Nick Ridgewell

Nick Ridgewell is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA, ICAEW) with a multi-decade career in international real estate fund management and capital raising. He spent eleven years in senior roles at the Macquarie Group across the Asia-Pacific region (Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia), where he served as CEO of Macquarie DDR — an Australian-listed REIT that owned approximately US$2.6 billion of retail property located in the United States. He subsequently headed the Asia-Pacific real estate business of Aviva Investors (formerly Morley), overseeing fund management activity across the region.

In 2014, Ridgewell co-founded CAPRA Global Partners, a London-based capital advisory and fundraising firm for the private real estate sector, alongside Anthony Biddulph and Luca Giangolini. At CAPRA he was responsible for building the business and managing mandate selection, due diligence, the client advisory function, and overall business, financial and operational management. Over his career he has overseen more than US$4.5 billion of real estate assets under management across Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, South Korea and the USA, and since 2009 has helped clients raise in excess of US$9 billion for real estate vehicles and strategies.

In 2021, CAPRA Global Partners was acquired by JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle) to extend the broker's private-markets fundraising reach; partners and staff transferred across, and Ridgewell continued in a senior capacity, listed as a JLL Senior Director. He is also a Principal at REFE (Real Estate Equity Capital Consultants), an independent advisory firm offering equity capital raising, strategic consulting (fund strategy reviews, restructurings, mergers, alignment of interest), investor support for institutions pursuing indirect real estate strategies, and independent non-executive/advisory board representation.

• Focuses on institutional private real estate — raising and advising on equity capital for funds, REITs and bespoke vehicles, rather than early-stage technology/startup investing.
• Areas of expertise per REFE: equity capital raising (new funds, marketing materials, structuring), strategic consulting (governance, alignment of interests, fund strategy reviews, restructuring and mergers), and investor support for institutional indirect real estate investment.
• Emphasises an "independent view, input and advice" and independent advisory-board representation to strengthen investor confidence and corporate governance.
• Track record framed around scale and global reach: REFE cites experience "raising equity for Funds and other structures of >US$9 Billion" and managing ">US$4.5bn of real estate AUM."