Ackman Ziff??
I follow Simon Ziff and their company page on LinkedIn and it seems like every transaction is north of $100MM. Why on earth is there not more chatter on these guys? And how the hell do they do those kind of deals if they're not at an institutional firm like CB/JLL?
These guys remind me of your local boutique broker down the street, but they close some serious deals and I'm wondering how that works. And if you have ever worked there or know someone, what is comp like at the junior level? I already know everyone else makes bank there.
There are plenty of boutique style firms that do institutional level deals that you won't hear about often. Ackman Ziff is a very good firm and you will see them do the institutional deals as well as some smaller deals and everything in between. Mortgage banking, as well as investment sales, is a relationship business. There are plenty of smaller mortgage firms that do institutional styles deals. It is few and far between, but they exist. I would call Ackman-Ziff a midsized firm and they have some very strong relationships. You will see great deal flow if you work there.
I can't comment on comp, but I do know that they have two tracks for production - 1) similar to bank/Eastdil, it is salary and bonus. At the end of the year you get a bonus. 2) You will work straight commission like a traditional broker.
I am pretty sure you have the choice of which way you want to climb - salary/bonus or commission only.
The entire real estate world does not worship those type of firms, many prefer to work with a group like Ackman Ziff. This is a relationship business, firm brand name is very very secondary to other factors. You see tons of examples of this in the real estate industry (hence why WSO's concern with "firm prestige" is so misguided, leave that for the IB forum) all the time.
That said, do know people who work there, they described it just like any other shop like JLL/CBRE/Eastdil, so I guess one could call them an "elite boutique" of the DE placement shops?
Elite boutique of the debt brokerage world is a good way to describe AZ, Iron Hound, and if you're being a touch generous, Lotus Capital.
LOL Lotus
Have heard awful things about Lotus Capital. Would definitely avoid.
Second this. The team is important, not the brand, which is why high earning brokers are given such insane incentives to jump ship
They are leaders in their space no doubt. Although they did just hire an aggressive / short-tempered MD who left my friend's firm after 1 year...
I'm assuming you're referring to the lady that just left B6? Lol
I wouldn't say a top broker in this case based on what I've heard.
Whyd she leave after 1 year??
Bump.
I used to work at AZ. Simon is a master salesman and great at branding himself and thats really all that being a broker is, tbh. Also, deep, multi-generational ties to many of the large Jewish NYC real estate families. Bill Ackman's grandpa and later his father each ran the firm and the firm grew with its clients. These days, they have the reputation as being the guys to go to for large, complicated deals, which is why I took the job. Also, it helps that Bill Ackman's family office is also a giant firm client.
The rub, as you touched on, is the comp. Analysts make $500 a week (no, thats not a typo) and are either fresh undergrads or people currently getting their MS at NYU Schack and are usually at the shop for exactly 12 months. Associates through directors basically get $100K base plus a bonus that goes from $50K to $400K depending on who you are and how much you're valued, and how much in fees the deal teams you're on produce. At some point, you're either going to make the turn into originations and be a broker with a base of $0 and half-ish of your fees, or be an execution guy and make something in the $300K-$500K range, all of that being a function of deals you're on and the fees those deals take in.
The other rub is that it is literally impossible to get into AZ without a personal connection. Also, the shop is nearly 100% Jewish.
Quick edit, but there is some info and assumptions being left by people here that isn't accurate. I'm not going to go point by point and refute, but please do your own research and don't take a random post on WSO to be gospel. Some of this is easily google-able information.
“The other rub is that it is literally impossible to get into AZ without a personal connection.”
Isn’t this RE in general though. Almost always have to know someone to get in.
Never put 2 and 2 together with Bill Ackman and Ackman Ziff. Wild.
Aren't they very partial toward NYU Masters of RE students since Simon is an Alum??
Yes, and Bill Ackman has even given enough money to have a speaker series named after him at NYU Shack. I think that might be only program they do OCR from. However, word on the street in NYC is that if you are the kid of a potential big client, you can call Simon up and get them a job. (to be fair, this is can be done at a lot of shops in NYC, not just AZ).
What's the difference between a broker and an execution guy?
Broker - go find clients and sign them up
Execution guy - a client has been brought in and signed up, now go run a soup to nuts process and close a financing
Trying to break into here and looking at an Analyst role, any advice on the interview process?
They are an elite boutique as someone above mentioned at least in NYC. They do pretty complex financing deals. Brokerage is all relationship based and their top producers have pretty good backgrounds which is probably how they land good deals.
That being said, they may do a $100-200M deal here and there but they aren’t doing the $500+ as the big four are. For example, they do some smaller sale type stuff for SL Green in the <$100M space. Anything higher is going to Spies/Darcy/Eastdil.
I get the feeling that their average loan would be closer to $20-30MM and only the bigger deals get highlighted on Linkedin, it's all about branding. And of course like most other debt brokers, they only do debt for the most part but highlight their "debt AND equity" placement capabilities.
If there average loan is $20MM-$30MM (which I am not sure of), I would imagine they would highlight these too. As much as you want to show the big business, there is less of it going around. By not highlighting your bread and butter (assuming this is their bread and butter business) you may be showing the wrong marketing strategy to the market. The lender doing a $20MM loan is generally different than the lender doing the $100MM loan. By only highlighting your large deals, you are not showing the market you know the other players as well.
They have a good (real) equity placement business. Patrick Hanlon runs point on that vertical.
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