,” says Francois Trausch, CEO Allianz Real Estate. “But growth cannot be sustained without the necessary infrastructure which is why we have opened three new offices this year, bringing our total to 21, and hired a range of industry experts around the world.” 

Joining Allianz Real Estate on November 1, Walters reports to chief investment officer, Olivier Teran, and will initially be based in the firm’s Singapore office before relocating her family to Europe. With over 20 years of experience in global real estate, Walters joins from JLL Asia Pacific where she was a member of the JLL Global Research executive team and held the position of head of research Asia-Pacific.