Emerging Markets Real Estate Private Equity Interview vs BB Lev Fin vs BB LATAM DCM

I'm currently in a really shitty group at a Middle Market IBank. Not in New York, New York hours and shitty compensation...

Needless to say I'm interviewing and looking for PE or a lateral for my second year to a BB. In my opinion my top opportunity now is an interview for an emerging markets Private Equity fund in a few weeks that specializes in real estate. They have around $1BN completely levered to invest and can use the money for distressed assets, buy property for development or to purchase existing asset portfolios. From my first rounds they seem like really smart and interesting guys, all of whom graduated from top schools. The questions have been very basic up until now and I'm confident that I can handle any technical questions given that I'm working in Lev Fin right now and modeling every day.

I basically have two questions about the second round:

  1. What kind of questions can I expect from people higher up in their Fund?

  2. How technical do RE PE questions get? What should I expect as far as building a model/analyzing a potential investment as part of a question there?

Finally with the choice of BB Lev Fin, BB LATAM DCM and this emerging market fund, what would fellow monkeys choose? Personally I think this PE opportunity is the best considering how miserable I have been in my group and the more interesting story I expect to have once I end up applying to B Schools. (It also helps that the fund is LATAM and I love latinas) Thanks in advance for the advice.

2 Comments
 
Best Response

1) I'm thinking you can expect more "fit" type questions as well as some more general business / RE questions that aren't necessarily "technical", but that may call on your general business sense. You should try and take note of what types of property the fund specializes in and know some of the characteristics of investing in that/those property type(s). The basic cash flow and tax considerations related to investing in income producing properties like hotels/office vs. build to sell residential, etc, may come up, but that's not exactly complicated.

2) If you're sticking to actually buying physical assets / investing in development propjects, it shouldn't get that technical (I have no idea about funds that do debt strategies and invest in CMBS and all that--- I'm speaking from experience of investing in land, development projects and existing buildings). Be sure you know how to walk through a DCF and also perhaps some of the basics about land valuation / property appraisal (using comps).

3) with regards to your final question, I'd say the emerging markets RE PE job sounds sweet, but definitely don't confuse it in your mind as a "PE job" that "specializes in RE". The reason i say that is that you should know once you start in RE for any considerable amount of time it's not easy to switch back to another area of investment as RE is such a specialized area. Generally speaking, you'll have much better hours in RE and the comp will be close to the same over the long run (though slightly less), but many people will tell you it's not quite as intellectually stimulating or complex as investing in a broader range of companies/assets like you would at a plain vanilla PE firm.

 

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