So I have an offer from this Mumbai based Private Equity Fund with AUM $1 Billion. The profile goes: I would be on the roles of the SPV they have floated which invests into properties and provides sustainable Real Estate advisory. The profile would include entering into property transactions (maybe deal origination but mostly deal execution). I do not know the average deal size for sure. This is NOT an investment/analyst position, this would be a Business Development position and I would be reporting to the head of the Real Estate projects/Warehousing team. Compensation: nothing too great, in fact much lesser than what I am being offered in another firm. I am just out of my MBA (Finance) from a top (but not Ivy-League) B-School in India and very seriously contemplating this position as a way to enter the PE industry. The HR refused to make any promises whatsoever of transferring me to the investments team later. Ideally I’d want to move to a general PE firm (as opposed to a Real Estate PE) like KKR/Blackstone etc in the future and might opt for some advanced courses if required. Question is simple - Will this be a good starting point and will the experience be counted as relevant for moving to a fund manager position later? Also, I am really skeptical of the “job-security” aspect in Real Estate as some people tell me that this is a “risky” position to get into. Any comments on my apprehension would be appreciated. TIA!
So you would be trying to drum up business with real estate owners? I’m confused on what this role entails. Frankly, I didn’t know there were any real estate PE funds still doing deals, but maybe in India things aren’t as bad (?).
^ dry powder is looking for a home at the right price. sellers won’t get there until they can’t meet their balloon payments and can’t extend. coming soon…
Yeah, but those are more vulture/opportunity funds rather than the traditional PE fund. I guess it’s just a name thing, and I don’t really know the real estate scene in India. As you say, nothing is happening now, at least in the U.S., but it’s just a matter of time…
Chances of making the jump from RE PE to traditional PE are minimal (at least in the states). Unless you want to be in RE, I don’t think this one is for you…
cfa2grunt Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Yeah, but those are more vulture/opportunity funds > rather than the traditional PE fund. I guess it’s > just a name thing, and I don’t really know the > real estate scene in India. As you say, nothing > is happening now, at least in the U.S., but it’s > just a matter of time… There are some traditional funds that closed right before the sh*t hit the fan. The fund I work on was in this situation. We did nothing for two years and closed our first significant transaction this August. We have 90% of the committed equity still to get out the door and we’re only buying on deals where we can beat the seller all the way down to our lowball offers. Granted these funds are few and far between (judging by the number of bidders on deals we’re looking at) and they’re likely already fully staffed. But some might be looking for more bodies if their timeframe to get the $ out the door has compressed.
anupamjain008, i would like to get in touch with you. If you do not mind can you email me your contact details to santshree at gmail
Taking more courses isn’t the way to get into PE – there’s really no substitute for work experience .I think if the REPE job is the best that you can do right now, why not go for it? You don’t want to think too far ahead of yourself but I think others have correctly pointed out that it will be hard to transition from REPE to a traditional PE fund. It’s obviously not impossible because there are certain analytical skills that are transferable, but the types of things you look at when you analyze a company are different from those of real estate, so on some level the type of work you’d do in equity research or investment banking would be more directly relevant to a traditional buyout fund than would REPE. That being said, if you want to make the move to a traditional buyout fund desperately enough, you’ll eventually find a way to teach yourself the necessary skills to do it. A lot of people told me it would be hard for me to move from equity research to PE – and it was – but I still found a way and I guess my perseverance was good enough to get me interviews at like a dozen shops, ranging anywhere from small-cap to the largest buyout shops.
@Jobsearch08, Sent you a mail. @Numi, Networking is exactly what I have been doing since January, and this offer has come after a long wait. I had a few offers in Equity Research but they wanted me to sign a contract at an abysmally low package and I decided to move on. Now the problem with this offer is that I’d be purchasing/selling properties and that I’d be on the roles of the SPV instead of the actual fund. I just can’t understand as to why would they want me to be on the roles of the SPV. They are not taking me as an analyst. They say that it is a Business Development role and entail minimal financial modelling/analysis. And I have no problems with Real Estate PE( till the time I get a traditional PE offer) but I wouldn’t definitely want this experience to be totally irrelevant for a traditional PE role. Currently I am working for a large manufacturing organization and the work here is kick-a$$. I have direct reporting to the CEO and tomorrow I am making a presentation to the top management on benefits of Enterprise Risk Management. @cfa2grunt/jbaldyga/ahahah, You seem to be from REPE industry. What would usually be the average deal size for a PE company with AUM $1 Billion (from six funds). And yes they are floating two Opportunity funds. What work would a guy working in an SPV of such a fund would be doing and would there be a chance to move to investments later assuming that I clear L2 and L3 in the next two years. TIA.
jbaldyga Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > cfa2grunt Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Yeah, but those are more vulture/opportunity > funds > > rather than the traditional PE fund. I guess > it’s > > just a name thing, and I don’t really know the > > real estate scene in India. As you say, > nothing > > is happening now, at least in the U.S., but > it’s > > just a matter of time… > > > There are some traditional funds that closed right > before the sh*t hit the fan. The fund I work on > was in this situation. We did nothing for two > years and closed our first significant transaction > this August. We have 90% of the committed equity > still to get out the door and we’re only buying on > deals where we can beat the seller all the way > down to our lowball offers. > > Granted these funds are few and far between > (judging by the number of bidders on deals we’re > looking at) and they’re likely already fully > staffed. But some might be looking for more > bodies if their timeframe to get the $ out the > door has compressed. @jbaldyga, This company started in 2007 and has created good name for itself. They have a lock-in of 10 years.
Mate This sounds like more of an asset management role (especially the part where you have to work with the SPVs, not the fund itself). Make sure you check exactly what the role entails before you commit to anything. While I agree that its hard to move from REPE (investment analysis) to PE, It would be near impossible to move from real estate asset/development managetement to PE.
I agree with Syd_RE
anupam, Do you mind sharing what the salaries for these positions are ? Since you said that you are from a top B-school , I am assuming it’s one of the IIM’s. I have read that grads from these schools can get starting salaries of as much as 150K . Is that number for real ?
res420 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > anupam, > > Do you mind sharing what the salaries for these > positions are ? Since you said that you are from a > top B-school , I am assuming it’s one of the > IIM’s. I have read that grads from these schools > can get starting salaries of as much as 150K . Is > that number for real ? hahahaha not for jobs in India they dont! 150k is INR90 Lacs (or INR 9 million) which is a LOT of money for a place like India and you wouldn’t spend that kind of money on fresh out of school grads! Starting salaries for domestic jobs are closer to the INR 10L to INR 15L range (You will always have outliers on both the higher and lower side, but this is the ballpark median) For International placements, you could get anywhere between USD50k to USD200k.
This year the median was 7-8 Lacs mate. 
And US$200K offers used to go to people with a Top undergrad, substantial work-ex and superior acads. This year even Mckinsey paid close to 20 Lacs for consultancy lol. And international offers - IT firms in ME came recruiting for positions in UAE and Nigeria for 15 LPA. Hell give us a break! @Syed_RE, Numi, You are right. The role involves Asset Management but that is 10-15% of the time. 85% of the time will go in Business Development and Executing property deals. They are trying to establish a new office in another location and I might be a key resource in that project as well. Does this sound convincing to you guys?
anupamjain008 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This year the median was 7-8 Lacs mate. > > And US$200K offers used to go to people with a Top > undergrad, substantial work-ex and superior acads. > This year even Mckinsey paid close to 20 Lacs for > consultancy lol. > > And international offers - IT firms in ME came > recruiting for positions in UAE and Nigeria for 15 > LPA. Hell give us a break! > > @Syed_RE, Numi, > > You are right. The role involves Asset Management > but that is 10-15% of the time. 85% of the time > will go in Business Development and Executing > property deals. They are trying to establish a new > office in another location and I might be a key > resource in that project as well. > > Does this sound convincing to you guys? Tough break on placements this year! sheesh! On the role…I still don’t understand exactly WHAT you will be doing and where exactly within the spectrum (Business Development to Investment Analysis to Deal execution to Asset Management) you will be placed. In terms of business development (assuming this is deal origination), you will gain skills and a network. The skills you gain will be useful to transfer to PE but the network you gain will not. Simply because the network you acquire will be mainly among dodgy developers which will not be very useful to PE firms. Deal execution skills are transferable in terms of the broad headings of work that get covered for both REPE and PE deals. However, the work done within each heading will be quite different with business due dil and legal due dil being a lot broader and more extensive in the PE context. Investment Analysis skills are the most transferable (relatively speaking). Asset Management skills are the least transferable. So my advice is for you to find out exactly what your role entails and see how transferable those skills are to a PE role, which is where you want to be eventually.
@syd_RE, Are you based out of India? If so, could we speak sometime? Please mail me at pam008@gmail.com. TIA!
@anupam emailed.