Michael Husung has been appointed by AXA Real Estate Investment Managers to serve as head of investor relations for Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland, reporting to the firm’s global head of IR and capital markets Dietrich Heidtmann.
Husung joins AXA from Hines Immobilien, the German branch of international real estate firm Hines, where he had been working as director of the European capital markets group since 2011, setting up an IR department for institutional investors.
Prior to this, he spent 10 years at Frankfurt-based RREEF Real Estate, now Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, where he most recently served as head of products, services and client relations.
A marketing graduate of Pforzheim University in Germany, Husung started his career working as a branch manager in the banking sector. He also holds a G-REIT manager certificate from the International Real Estate Business School.
Germany has become AXA Real Estate’s most active market for acquisitions, last year accounting for 41 percent of the firm’s total property purchases of €2.9 bn ($3.8 bn), with Switzerland its second-favorite location, accounting for 31 percent. High-profile transactions in the region include the €784 mn acquisition of tower complex Die Welle in Frankfurt and shopping center Neues Kranzler Eck in Berlin, and the €311 mn purchase of the Bahnhofstrasse 53 building in Zurich.
At 47 percent and 22 percent, respectively, France and the UK are the countries where the highest proportions of AXA Real Estate’s asset sales took place. Germany represents 16 percent of the investment manager’s €2.1 bn sales, up from 10 percent in 2011.
