By: Venilia Batista Amorim 
Date: 1/29/09

U.S. fund of funds manager Metropolitan Real Estate Equity Management has opened a London office for research for U.K. and European private equity real estate investments. Assets under management increased to approximately USD1.8 billion since inception in 2002, said Jet Taylor, senior v.p. and head of client service and marketing in New York. Metropolitan plans to expand its foundation, endowment and pension client base in Europe, he added.

New York-based Jeremy Ford, v.p., will head the U.K. office and continue to focus his efforts on Pan-European research. Additionally, Metropolitan has hired Andrew Jacobs in New York as a senior v.p. and eighth member of its investment committee. He has over 18 years of real estate investment experience and joins from Angelo Gordon, where he spent the past 10 years undertaking senior level acquisition and asset management responsibilities. At Metropolitan he will focus on domestic research.

Metropolitan was founded in 2002 and specialises in private real estate funds. It has formed nine value-added/opportunistic real estate funds over the past six years. Clients include family offices and over 125 institutions in the U.S. and Europe.