I noticed a position that was posted online about Hudson Advisors (Lone Star Funds) for what seems to be acquisitions and asset management. I've gone through the forum and not found too much information on them given their size, but does anyone know what the hours, pay, culture, deals they've done, etc. are like? Also why is it split up as Hudson Advisors and Lone Star Funds, seems like there are no juniors at Lone Star.
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Based on other forums seem like they pay to market, probably longer hours but not as bad as IB. They dont have much public information but looks like juniors dont sit in Lone Star
Do they have different groups that cover acquisitions vs AM or do juniors take on both roles?
Oh man. You're the one from Berkadia aren't you.
No I am not - haven't applied for a job there but was considering. Do you work at Hudson? care to share some intel
Dude you get the intel in the interview. Worry about this when you have the job offer
Jeez dude chill out…
.
LOL small D energy
I spoke with someone in the NY office last year - seems like Hudson Advisors and Lone Star sit under the same roof, it is just split up for unknown reasons and stuck to that structure. The juniors sit on the Hudson side and the investments team are very similar to a REPE role, but get both acquisitions and asset management experience. All i really can remember from them, didn’t get past the first call
Are you familiar with their Residential Structured Credit group? Appreciate any input!
Not familiar with that team…only spoke with those who focus on equity investments
Sounds like the team that does the COLT/VOLT RMBS deals + SFR.
If so, they’re legit in the space. Have met them once or twice and they seemed cool. Can also confirm that Hudson is just where the rank and file sits in the corp structure…I think Lone Star is just partners.
Don’t have a ton of specific insight to offer beyond that, but hope that’s at least somewhat helpful.
Bump
Feel like I have stumbled upon people asking about Hudson Advisors too much recently.
Hudson Advisors = Lone Star
The only folks who sit on Lone Star Side are MDs (originators), IR, and senior senior folks. The rest of the investment team sits under Hudson Advisors (acquisitions/AM, financing, mortgage, portfolio management, accounting, etc.). Take two minutes and go on Linkedin and this will become very obvious. They are 100% owned by Lone Star and only do work for Lone Star, ring a bell?
They were huge players in the distressed loan space post crisis but stalled during the later 2010s. They recently (1-2 years ago) became very active again on the equity side and seem to be raising smaller funds.
They are no different than any other REPE shop: Fast paced work environment, longer work hours, pay market rates, etc. You will get great exposure to deals here just as much as you would at any other shop…Not sure why all the horrible rep they get on this forum when theyve been around for ages and have changed a lot these past few years.
Hope this helps
Reads like it was written by an employee. I remember there was a Hudson employee on some of the past threads
EDIT: MS just proves it, that’s what the employee was doing in the old thread too lol
What dude, get a grip. I have a buddy who did a three year stint there and was on his way out as they were switching over to become more of an equity player again. He gave the run down of what its looking like and relaying the message.
and? what’s wrong with what he provided?
I know a few guys that worked there a few years ago and as someone previously stated: high paced, market pay, long hours, horrible culture, managed like a family office (one owner)
Would you consider it a good place to learn the ropes of real estate investment? I assume yes if you get good deal flow
Anyone have any additional intel on their investments team? What do they pay for comp?
In a recent thread someone said they pay analysts mid 100s, would assume associates pull in low 200s? Especially if in NY
They keep a very low profile - really not sure why. On few brokerage deals we worked on with them, we really spoke with Hudson team (Director and below) who would be running the acquisitions side. The Lone Star folks are mainly just originators so do not understand the politics of the split, they pretty much run as one company. Smart folks at that shop though, seem to compete with all the big names (Blackstone, Starwood, KKR, etc.) on larger portfolio take downs.
Anyone have any updated views on the residential mortgage group? Is this an attractive space to be in?
I would stay far away from Hudson Advisors. They gave me an offer in NYC many years ago and I turned it down after speaking to a senior Lone Star employee who agreed to speak candidly (a personal relationship). Basically, horrible culture that’s a complete grind shop where you’ll be underpaid and will acquire an inferior skill set to your peers who are actually doing REPE since you won’t see the full deal process and you’ll never be “in the room” for committee discussions, structuring considerations, legal negotiations, etc. You’ll be an Argus/Excel processing monkey with no context and no real upward mobility.
Hudson is essentially LS’s back office, mostly run out of Dallas. People who take jobs there are typically desperate junior pros who want to work in REPE but can’t get a job at a top shop or are duped into thinking they’re working for LS. Yes, it’s a wholly owned sub, but it’s like working in financial reporting at LivCor and saying you work at Blackstone.
The real decision makers sit under the Lone Star flag and only senior pros are employed there, but getting hired from Hudson to LS is uncommon. If you do make the transition, do you really want to work at LS? There’s been MASSIVE turnover at both Hudson and LS over the years. Many junior and very senior pros on both sides have quit or been fired as their funds have wound down. You’re just a number there. Grayken runs both companies with an iron fist and is the sole equity owner (atypical for a fund manager of this size). The guy dropped his US citizenship so he could pay less taxes. Money seems to be his sole motivation and sharing it with his employees is not. In fact, the only reason that Hudson was created was to earn Grayken more money.
Fund managers (“GPs” like Lone Star) raise funds from their investors and earn management fees, which GPs use to pay their employees. The fewer the employees, the more fees the executives get to keep to pay themselves. GPs can charge or reimburse certain deal-related expenses to their fund investors (like pursuit costs and third party deal costs). Grayken created Hudson as a wholly owned subsidiary of LS to serve as an “advisor” to his funds so that he can reimburse the cost of most of his personnel (all of Hudson) back to his investors as deal costs (i.e. he doesn’t pay for most of his employees and gets to keep the lion share of his management fees), which is actually pretty clever and is surprising that he continues to get away with it. I think the reason is because he’s had some of the best returns in the business, but that’s also largely because he’s been great at timing the cycle. He raises big funds invests aggressively when there’s distress and he will almost completely exit the business when the market is frothy. Grayken is an interesting guy and what he’s achieved as an investor is no doubt admirable, but I would never work for him.
Thanks for sharing this
What you shared on culture is absolutely accurate but will correct you on what Hudson does - it houses back office but also everyone below Director level at Lone Star which are the “originators” of deals. Everyone below is under Hudson so you still have VP’s, associates, and analysts on deal teams that will run the underwriting, DD process, IC presentation to Grayken along with the Lone Star guys. It’s a weird dynamic where you’re basically part of the same team evaluating investments for the fund but work for different companies. Definitely leads to silo’d roles where analysts and associates are just excel monkeys but at the junior level you’re still running the model, working with counter parties (seller, broker, etc.) and closing the deal. But because of this dynamic you can’t start sourcing deals at the VP level to get to the next level, you have to gain credibility with the Lone Star guys and Grayken to eventually move to Lone Star to become an “originator”. A couple of the Lone Star guys have started at Hudson but it is a grind to get to Lone Star.
Would you still not take the offer even if you were a desperate and couldn’t get into a top shop? If so, what would you do instead as a 2-3 yrs experience junior?
If you’re desperate and there are no other prospects in sight and the economy is in the toilet, then sure, I’d take it. But then again, I’d also take a job flipping burgers at McDonalds if it meant I could feed my family. Just don’t plan to stay long if you move forward with them, and figure out how to parlay it into something better quickly. Otherwise, what to do in the meantime? Continue to learn and grow; read a lot; expand your network; meet people in the business at all levels. If you’re hardworking, tenacious, and genuinely passionate about this business, things will have a way of working themselves out.
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