Investec Asset Management, part of UK and South Africa-listed Investec, has appointed Michael Williams as head of frontier and emerging markets real estate strategies, within the real estate investment team.

Williams, with more than 14 years' experience of South African and other frontier and emerging market real estate investment, joins Investec from African Real Estate Investment and Asset Management - a Nigerian-based real estate investment and asset management business - which he co-founded in 2011 with real estate developers, Persianas Group. 

Williams' real estate career also includes leadership roles in the real estate strategies of Actis and Standard Bank, among others, where his experience ranged from real estate development to direct and listed property in South Africa and other frontier and emerging markets.

In other recent hires at the firm, last month Investec Asset Management appointed the former chief executive of the Investment Management Association, Richard Saunders, to its board as a non-executive director.

Investec Asset Management said that its assets under management had hit a record £69.8 million (around $106 million), as it reported results for the financial year to 31 March 2013.