With the advent of HFF setting up shop in London at the beginning of this year, I thought it would be interesting to see a detailed comparison of the two firms over in the US to gain an idea of the likely dynamic once HFF establish themselves.
Working culture?
Services?
Exit opps?
Deal Size?
Dominance?
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Eastdil has a strangehold on UK financing because, for whatever reason, there really aren't financing shops out there, but this is starting to change. HFF is not the only broker entering the market. Everyone knows eastdil doesn't get out of bed for anything less than $100mm, so the middle market is ripe for the picking there, which is why you are seeing these moves happen.
Very interesting. Do you think HFF will be able to capture deals above £100m? Hires from CBRE will surely bring this to the table?
I'm also struggling to understand how the IB team they acquired will feed into this. Apparently after the BAML bankers went off on their own, they haven't been involved in any entity level transactions or capital raisings. How exactly will synergies form?
Yes, Eastdil is not the end all be all. Don't get me wrong, they are still considered to be the top brokerage, but they don't run a monopoly in the financing world. If we're talking trophy NYC office investment sales - yes, don't even bother competing with them. Most brokers end up carving out a niche or expertise for themselves at least to some degree, so they will not have a stranglehold on large deals in London forever especially as new players enter the market. Don't forget - brokerage largely comes down to relationships for winning deals, not just expertise and execution ability.
As for the IB team, I don't really know about that situation. I will say if that IB team doesn't know real estate or have real estate relationships, I don't know where synergies will come from. I will venture to guess they just see the same wide-open market other brokers entering the market are seeing and are trying to grab a piece of the pie.
Associate at HFF. I started my career at another top five CRE capital markets firm, and the culture here is objectively superior across the board. An old firm of mine used HFF numerous times for both investment sales and debt advisory - each time HFF performed above sale price, rate, recourse, etc... expectations. HFF also gives entry-level analysts a cut of the commission (mandated by HQ), which does wonders for morale and employee turnover rates. This is a stark contract to the other group I worked for.
Check HFF revenue per employee figures versus CBRE and JL; $600K+ per employee.
Out of curiosity, how much commission does HQ mandate HFF give analysts? Is it a set percent of every deal you work on or does the lead salesperson on the deal determine it?
A minimum % of total commission (as mandated by HQ) is set aside for for both analyst "tips" and the remainder for a shared bonus pool (support staff participate too).
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If I could give you 10 bananas I would - invaluable insight.
Based on revenue per employee, I assume that deal flow for analysts is perhaps superior to that experienced by a Capital Markets graduate at JLL/CBRE?
It depends highly on the broker/group. There are rainmaker brokers at both of those firms, but the average fee income per broker is much lower.
Bump. Has anyone interviewed with Eastdil in London? Looking for some color. Please let me know. I'll drop you a line via PM.
PM me I had an offer a year or so ago. but turned down for something else.
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