AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets appoints Head of Logistics to support growing Sector Specialists team

AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets (‘AXA IM - Real Assets’) has appointed Thomas Karmann as Head of Logistics, effective immediately. 

Reporting directly to Amal del Monaco and based in Paris, the appointment follows those in September of Joe Persechino and Vincent Mezard as Student Accommodation & Residential Specialist and Hotel Specialist respectively. These appointments form part of AXA IM - Real Assets’ strategy of building a network of experts in different fields in order to provide investor clients with access to value-enhancing opportunities, underpinned by deep sector technical expertise. 

A proven leader in major logistics investment and development, Thomas brings over 25 years of sector experience having worked for several major pan-European businesses. He joins AXA IM - Real Assets from Prologis, where he was Managing Director and Region Head for Northern Europe, responsible for the profitability of the firm’s Northern Europe business and its c. 4.5 million sqm regional portfolio of completed space. 

Previous roles include Senior Vice President of European Operations for Gazeley Properties Ltd, Deputy Managing Director for Germany and Central Europe at GSE and Commercial Director for Industrial & Logistics at Bouygues. Thomas holds two master’s degrees in Business Administration and Economics and Management. He has also completed the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School. He is a native German speaker, is fluent in French and English and has a good conversational Spanish and Dutch.

AXA IM - Real Assets currently manages a 2.6 million sqm, c. € 1.9 billion logistics portfolio, predominantly focused on its core markets of the UK, Germany and France. Thomas will be responsible for maintaining and growing AXA IM - Real Assets’ portfolio of primarily Grade-A properties, located in strategic areas with good access to infrastructure, alongside the development of new logistics projects, by leveraging its strong industry network across specialised peers, developers and brokers. 

Amal Del Monaco, Head of Sector Specialists at AXA IM - Real Assets, commented: “Bringing Thomas into our team adds a vast level of cross-border European logistics experience that will further strengthen AXA IM - Real Assets’ already extensive sector specialist offering. The logistics sector continues to be firmly underpinned by strong occupational demand from a variety of occupiers, especially those in the e-commerce sector, and supported by the buoyant Eurozone.” 

“This is our third major appointment within the Sector Specialists’ team in the past month, supporting our conviction that enriching our teams with deep-routed sector knowledge will allow us to deliver market outperformance on behalf of our clients by enhancing our ability to both source favorable investment opportunities and extract value from the assets we manage.”