Analyst, Co-Investment

Job Description

About Grosvenor

Grosvenor Group is one of the world’s largest privately-owned property companies. We develop, manage and invest in property in more than 60 cities around the world.

Through the activities of Grosvenor Britain & Ireland, Grosvenor Americas, Grosvenor Asia Pacific and Grosvenor Europe we diversify the Group’s property portfolio by geography, sector, activity, currency and management teams. Our Indirect Investment business further diversifies the Group’s property interests by backing specialist third-party management teams. It invests Grosvenor’s capital in Africa, Australia, Europe and North and South America.

The purpose of the Group is to improve properties and places to deliver lasting commercial and social benefit. This is achieved by adopting a farsighted perspective, by being locally engaged and sharing and benefitting from our international experience – we call this our Living Cities approach.

About Grosvenor Americas

Grosvenor Americas is an active developer, investor and co-investor across Canada and the USA. Our strategy is to invest in vibrant urban locations where our activities can make a positive contribution to neighborhoods and communities.

Our active development pipeline focuses on projects in urban, transit-oriented and/or amenity-rich neighbourhoods and includes Crescent in San Francisco, The Pacific in downtown Vancouver, as well as the second phase of Grosvenor Ambleside in West Vancouver. Our Structured Development Finance programme invests in apartment, condominium, townhome and mixed-use developments across our active markets, with a focus on vibrant, well-connected locations, and our Investment programme adds value to residential, retail and commercial assets in high-quality places.

Grosvenor Americas is part of the Grosvenor Group, one of the world’s largest privately-owned property companies which develops, manages and invests in property in more than 60 cities around the world.

Co-Investment

Since the early 2000s Grosvenor Americas has operated a lending business which provides preferred equity financing for residential led developments. The business provides investment to developers in a participating debt structure (a hybrid of JV equity and mezzanine debt). This programme has financed over 70 development projects across Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington DC, representing almost $4bn in total developable value. Since inception our average IRR achieved has been in excess of 21%.

In 2014, Grosvenor Americas formerly established the Co-Investment team to manage the Structured Development Finance (SDF) Programme. The business has experienced significant growth since then, launching the True North Partnerships (True North I launched in 2015: a $300m partnership; True North II launched in 2017, a $400m partnership, managing third party capital alongside Grosvenor’s investment of $100m). The target return on investment is an IRR >20% and minimum equity multiple of 1.5x. The current portfolio stands at 23 actively managed loans representing a total commitment of $319m and $2.2bn in total developable value.  

The programme currently has $280m of undrawn capacity to deploy over the next 18-24 months and is undergoing a strategic review to explore several new markets in the US and Canada for further expansion.

The Co-Investment programme is the fastest growth area for the North American business. The team consists of 11 professionals based in Vancouver, San Francisco and Washington DC. Grosvenor Americas is committed to building an exceptional team to foster growth in this exciting area of the business.

Purpose of role

The principal responsibility of the role is to support the Co-Investment team’s lending activities in the San Francisco and Los Angeles markets. This position will directly report to the Senior Vice President in San Francisco and provide support to the Manager on the team. The individual will be involved at every stage of the investment cycle. As well as directly supporting the team, the role will be required to interact with internal senior executives and external partners.

Key responsibilities

To perform this role successfully, an individual must be able to perform each key responsibility satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skills, and/or ability needed. Other duties may be assigned as required.

• Creating, reviewing and analyzing financial proformas, budgets, cash flow forecasts, sensitivities, project profitability and investment returns for prospective and existing loans
• Modelling equity/debt/waterfall structures and evaluating risk mitigation strategies
• Attending and actively participating in internal and external meetings with developers, lenders and other business stakeholders
• Administration of existing loan activity including review of loan draw requests, preparation of internal loan draws, organizing revenue distributions, and maintaining interest accrual calculations
• Maintaining monthly and quarterly management reports with a focus on budget monitoring and sales/lease-up performance
• Researching and monitoring market activity and potential development opportunities in various markets
• Collating and reviewing due diligence data/materials including assessing borrower financial statements
• Assisting in the preparation of loan approval reports and other closing matters

• Providing ad-hoc analytical support and collaborating with other teams across North America

   

  Key requirements

  The following are key characteristics or skills that a successful candidate should possess

• At least 2 years of business analytical experience, preferably within the real estate sector
• A university degree or diploma specializing in: real estate, accounting, or finance is preferred
• Advanced proficiency in Excel financial modelling is critical
• Strong understanding of the key drivers of real estate valuation
• Private equity experience is also highly valued but not required
• Highly intelligent self-starter who is detail-oriented with strong quantitative and analytical skills
• A high degree of knowledge of general finance, accounting, and capital markets concepts
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to synthesize quantitative financial analysis into concise written and verbal reports
• Motivated team player with excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to actively interface with personnel at all levels, including third parties
• Flexible and adaptable in a fluid work environment
• Able to manage multiple projects with varying deadlines
• Aptitude in interpreting financial, technical and legal documents

• High proficiency in other MS Office applications including Word and PowerPoint

   

  At Grosvenor, we seek to recruit and develop people who share our values – Integrity, Respect and Trust – and have the skills and ambition to help us implement our strategy.  We stick to our promises, build lasting relationships with partners and work closely and responsibly with local communities.

Working conditions and physical requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• The employee is often required to sit for long periods and use their hands and fingers to operate office equipment and to manipulate keys on a keyboard.
• The employee is required to talk and hear.
• The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, reach with arms and hands, lift, climb or balance, and to stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl.
• Vision abilities required by this job include close vision.

• An office environment with a noise level that is usually quiet to moderate.

   

  Job description revision

  This is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, duties, requirements, efforts or working conditions associated with this job.  While this job description is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed when circumstances change.  This job description replaces all previous descriptions for this position.