CMBS Exit Opportunities?
Monkeys,
I accepted a FT offer as an analyst in CMBS after graduation and was curious to know what exit opps I can take 2-3 years down the line. On a day to day basis, I'll be working on pricing, trading, securitization, and distro. Ideally, I'd like to go to the buyside (REPE/Infra PE/CMBS focused hedge fund). How would I go about breaking in - do I take the head hunter/networking route? What skills do I need, and how would you recommend obtaining said skills? Would another degree after my analyst stint (MBA in RE/Finance or MS in Fin Engineering) help? To provide some more context, the group works on a ton of deals for REPE MFs.
Any insight is appreciated!
Great thing about CMBS is the amount of volume. REPE / Development doesn't have a fraction of the volume. You'll see a ton of deals and meet a ton of people. Best thing to do is use the deal volume to build your network and if you are competent you'll be able to easily transition. That's where I started.
Agreed on this. I see so many people move from CMBS to other loan types, asset mgmt, securitization or REPE (a bit less common, but doesnt mean it cant be done)
Ill go against the trend and say exit opps are limited in CMBS - the most i see folks doing is going into debt funds, but even that is difficult without some sort of solid connection.
It is true that a good number folks go do a number of RE-related things are doing CMBS Underwriting/Origination, but that is usually due to family connections or what not - this is really just based on what I have seen.
When it comes to CMBS, you want to be the guy who’s doing the structuring and securitization aka “capital market” stuff, that’d set you up not only for real estate but the whole strucured finance field as well
Origination/underwriting is same everywhere, nothing special about cmbs origination/underwriting
Agreed. Basically- the "brains behind the operation" as they are key to arbitrage and without arbitrage, cmbs does not exist.
As a college student, this sort of thing really interests me any book recommendations or things to research? What would this title be called at a company, what concept is this?
Real Estate Backed Securities - Fabozzi and Dunlevy
From my experience, the guys in securitization found their skill set to be virtually non-transferable. Everyone that left went to do the same things the guys in originations did, except they didn't have a client book or solid relationships. Junior level securitization guys mostly fix the origination guys underwriting to conform to rating agency standards and help put together the prospectus. Not much structuring until you get to senior level.
Also, sec. guys don't arb. the traders arb.
Our structuring and securitization are all run by junior analysts, each person is responsible for one deal from end to end
And for prospectus, we outsource that kind of tedious work to investment banks
So your group feeds loan into a conduit, and then that IB is the bookrunner? Am I understanding that correctly?
Not sure about the CMBS part, but I'll state the obvious that an MBA would certainly help you pivot to something different like the buyside.
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