DRC Capital makes key hire

Kennedy Wilson Europe’s former chief financial officer, Apwinder Foster, is moving to debt fund manager DRC Capital, Real Estate Capital can reveal.

Foster, who had been courted by a number of firms, will join DRC later this month in the new role of chief operating officer.

One of her responsibilities will be to oversee finance, following the departure from DRC of Richard Day.

Foster had spent two and a half years at Kennedy Wilson Europe which she joined from Deutsche Bank in early 2013. She had previously worked with DRC’s Dale Lattanzio and Cyrus Korat at Merrill Lynch. Lattanzio and Korat co-founded DRC with Rob Clayton.

Independently-owned DRC  now has about 15 staff and has approximately €1bn of senior, mezzanine and whole loans under management for a number of clients.

The firm broadened its products this year when it began making senior loans for the first time after winning a €500m mandate from Finland’s Pohjola to invest in senior CRE debt in Northern Europe.

It has substantially invested its second high-yield debt fund, European Real Estate Debt Fund II, in more than 20 deals. ERED II closed on £487m of equity in May 2014.

Kennedy Wilson Europe appointed Fraser Kennedy, previously at Valad, as head of finance to lead the group’s 19-strong finance team.