Associate in Private Equity FoF - will answer questions
Noticed quite a few questions regarding FoF on here recently (probably due to recruiting cycle) so thought a thread might be helpful - no PMs if possible.
My background is non-traditional. I'm from the UK, top 10(ish) university, finance degree, joined one of the biggest UK asset managers and completed 18 months of a trainee programme before jumping shop to PE FoF. Majority of my fellow associates have more tradional backgrounds (oxbridge, IBD) so can answer questions from what I know of their backgrounds.
Obviously FoF investing isnt for everyone and the majority on here are more interested in being a GP rather than LP, but hopefully there'll be some interest -please ask away
My time is spent as follows:
Primary Fund DD / modelling / meetings / reference calls / legals - 50%
Annual LP meetings / travelling to meet FMs 20%
Coinvests / Secondaries opps analysis 25%
Boring admin shit 5%
I focus a lot of my attention on EM, but have also worked on mezz, us/eu buyout, frontier and growth capital so have a reasonable understanding across strategies
I'll assume the first question is comp so will get that out of the way....my base is £75k and bonus (excluding carry as we are not currently at our preferred return) was £30k - which I am told was very low compared to better years.






Sorta unrelated but any
Sorta unrelated but any chance you could PM me which uni it was? I've just graduated from one which is also top 10(ish) - i.e. been in and out for the past few years.
How hard did you find it to get into PE from AM rather than IBD, and would you say AM has prepared you well for the stuff you do?
See my other WSO blog posts>
Glad to see a discussion
Glad to see a discussion other than IB on this forum. I'm interested in FoF and was wondering what your plans are for exit opps or do you want to stay in FoF as a career choice? Also, what's the difference between the work you did in AM vs. FoF?
Thank you samoanboy. Do you
Thank you samoanboy.
Do you think there is a "path" to enter the FoF business ?
Do you want to go to PE afterwards or not ?
What are the hours compared to IBD ?
Asatar wrote: Sorta unrelated
Sorta unrelated but any chance you could PM me which uni it was? I've just graduated from one which is also top 10(ish) - i.e. been in and out for the past few years.
How hard did you find it to get into PE from AM rather than IBD, and would you say AM has prepared you well for the stuff you do?
I went to Manchester.
It's definitely not the traditional route, some people come to PE FoF through SWFs, family offices etc, where a route from AM is more normal - so its definitely not impossible, but if your target is PE I wouldnt advise AM as your way of getting there
liliane23 wrote: Glad to see
Glad to see a discussion other than IB on this forum. I'm interested in FoF and was wondering what your plans are for exit opps or do you want to stay in FoF as a career choice? Also, what's the difference between the work you did in AM vs. FoF?
I intend to leave the industry in the next couple of years to do further study (possibly MBA) and would then like to get into NGO work - not sure how that'll work out.
MBA is the norm.
TheSquale wrote: Thank you
Thank you samoanboy.
Do you think there is a "path" to enter the FoF business ?
Do you want to go to PE afterwards or not ?
What are the hours compared to IBD ?
usual path is IBD (frequently Financial Sponsors) for 18month - 2 years, then 2 years as an associate and then MBA.
I do co-invests at the moment which is similar to direct PE investing without the sourcing element - no plans to try and make the move though.
Hours are very good. 8-6/7 with weekend work very rare. I travel a lot though (2/3 times a month) and that creates a lot of non office 'working hours'
That is great Comp. I'm at a
That is great Comp. I'm at a mid-market PE shop in the UK and my all-in is less than your Base.
What's LP sentiment on the UK mid-market right now?
Clarkey wrote: That is great
That is great Comp. I'm at a mid-market PE shop in the UK and my all-in is less than your Base.
What's LP sentiment on the UK mid-market right now?
Suprised to hear that. I'm probably a bit older (26) and had a fair bit of operating experience pre entering finance (and started on very good money in AM) so that might explain some of the differential.
I think UK MM is a good space to be in at the moment, but probably would be better accessed through growth capital rather than buyout. The absence of lending from banks is likely to be a catalyst for some good deals going forward. We have one UK MM relationship who are likely to raise again next year and I expect we'll re-up.
Thought a day-in-the-life
Thought a day-in-the-life would be helpful.
As previously mentioned, I spend a lot of time out of the office, but a standary office day would be as follows (this is based on last friday).
8.00am -8.30am Arrive in the office, read emails that came in overnight from Asia / US, try and follow-up with people in HK / BJ asap before they head home for the day.
8.30am-9.00am Skim through FT, WSJ, bloomberg etc to see if there is anything interesting on any of our underlying portfolio companies.
9.00am - 9.45am Call with CFO of one of our GPs to discuss co-invest opportunity in a med tech company. Go step-by-step through their models and question their assumptions and compare with my initial model - usually my earnings growth estimates are significantly more conservative and I need to be 'up-sold'.
9.45am - 10am Discuss call with one of our principles, both feel that we have plenty of healthcare in the portfoio and this doesnt pass our >3x MOIC for serious consideration of a co-invest.
10am-11am Managing Partner of a Indian Mezz Fund who is raising $250m comes in to talk us through the proposal. Past funds have done well but we have signficant concerns about the risk/reward for EM mezz. Meeting focuses on quality of management in these businesses and there disinclination to give away sizeable equity stakes.
11am-12pm Writing up some meeting notes from earlier in the week and sending a few post-meeting DD emails
12.30-14.00pm Lunch presentation at a hotel from one of the US megafunds currently raising $8bn. I hate the strategy, the lack of decent exits and the fact that these businesses are highly skilled marketers rather than highly skilled investors. We wont invest but its good to know what the competitors are looking at. Megafunds are good for people like CALPERS who need to write $500m cheques and investors who rely on consultants for their DD, but for more niche / adventorous players they are not very exciting.
14.30-15.00 Internal meeting to look at our pipeline and discuss travel arrangements. We have three LP meetings in one week in NYC in two weeks time and I'll be attending, always enjoy travelling but these meetings will be exhausting
15.00-16.00pm Reference calls will existing investors in a fund that is about to have its final close. These are probably the best way of getting to know a new manager. On this occasion no new issues arise and we will proceed with our legal review.
16.00-18.00pm emails, meeting notes, bit of modelling but its friday so I'm concentrating on the weekend rather than the work. Leave at 6pm and drink for the rest of the weekend.
Hope that's helpful.
+1 Thanks for posting.
+1 Thanks for posting.
Very informative post
Very informative post
wait u work only till 6...
wait u work only till 6... thats not bad at all, I thought PE was the same grind of 14 hour days. Also I thought Corp Dev was the lowest hours a day in finance
I want a lady on the street, but a freak in the bed,
Go Bucks!!
He works at a FoF not direct
He works at a FoF not direct PE
Normally closer to 7pm, but
Normally closer to 7pm, but day in question was a Friday.
This is interesting to me, as
This is interesting to me, as I've made some good contacts at a European fund that is a blended PE FoF and direct-investment PE fund. What are careers like for a senior associate or junior VP type for people with a due diligence background (picture good MBA + consulting like MBB or OW with a lot of PE DD)?
Hey Samoanboy....interesting
awesome post thank you!
anything on HFoFs: salary,
Do you think you can join the
.
Maherj1 wrote: Hey
TheSquale wrote: Do you think
mauriceevans23
What would be the exit opps
That comp is roughly inline
samoanboy wrote: Clarkey
What type of modeling are you
Clarkey wrote: samoanboy
The Biz Kid wrote: What type
mathiasr wrote: What would be
I have an offer with one of
Do you work with LatAm?
aaaaaarrgg!
samoanboy wrote: liliane23
PIGS wrote: samoanboy
Tryna go back to Samoa? It's
Do your investors ever
TheMasao wrote: Do your
Solidarity wrote: Tryna go
samoanboy wrote: TheMasao
TheMasao wrote: samoanboy
What was it that made you
What was it that made you
..
samoanboy - Thanks for the
Earnings are dependant on the
I was looking for this
Thanks for doing this. What's
Mr. Hansen: I was looking for
Impossible_Living: Thanks for