UBS Asset Management - Real Estate and Private Markets

Joe Azelby leads the Real Estate and Private Markets division. Individual sector heads run dedicated investment committees for real estate, infrastructure, private equity, and multi-manager strategies. Key decisions on direct acquisitions and fund launches flow through regional committees in London, New York, and Zurich before ratification by the central alternatives leadership team.

It functions as a specialized division within UBS Asset Management, not a separate legal entity. However, it maintains its own investment committees, origination teams, and asset-management personnel that report independently of UBS's traditional equity and fixed-income groups. This separation shields alternatives portfolio decisions from any influence by the bank's advisory or lending relationships.

The group relies on regional sourcing teams embedded in more than 20 countries who maintain relationships with local developers, brokers, and operating partners. UBS's Swiss and European annuities arm provides a long-standing pipeline of stabilized core assets, while opportunistic teams compete at auction for value-add logistics and multifamily deals across the US, UK, and Japan.

Both. The division undertakes direct property and infrastructure acquisitions, writes large-format co-investment checks alongside private equity sponsors, and commits as a limited partner to third-party funds — especially in venture capital, emerging-market infrastructure, and niche hedge fund strategies where direct deal flow is harder to originate internally.

The group has historically avoided direct commodity trading and pure-play upstream energy exploration. It also does not pursue distressed hedge fund seeding or activist equity strategies, preferring multi-manager and managed-account approaches for its hedge fund solutions business.

The division raises capital through UBS's institutional salesforce and its integrated global wealth-management network. High-net-worth clients access certain strategies through feeder funds, while the largest sovereign-wealth and pension clients typically use separately managed accounts that mirror flagship commingled vehicles with customized liquidity and fee terms.

The group is an active co-investor alongside GPs, particularly in infrastructure and private equity. It evaluates co-investment opportunities on a deal-by-deal basis, with dedicated teams responsible for underwriting alongside sponsors such as Brookfield, KKR, and Macquarie on direct infrastructure transactions.