Former CBRE director joins PGIM Real Estate

In his new role as executive director, Mr O’Keeffe is responsible for generating real estate debt investments and managing relationships with prospective borrowers and partners in Australia. This follows PGIM Real Estate being awarded a US$320 million (AU$418 million) mandate to build and manage a portfolio of real estate debt investments in the country on behalf of an institutional investor.

According to PGIM Real Estate, the real estate arm of global investment manager PGIM, its strategy is to target loans ranging between US$11 million and US$57 million (AU$15 million and AU$75 million), including “income-producing, value-add and construction loans”.

PGIM Real Estate’s head of Australia, Steve Bulloch, said that real estate debt is increasingly important to the company, which has previously focused on core and value-add investments.

“As such, Stephen’s depth of experience in the Australian debt markets will be invaluable as we continue to build our high-yield lending presence in Australia, working with a variety of quality sponsors and funding partners,” Mr Bulloch said.

Mr O’Keeffe, who will report to Mr Bulloch, was previously a senior director in the debt and structured finance team at CBRE, where he reportedly arranged, structured and closed US$765 million (AU$1 billion) in new debt origination and was responsible for the asset management and servicing of CBRE’s US$1.38 billion (AU$1.8 billion) worth of client loans.

Prior to his tenure at CBRE, Mr O’Keeffe was a fund manager at Quadrant Real Estate Advisors and held fund management roles at Mirvac Funds Management.

The new executive director is based in PGIM Real Estate’s Sydney office, which was established in 2011.