Goldman Sachs Asset Management Names Nikhil Reddy Head of APAC Real Estate

Goldman Sachs has appointed a new top executive for its real estate investment management business in Asia Pacific, a company representative confirmed to Mingtiandi on Thursday, as the investment banking giant reorganises leadership in the division globally.

Nikhil Reddy, who relocated to Hong Kong with Goldman Sachs in 2020, is now Asia Pacific head of real estate at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with Jim Garman having been named sole head of the real estate investment management division worldwide, following the departure of former co-head Takashi Murata earlier this year.

A fifteen-year Goldman veteran, Reddy was promoted to managing director with the company’s special situations group in 2019 and shifted to the asset management wing with his move to Hong Kong. News of the management changes was first reported by PERE.

In April of last year Goldman Sachs announced that it had raised $3.5 billion for West Street Real Estate Investment Partners, its first property fund in nearly 15 years, with its asset management division having made a number of high profile investments, including teaming with Singapore’s SC Capital Partners and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) to acquire a portfolio of 27 resort hotels in Japan in a $900 million deal announced last month.

New Global Team

Reddy, who joined Goldman as part of its special situations group in 2008 after graduating from Northwestern University in Illinois, will be assisted in the region by Shanghai-based Daniel Huang, who was promoted to managing director with Goldman Sachs Asset Management in January and looks after the Greater China region.

In May of last year Ruchita Maniar joined the firm as an executive director based in Mumbai, where she looks after real estate investments in India and Southeast Asia.

Garman has taken sole charge of GSAM’s global real estate team after previously having primary responsibility for the division’s business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in his co-head role. A 1989 graduate of University of Cambridge, Garman joined Goldman Sachs in 1992 and is relocating from London to New York for his new position.

Richard Spencer, head of the company’s real estate debt funds, has now been named head of EMEA real estate for the firm, with Goldman Sachs Asset Management having yet to name a replacement for former US real estate head Guarav Singh, who left earlier this year.

Tokyo-based former co-head Murata was recently named co-head of Asia real estate at Warburg Pincus, as reported by Mingtiandi earlier this week. In his new role with Warburg, Murata is pegged to lead the expansion of the firm’s private equity and real estate business in Japan, in addition to his regional real estate position, according to an internal memo seen by Mingtiandi.

The set of management moves in its real estate platform come after Goldman Sachs in October announced major changes in the structure of its asset and wealth management businesses, merging the two divisions into a single unit.

Major Market Focus

In addition to its recent bet on Japanese hotels, Goldman Sachs Asset Management has also recently been backing logistics and rental housing ventures in Asia’s largest economies as it ramps up its real estate initiatives in the region.

In October of last year the firm announced that it had set up a joint venture with Shanghai-based developer Sun Jade for investment opportunities in logistics and other new infrastructure real estate assets in China’s top tier cities and the surrounding areas.

That shed deal came after Goldman Sachs Asset Management in 2021 signed a $488 million logistics joint venture with entrepreneur Sun Dongping’s New Ease (now part of DNE Group).

GSAM also in 2022 set up a joint venture with Tokyo-based conglomerate Sojitz to acquire $300 million worth of rental residential properties in Japan during the year, and up to $500 million annually thereafter as it pursues opportunities in Asia’s most developed multi-family market.