Private Equity in Vancouver
I was wondering if anyone has any experience with any PE shops in Vancouver?
I am from the area and going to be working in Toronto at a Big5 bank and wanted to go back for personal reasons like being close to friends and family. I know much of the PE scene in Canada is in Toronto at places like Onex or other UMM PE shops, but are there any solid MM shops in Vancouver? Or would I be better off trying to make it long term in IB if I moved back?
Anyone who lives in Vancouver talks about absurdly high residential home prices, and I know building development is huge there as well. Is there any sort of UMM REPE presence in Vancouver or is it just dominated by larger incumbents like Oxford etc..
Appreciate any insight from anyone who has made the switch from Toronto to Van, or if you know anyone who has.
YellowPoint is in Vancouver I believe and are pretty solid, have worked with them once and their guys seemed pretty smart.
Fulcrum also has a Vancouver office, more LMM but I’ve heard culture is good, dealflow seems good
Ahh yes I worked with Fulcrum once during one of my internships before banking. LMM is interesting, you heard any insight on comp there?
I think as an associate you’re around $150-170k all in. I’ve heard hours-wise it’s not a bad trade-off
If you go to cvca.ca (VC and PE industry association in Canada) you can look at their member directory for Vancouver based PE firms. There are a few, but I think they are mostly MM and smaller. Not a ton of IB seats in Vancouver either, some mining and some other stuff. Probably best to be open to both the PE firms and staying in IB.
For real estate, here are probably smaller developers, but the larger stuff would be mostly the large developers/pensions (Oxford, QuadReal, Brookfield, etc.).
Ahh okay thank you !
Other comments are spot on. Would you ever consider Victoria and work with BCI? They have a pretty solid remote work policy too
BCI would be interesting, but I'm aiming to be in Vancouver (although Victoria isn't that far). Only downside is you don't get carry as you progress but I've heard the pension you get from these larger funds can be north of 500K per year at the more senior level
The comp is still great, and would be above whatever you’d get at a LMM fund in Van imo. Carry doesn’t come in for a long time, so you could do BCI and pivot over as a VP to get carry points
cm partners is paradise
Check out Sandpiper
Will do, have you had any experience working with them?
Much to dislike about the Vancouver finance market but what is striking to me is that a majority of the senior folk are former CPAs / Big 4 Corp Fin. Not to bash a field as a whole but the difference in rigour is very clear when you contrast say, a KKR/BX/APO principal. Team energy/culture is meaningfully much more lazy / less vibrant. Together, this compounds in a variety of different areas, such as: being very slow to move, a lack of creativity in structuring, generic underwriting methodology, over-the-top focus on sensitives/minutia that aren't driving the bus, anchored on an idea to contextualize numbers vs the other way around and not being very proactive in hunting actionable themes and relationships, instead relying on broad inbounds (which you consistently don't win in). Between value and growth I find most fund theses to be in the middle, almost directionally biased as an illiquid beta on the market - which I don't think is very value-generative for LPs. Decks and models similarly lack polish - being brutally honest - just don't look good IMO
Also just be aware that industry will tilt to forestry/mining/junior tech/manufacturing given western coverage. In terms of comp, after factoring in FX rate, I think you would make more as a MF/UMM associate in the US (in addition to Atlas/ONEX in Toronto) than as a junior partner in Vancouver (whilst having the advantage of being mostly cash vs carry DAW bps)
WLB is not meaningfully better either - you're still grinding out 60-65 hr weeks at the junior level at CAI/Fulcrum with little to no flexibility on remote days or coming in late - the benefit being that maybe you have easy access to golfing and skiing on the weekends. Most importantly because firms are so top-heavy, your upward mobility is ironically equivalent/worse than actual MFs given new fundraises are infrequent (with subsequent funds being not much larger than prior vintages), and you'll probably be stuck at the mid-level for quite some time - which means you'll have someone over your shoulder preventing you from really QBing a deal and developing meaningful relationships until some dude retires (hint: they won't, most of the co-founders are in their late 40s / early 50s)
If I were you I would look elsewhere to develop your career as a junior. You mention "going to be working in Toronto" so you haven't even started your career yet - give it two years, read this again and you'll be better positioned on what next steps to take
Yeah thats what I have found from browsing LinkedIn as well. Are you in PE in Toronto or the US?
Sounds like you have quite a bit of information, would you be open to a PM?
*this is incredibly accurate
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