Global property adviser Cushman & Wakefield has hired market-leading investment agent James Beckham from JLL to lead its London Capital Markets practice.
James joins Cushman & Wakefield after building King Sturge’s City of London Capital Markets business up from scratch in the late 1990s; his team’s stellar performance there culminated in them capturing a very significant market share by the time King Sturge merged with JLL in 2011. At JLL, James was an International Director in its City Investment business.
Having spent more than 25 years advising a broad range of REITs, sovereign wealth funds and both private and institutional investors in the UK and internationally on the disposal and acquisition of City of London investments, James has numerous high profile transactions to his credit. Recent instructions include the £472 million sale of Ropemaker Place for British Land and the £315 million purchase of Bankside for M&G.
James will work closely with Cushman & Wakefield’s UK Chief Executive and Head of London Markets Digby Flower, alongside Head of City of London Capital Markets James Crawford – who joined from Savills last year – and other senior members of the Capital Markets team in the City and West End to grow the business and lead the push for a greater share of the London investment market.
This key hire will also strengthen Cushman & Wakefield’s leading global investment team – James will co-ordinate efforts from London by working with colleagues from Asia, the Americas and Europe to ensure the firm is at the centre of international real estate capital flows.
Cushman & Wakefield’s UK Chief Executive, Digby Flower, said: “James Beckham is without doubt one of the most respected investment agents in the market. He has an enviable track record in being involved in some of the largest transactions which have come onto the market in recent years and is extremely well positioned to spearhead the continued growth of our London Capital Markets business.”
James Beckham, Partner and Head of Cushman & Wakefield’s London Capital Markets group, said: “The opportunity to lead Cushman & Wakefield’s Capital Markets business in London was simply too good to ignore – I’m looking forward to working closely with the team to proactively capture additional market share and grow revenue significantly for the practice in the near future. I have great respect for JLL’s people and trust at Cushman & Wakefield we will be doing a lot of business together.”
Cushman & Wakefield’s London Capital Markets team was involved in more than £1 billion worth of transactions in 2013 including landmark deals in the City such as the sale of 10 Paternoster Square, the London Stock Exchange headquarters, to Oxford Properties on behalf of Mitsubishi Estate Company for £235 million and the purchase of the freehold of 30 Crown Place for Samsung SRA Asset Management in its debut overseas acquisition for £142 million. In 2014, the team has advised a private client on the £142 million purchase of Plantation Place South and agreed the funding of Helical Bar’s Mitre Square office project, which has a gross development value of £300 million.
Across EMEA, Cushman & Wakefield’s Capital Markets teams transacted and advised on more than €26 billion of real estate deals last year, while the first half of 2014 has seen a raft of high profile transactions which has placed the firm at top UK broker for H1 in CoStar’s investment league table.
