LPs sharing pursuit costs

A trend I'm seeing more and more, especially with larger development shops, is the developer asking the LP to share in pursuit costs, or pre-dev costs. My shop refuses to share these costs and we've lost several great deals to other equity providers willing to come in early and share the costs. I'm wondering if this is a recent trend, considering how much dry powder out there chasing deals, or have institutional shops/PE firms always been willing to share these costs? Also wondering what the typical structure looks like for pursuit cost sharing. Any examples of how the waterfall gets structured when the LP equity comes in this early? does the equity split change when hard costs start funding (developer pays a larger share of pursuit costs before switching to a standard 90/10 split)?

8 Comments
 
Most Helpful

We’ve done it on our LP positions and our JV partners really appreciate it. It brings them back almost every time.

If we feel convicted enough to invest $30MM+ in a spec development, the $200K-$300K in pursuit costs (which will be trued up on the backend anyways) is pretty much a rounding error to us, and it is a huge value-add to our JV partner. Lost pursuit costs are baked into our funds expected returns anyways, and you have to been willing to take those risks to be aggressive and win deals.

We usually just write into our cost sharing agreements that if the development falls apart before closing the JV agreement, then the pursuit costs are trued up to a 50/50 split. Additionally, if at anytime in the next 3-5 years the developer pursues the deal with another JV partner then we get fully reimbursed for all of our pursuit costs.

 

thanks, great ammo for when I try convincing IC that we should be doing this. I can see why it’s a huge benefit to the developer if they’re pursuing several deals at once and their capital is spread thin.

 

Another question...do you execute your jv docs before you start funding pursuit costs and just amend them if needed, or is there a separate OA for everything prior to closing of the senior loan and final jv docs?

 

Velit voluptas illo corrupti quo. Saepe cum autem non est fugiat ipsam.

Excepturi iusto et magni quam. Saepe nihil aut dicta deserunt est. Nihil vitae exercitationem beatae nesciunt enim. Autem nam consequatur debitis.

Et quas et aut qui eos sequi labore. Vel numquam magnam voluptas sint. Pariatur aut libero delectus. Voluptatem nulla minus alias labore minima eos voluptas sit.

Dolorum sed non nihil et quibusdam laboriosam amet. Incidunt animi nostrum id sed a deserunt. Quo sed id quibusdam cum. Quos atque dolorem molestiae iusto sint sit minus illum.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (77) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (71) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
8
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”