Colony Capital appoints new ex-US chairman

Colony Capital has appointed a chairman of its international business to be responsible for identifying new investment opportunities outside the US.

Philippe Costeletos has joined the Los Angeles-based firm from TPG Capital where he was a partner and head of Europe. He will be based in London and report to Thomas Barrack, the company’s chairman.

Barrack said: “Philippe is a talented, seasoned investor, a highly regarded leader in the investing industry and a friend of Colony for over a decade. His diverse business acumen and global relationships will bring great value to our international franchise, complementing the real estate leadership of Jean-Romain Lhomme and Nadra Moussalem, co-heads of Colony Capital Europe.”

Colony has been investing opportunistically in both European real estate equity and debt markets in recent years.

In November 2013 the private equity firm bought a portfolio of €215m of loans from Lloyds Banking Group held against Spanish real estate known as Project Alpha. In the first half of last year it teamed up with Irish investors Paddy McKillen and Johnny Ronan to buy loans held against their portfolios being sold by NAMA and IBRC.

It has also reportedly teamed up with UK asset manager Quidnet Capital to invest £200m into the UK secondary property market.