All,
Everything is in the title. Interested to learn more about the Quadreal acquisition team as they launched the company back in 2016 if I remember well, and poached a few talents from top REPE funds. Any insight on their recruitment process (technical questions, modeling test) and culture (hours/WLB) would be great.
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Canadian REPE shop based out of Vancouver
growing super aggressively across Europe and the US. Want to build the “Brookfield of the West Coast”. Quality of human capital is good . Would recommend the opp if you have it. Think about The growth Brookfield had from 2010 to now. That’s what QR is trying to do now .
Lol no. Yes they're both in real estate. In Canada, they'll own assets and manage them completely, develop them etc. But internationally they partner with GPs. Their capital comes from BCI and never need to fund raise. A place like Brookfield, Blackstone, Starwood, Lone Star etc. will always have to fund raise and two of these firms have public shareholders to please as well. Pensions will be content with say a 4-5% annual return every year (I believe QRs performance has been better than this, but that is the threshold). Try telling Schwarzmann/ Gray/ Flatt/ Sternlicht that their REPE funds will only produce 4-5% IRRs. The REPE funds need to source deals directly, whereas a place like QuadReal may source their deals through someone like a Starwood in a large portfolio take down.
QuadReal is a good shop and reputable in real estate. But they're in the realm of Cadillac Fairview, CPPIB, PSP, Ivanhoe Cambridge, etc. All very good places, but they are firms funding the firms above and doing deals with them.
And from a career perspective, pay at the private equity shops are better too.
Heard really good things (a mentor of mine told me about a role there, but it was based in Vancouver which was a non-starter for me). It's the real estate arm of one of the Canadian provinces' (British Columbia Investment Mngt Corp, BCI) sovereign wealth funds. And I gather it's similar to all the other Canadian SWFs (which is similar to the US pension funds). Which means good pay, good hours, and overall balance that keeps people at those firms for long times. I have heard they are expanding US offices and seeking a lot of US people.
Hi, just a quick follow-up. What would you choose between joining a Blackstone/Starwood/Lone Star fund and Quadreal? definitely interested to hear your thoughts about how the differences between these companies.
I mean... WSO wisdom says BX and Starwood are top and all else is less right??
Personally, I think you need to factor a lot more details. Like what role, what market, how do you fit culture wise (Quadreal I think would be very different than BX, but since I have not worked at either.... I can only guess). Truth is SWFs/pension funds/Life-co style operations do actually overlap in investment strategies with BX/SW, but the business is different. The PE style firms like BX must be raising money all the time, and need to give high returns to justify fees... the others can take a balanced approach to a portfolio (meaning mix of core and opportunistic) and can even "wait" to deploy or shift allocations, this cannot be done in PE fund world. Hence, PE fund world is leaner, more high stress, and potentially much higher paid
So, if you are a hard charging, money hungry fin-centric wall-street type (or wish to be), there is no debate on this. If you find that stuff repulsive and only want to work for BX for the "exit ops", work for Quadreal as that would be the "exit op".
Of course, until one has these two literal offers, its all just for fun!
I would choose based on which people I liked better.
All depends on your own life goals. But here is what I'd say. The benefit of QR would be working the WLB and working with multiple partners across their platform. A BX obviously has the prestige, pay, and exit opps. But what you'd also get at those types of places is a better skillset coming out of there imo. You get to work on sourcing deals, be involved in raising capital (I'd imagine as you get more senior), put together a business plan and execute it (whereas a QR will give it an approval), and work on more interesting deals (single assets, portfolios, distress, REIT take-privates, etc.) Plus a year or two at a place like BX/ BAM/ STWD etc. can easily get you an offer back at a QR or similar. The con of the PE firms would be the WLB. All are global and in similar cities (except Vancouver, I guess that's a QR thing) so mobility should be available in all.
Brother, Vancouver was a non starter for you??
Purely personal due to location of family (east coast based my whole life), same deal for my wife and with small kids that's a big deal. No knock on Vancouver meant at all, just a non-starter for me personally (I think my true range of consideration is the Acela corridor, Southeast, and Texas.... no interest in West Coast or Chicago/Mid-west, I do love Denver.. just doubt I'll ever have a reason to move there).
Thank you both for your comments, very helpful. Do you have any insight into their recruitment process? I am wondering if their modeling test should be a quick/simple office cash flow to do with a few leases and a senior loan, or if they are the kind of guy to make you model mezzanine loan, pik interests and a development scenario.
Their deals are typical SWF ones in U.S. Pure back-seat style LP asking probably just some buy-box rights or opt-out rights due to internal allocation concerns. No other rights. Not sure whether they started any GP or Co-GP works, but it’s not likely that they have the capacity in the U.S to do very first hand stuff.
Top tier shop
Found the QuadReal guy
Thoughts on their European presence and pay there? Wanting to make the move over to London and this could be a route.
Interviewed for a VP spot a while back and was ghosted
In Canada or the US?
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