Specialist investment company Cityhold has appointed experts on the UK, French and German markets to its advisory board. The appointees are Charles Frederick Clark, Alec Emmott and Baerbel Schomberg.

Cityhold is a joint venture between the first and second Swedish National Pension Funds. While most direct proeprty investment by Swedish institutions is domestic in nature, Cityhold was established with EUR 500 mln of initial equity to acquire a portfolio of prime assets, predominantly office building, in major European cities.

The company carried out its first investment transaction earlier this month. It acquired 1 Kingdom Street in Paddington, London from joint venture between Aviva Investors and Union Investment Real Estate. The investment volume of £230 mln (EUR 278.3 mln) reflected a net initial yield of just under 6%.

Schomberg is a specialised in the German market. A co-founder and managing partner of independent real estate consultancy Schomberg & Co., Schomberg has had a 30-year career in international property which includes managing director positions at Aberdeen Immobilien, SEB, CGI and Allianz.

Clark, Bsc FRICS specialises in the UK market. He has a broad range of experience spanning over 30 years within the UK property industry. He has been a long standing employee of BNP Paribas Real Estate, developing its fund management business.

Alec Emmott has over 30 years of experience working in French real estate. He qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1971 and went on to become Managing Director of Société Foncière Lyonnaise from 1997 to 2007. He previously worked at Groupe Commercial Union France/Victoire as well as Société des Hôtels de l’Etoile.