Advise needed (REPE Fund Management vs Big 4 Corp Fin RE)

I will be frank that I find the fund management team in my Corp RE PE is boring. We only deal with fund reporting (which we just basically passing property management report to the investors), do fund performance ( which is just change in NAV) and board paper. I feel that my job is purely administrator job. We do modelling, but mainly updating the model with actual numbers. And given that I am in a large corporate, we have so many people doing specialized things, hence the scope of my work is very limited. We also just help to fill in forms from investors and may be sometimes answer interesting investors' qn (that is the only that that make me smile a bit)

I did try to move to the acquisition side, and have been interviewing with few REPE on the acquisition side. Has been 8 months since then and no good offers yet. Lately I did an interview with EY on its new CF team for RE in Singapore. Seems like a decent one and at least I will be exposed to deal and some advisory services. Do you think this is a good move? or a step-back? and can I then go to REPE acquisition side from here?

 

I wouldn't go big 4 if I was already inside an REPE. I would be building my skills as much as possible and networking with everyone to get the spot in acquisitions that you want. Leaving a company to come back is the roundabout way to get where you want to go unless you are leaving for school,

 

through - my now.. it is kind of stagnant as the REPE firm that I am in is pretty much not growing and nothing much to do other than reporting and reporting.. or just audit the valuation that the xternal value undertakes.. not much skills I learnt going forward..

 

If you aren't growing, then try and get into acquisitions at another firm. But I would try to go straight there or to AM and then there.

Going big 4/advisory will take you further away from the assets and most likely more into a regulatory/strategy role. That isn't what you want if you want to get to an acquisitions/asset level role.

I know a few people who have worked in strategy roles and they had the hardest times getting back to asset level work even with people asset level experience. It was sort of like a shadow on the rest of their resume.

 

So you think if I work on the development management or AM - it is better to go into acquisition. The thing is the AM side of my company seems to be dealing only a single asset and they have less work on disposition or even asset enhancement, they mainly just do budgeting and reporting.

 

The reason I said AM or Development is because it is more applicable to acquisitions. You are actually learning about the property level detail and depending on the firm you could be doing internal valuations for the portfolio or feasibility analysis ect. The way you described your current role it would appear that the majority is reporting which is not really applicable.

 

In the definition of AM - I actually know did the asset plan approval, did the valuation and also lead the valuation process, interacting with investors and also build financial model for forecasting fund return. Given that our fund only hold 3 expensive assets - we are also very close to the asset side.. so yes my role is AM role already.. but we dont have much say in the fund as it is corporation driven and the setup is not for growth..

I on the other hand met with the EY guy today and he is a very well respected guy in the industry, was the head of ING Property AM for Asia and he has been the one who also developed JLL corp solution department from scratch. His profile looks amazing. I am aware that it is a step back - but he believes that it does not matter. as long as you make a difference thing will go a long way.

The role in EY is more on trusted business advisor and will be involved in balance sheet optimization, transaction management and advising on new fund setup.

 
levin343:

Anyway - I dont intend to go to Asset level work - i Intend to just do acquisition or advising on new setup / fund raising.

What I am saying to you......is that if you want to work in acquisitions like you previously stated....I would look for a position that is more asset focused so you can actually learn about real estate vs. staying where you are and/or going to work for a big four. Again, working in investment sales/capital markets at a top brokerage, AM and development are all more transferable.....

 
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