One of the narrowest segments of the commercial real estate lending market is the debt fund business, yet in recent years it has attracted the most attention from investors and, in 2018, from large financial institutions.

In November, LaSalle Investment Management acquired the $1.2 billion debt fund business of Latitude Management Real Estate Investors while, across the pond, Paris-based AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets snagged one of Quadrant Real Estate Advisors’ U.S. lines of business, including a real estate debt team, and AXA IM – Real Assets assumed the management of $9.4 billion in U.S. commercial mortgage loans.

The year before, Mesa West Capital was bought out by Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

One could probably include in that list Stone Point Capital’s purchase of Lennar Corp.’s Rialto Investment and Asset Management unit in 2018, says Boyd Fellows, a managing partner at ACORE Capital. “Morgan Stanley and Stone Point didn’t h