BCLP adds new Corporate Real Estate and Funds Partner in London

International law firm BCLP has added Chris Beaumont-McQuillan to its partnership. Beaumont-McQuillan, who will be part of the firm’s Corporate Real Estate and Funds team, joins in February from Reed Smith, where he led the Corporate Real Estate team in London.

Chris delivers big-ticket, complex cross border real estate deals across the globe and has considerable experience in bilateral and auction acquisitions and disposals, JVs, club deals, funds, opco/propco structures and sale-and-leasebacks.  His clients include REITs, PERE funds, asset managers, financial institutions, sovereign wealth funds, hotel owners and operators, and property developers.

Chris brings a wealth of knowledge in European PBSA, having advised on upwards of £1 billion of deals in this space across the UK, Spain and Portugal in the last couple of years, which aligns well with the firm’s pan-European expansion plan. He has particular expertise in the acquisition/disposal and management of global hotels and leisure assets.

Chris also has a particular focus on Middle Eastern capital, having lived and worked in the region for several years previously.

The appointment further strengthens BCLP’s Corporate Real Estate and Funds team, which formally launched on January 1. The team has worked together unofficially for a number of years on cutting-edge and high-value deals including:

• Global investment firm KKR’s £610m investment in UK-wide BTR projects, including their investment into a new £1.7bn BTR JV platform with Apache Capital which is expected to deliver 4,000 homes. 
• The largest UK hotels sale on record – Grange Hotels’ £1bn portfolio sale to Queensgate Investments.

• The formation of a £1.5bn club fund focussed on UK build to rent between Long Harbour, PSP Investments and Cadillac Fairview and Long Harbour’s continued expansive investment program.
• One of the 50 largest PE firms in the world, Kayne Anderson’s joint venture with Kinetic to create a new $1 billion debt funding platform for the European student housing financing market.

The team will continue to focus on advising the firm’s Real Estate clients on mandates from corporate acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures and takeovers, through to structuring of investment funds, capital raising, regulatory compliance, restructuring and exit strategies. 

In a move that also supports the firm’s continued appetite for growth, this was the 11th  partner hire into the Real Estate practice and 22nd firmwide in 2022 as BCLP continues to build around partners who can best leverage its global platform with multi-office, multi-disciplinary practices.

On the hire, BCLP Global Head of Real Estate Chris de Pury said: “We are delighted to welcome Chris to BCLP. His hire supports our ambitions for further domination within the real estate market and our objective to build out our Corporate Real Estate and Funds team. The team has been working together for some time, and we are very pleased to be adding additional depth, which will ensure that our Real Estate clients have a full raft of options under one roof. Chris’ experience also plays well to the pan-European expansion that has been a key strategy for us in 2022 and will continue to be this year, building on our steady growth in both France and Germany.”