Macquarie grows global reach with Stonehenge stake

Macquarie Group is driving deeper into global real estate markets, with its advisory unit taking a stake in Stonehenge NYC, which controls an empire of about 3000 apartments in Manhattan.

Taking a minority stake in the $US3 billion ($4.25 billion) manager is part of the investment bank’s ­return to property after it exited the sector following heavy losses in the global financial crisis and sold off the management of its ASX-listed trusts to the Charter Hall Group.

The investment bank’s property advisory unit has added the stake in Stonehenge to a variety of plays around the world, including taking an interest in LOGOS Property Group, which runs an industrial property business in Australia and China, and investing in the Peel Logistics venture in Britain.

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The bank’s efforts were bolstered this month by the recruitment of former Federation Centres chief executive Steven Sewell, who is overseeing the group’s growth in real estate across Britain, Europe and the US.

Macquarie has maintained a presence in specialist lending but its empire is a far cry from the days when its listed trusts owned substantial office, retail and industrial portfolios globally.

Stonehenge NYC … owns a portfolio of properties in Manhattan that spans 23 income-producing properties with more than 3000 apartments.

The focus has shifted to providing real estate advice to some of the largest wholesale investors on their global strategies.

That expertise may see Macquarie introduce local and international players to Stonehenge NYC, one of the leading multi-family real estate investment managers in the well-established asset class in the US.

Stonehenge NYC, which was founded 25 years ago by New York real estate figure Ofer Yardeni, is a vertically integrated, ­private real estate company that also has expertise in development, design, construction, leasing and financing.

Stonehenge was set up in the early 1990s to take advantage of the distressed New York City real estate market. The company began investing with a division of the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec in 1995, a Canadian fund that Macquarie Capital has brought into other international real estate deals.

Over the past 20 years, Stonehenge has invested with the real estate group of Caisse, now Ivanhoe Cambridge, along with establishing partnerships with other institutions and investors including Public Sector Pension Investment Board, SL Green Realty and Invesco Real Estate.

The focus has shifted to providing real estate advice to some of the largest wholesale investors on their global strategies

Stonehenge NYC, together with these and other private investment partners, owns a portfolio of properties in Manhattan that spans 23 income-producing properties with more than 3000 apartments.

The bank is again pitting itself is a global real estate player. The Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets managed £2.8 billion ($5.7 billion) of assets across Mexico, China, and Australia at the end of September 2015.

This included the Macquarie Mexican REIT, a Mexican real estate investment trust, with a focus on income producing industrial, office and retail real estate assets.

In China, the Macquarie China Retail Company 1 Limited and MWREF Limited own separate shopping centre portfolios that have been built up over the past decade.

This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.