BOSTON — 5 March 2025 – Wellington Management (“Wellington”), one of the world’s largest independent investment management firms, today announced the expansion of its private investing capabilities with the formation of a Private Real Estate Credit platform. Wellington has hired Ravi S. Anand as the Head of Private Real Estate Credit along with three seasoned investors to build the debt platform, an extension of Wellington’s 30-year history investing in commercial real estate across fixed income and public equities. The initial team of four brings decades of combined experience and most recently worked together within PIMCO’s Commercial Real Estate Debt platform, one of the world’s largest real estate debt managers.
“This highly skilled and experienced team is a significant and timely expansion of Wellington’s ongoing efforts to build a global, scalable, private investing platform that provides differentiated solutions and investment capabilities for our clients,” said Emily Bannister, Head of Private Credit at Wellington Management. “We are confident that this team brings strong and valuable origination, underwriting, and structuring expertise that will enhance our current suite of offerings.”
“There is growing and persistent demand for debt solutions within the global commercial real estate markets. This comes at a time where structural shifts in the banking industry continue to constrict supply of capital, providing a unique opportunity for private managers to fill the lending gap for institutional real estate owners and operators,” said Ravi Anand. “Wellington has extensive experience in delivering innovative solutions across both private and public markets. We are excited to scale this platform as part of one of the largest independently owned asset management firms, leveraging Wellington’s extensive resources and global relationships. We look forward to engaging with clients in the coming months and introducing tailored debt solutions to the market."
Wellington’s Private Real Estate Credit team, based in New York, will focus primarily on originating senior and subordinated loans across property sectors in North America, with the potential to expand to global markets. They are supported by Wellington’s deep bench of dedicated private markets resources, and infrastructure supporting the firm’s more than US$1.2 trillion platform across fixed income, equity, real assets, and alternatives, including over US$180 billion in structured credit, real assets, and REIT exposures. In addition to real estate, Wellington’s private credit platform is an extension of the firm’s fixed income and private equity platforms, spanning investment-grade private credit, growth lending, and CLO equity. Wellington recently announced the successful final close of its inaugural Wellington CLO Partners Fund I with US$194 million of capital commitments.
The Private Real Estate Credit Team includes:
Ravi S. Anand, Portfolio Manager and Head of Private Real Estate Credit
Mr. Anand was Executive Vice President, Global Co-Head of CRE Debt and Head of US Private CRE Debt at PIMCO. Previously, he was a first vice president (Investments) with the CIM Group L.P., a real estate private equity firm, and with the large loan/institutional accounts lending team at GE Capital Real Estate for nearly 10 years. Mr. Anand started his real estate career at Sterling Equities, a CRE investment platform. Mr. Anand earned a BS in Finance and Accounting from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Zeyu “Chen” Chen, Portfolio Manager
Mr. Chen was a senior vice president at PIMCO. Previously, he worked in real estate acquisitions for CIM Group L.P. and WHI Real Estate Partners. He began his career in real estate investment banking with BMO Capital Markets. Mr. Chen earned a BS in Business Administration, Finance and International Business from Indiana University, Kelley School of Business.
Michael Chen, Principal
Mr. Chen was a vice president at PIMCO. Previously, he was a lead at Apollo Global Management LLC, a fixed income specialist at HSBC Securities (USA) LLC, and a product analyst for Thomson Reuters. Mr. Chen earned a BA in Economics and English from University of Michigan.
Lucas Dias-Lam, Associate
Mr. Dias-Lam was an associate at PIMCO. Previously, he was an associate for Bellwether Asset Management, Inc for almost three years. Mr. Dias-Lam earned a BS in Economics from The Wharton School, at the University of Pennsylvania.
