BX Corporate PE vs REPE outcomes
Hi, we all know that BX PE analysts have absolutely insane exits. I’ve noticed a lot more analysts are in groups like RE Acquisitions and like, and very few are in corporate PE. Are the corporate PE group analysts the ones who get insane outcomes, or is it generally all analysts including REPE? It seems REPE is much easier to get at my school. If not, would a top tier PE analyst program (KKR/WP/SLP) be a better pick than BX REPE? How about top BB or EB?
Thanks for your advice
Is BX PE generalist at associate level?
I’m not sure
London REPE at Blackstone is top-notch. Those guys get worked to the bone though (e.g. banking hours or worse) but they are by far the best real estate investors around. Exit opps are pretty sick from there too (actually on average better then PE) but thats mainly because its a much larger team and has a significant junior base (unlike the PE team). Comp should be above the banking comp and healthy bonus. They also do an annual ski trip to Verbier which is nice
People mostly exit to hedge funds (examples include York, Monarch, ENA, Och Ziff and a bunch of other ones) but really those guys have their pick and no issues going wherever they want.
Varying take, blackstone repe analysts do not know real estate. They know how to underwrite LBOs of real estate companies because that’s the only efficient way for them to get capital out. Ask a blackstone analyst anything qualitative about the physical buildings and they’re useless.
In short, blackstone repe is corporate pe with a real estate flair.
I'd agree with this. When you get to their size, to efficiently deploy capital you need to target large transactions taking down portfolios / REITs / platforms etc. You're far away from the real estate on those transactions.
BCP (PE) guys have the broadest exit options, generally hedge funds or top b-schools. the real estate guys tend to stay more and it's harder to go into non real estate related buyside exits like hedge funds
I doubt the HBS AdCom cares about whether someone did Private Equity - Industrials or Private Equity - Real Estate at BX.
but who wants to go to b school these days? better to skip it and go directly to another buyside shop
Thoughts on asset management or capital markets teams?
REPE guys don’t have nearly the same exits as BCP / similar MF PE guys. You’ll rarely see a REPE guy lateral to a Tiger cub / top activist shop.
They usually just stay in RE or leave finance. Kids in school do it either because they’re genuinely interested in RE, or they view it was an easy way to get a “prestigious” buyside gig out of school, but sign up for something they haven’t really thought about…
This is very much the truth. The Corporate PE team is an entirely different business arm from the REPE team. The REPE team doesn’t underwrite companies so much as P&L assets. There is no sense of working capital or a balance sheet or even cash flow statement modeling. It is just simple real estate NOI and FCF models. There is no natural skillset to exit to any tiger cub/activist fund.
Work at BX, can confirm. Analyst exits to the HFs folks on here fawn over have come from BCP, BTO, and BIP. Am not aware of anyone from BREP making the jump.
I went to BREP out of school but moved to another investing division at BX, so I know both sides.
BCP (and to lesser extent, BTO) have better traditional exit ops per capita for sure, but part of the reason is because there are a lot more BREP analysts than any other division at BX, and most of them choose the path of least resistance, which is to stay at BX or stay in real estate, since BX is by far the most reputable place for real asset investing without any close competition. Nonetheless, every year there are a bunch of generalist minded folks who join BREP more or less because they wanted that direct-to-buyside clout and didn't want to take their banking offers (but they also didn't get a better MF analyst offer, like KKR/SLP). I consider myself in this camp - I took BREP out of college over GS and a few other top banking names. I personally know a fair share of these BREP analysts who went on to really solid corporate PE and HF roles, especially the ones who underwrote corporate type deals. Admittedly there are not many "classical" tiger cub HF exits out of BREP each year (I only know one in my year), but I'd say anyone who guns for a top corporate PE associate seat, special situations seat, or a multi-manager HF seat manages to get it.
Also to address a point made above by another poster, many BREP analysts certainly do build full 3-statement operating models - it really depends on what dealflow you have, but as someone who raised their hand for more corporate-type PE experience, I certainly got it. A lot of the colossal or more complicated real estate deals are actually co-underwritten between other groups like BCP/BIP/BTO, and in those cases you need to harmonize modelling across divisions. The famous Hilton buyout was a great example of that.
TLDR: For a first job out of school, I'd definitely take KKR/WP/SLP over BREP, but I'd probably take BREP over most banking roles. I'd personally consider BREP as a superior alternative over any banking gig because working under the rigor of BX global investment committee as a 22-year old is just a night-and-day difference compared to the work that banking analysts have to do. But maybe if it's something like PJT RX vs BREP it might be more of a wash and dependent on personal preference. YMMV.
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I'm sure BREP analysts have had some top notch corporate PE exits but I think this understates that real estate is a fundamentally different asset class. At my MF we would heavily favor any respectable banking group over buyside real estate experience, even if at BREP
Why? Curious
BIP exits?
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Quis cumque laborum provident ullam. Quasi amet et corrupti quas est similique.
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