A cost-cutting plan involving voluntary redundancy by The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) is being contemplated by real estate professionals at subsidiary Nuveen Real Estate, with some set to apply to be considered for the headcount reduction exercise, PropertyEU can report.
In the first half of May during the onset of the unprecedented Covid-19 crisis, New York-headquartered financial services giant TIAA offered workers what is considered to be a generous severance package.
It is said that 75% of its 16,500 global headcount (which includes 600 people at Nuveen Real Estate in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific) are eligible to apply for the employee buy-out offer.
The hope is that if sufficient voluntary redundancies are accepted, there will be no need for compulsory job losses to follow.
Those that leave will do so on November 2.
More than one source has told PropertyEU that some professionals with Nuveen Real Estate Europe have applied for the voluntary scheme, but the number is not thought to be large.
A spokesperson from the firm said, ‘We can say with confidence our investment platform will remain well-resourced to continue delivering excellence to help clients meet their long-term goals, as will our relationship and service teams.’
Some at Nuveen Real Estate have worked at the company since it was Henderson Global Investors (HGI) and TH Real Estate after that.
In 2015, TIAA took full ownership of London-based HGI. The resulting company, TH Real Estate, was rebranded as Nuveen Real Estate during the course of 2019.
The voluntary programme comes at a time of continued growth for the Nuveen Real Estate franchise. Nuveen remains one of the largest real estate investment managers in the world with around $131 bn of assets. In Europe, ongoing success stories include its European Cities Strategy.
It is led in Europe by Colin Throssell. Global head of real estate and real assets is Mike Sales.
