UK
I’m currently an associate in real estate investment banking, but am looking to move on. I’d consider emerging market private equity (Africa/Asia ideally), including distressed debt analysis. Alternatively, I’d be interested in working for a developer in their corporate finance department. Eventually I would like to be involved in African real estate development projects, in a financial capacity, such as CEO or CFO. In the meanwhile (over the next three – five years). I haven’t applied for anything in a while, but would appreciate knowing what you all think. What specific advice might you have for me in terms of missing experience?
Work Experience
Major international bank, London
Associate, real estate investment banking February 2007 to present
Evaluate cash flow covenants of listed developers and investment managers in, test for covenant breach and estimate liquidation value working with market professionals.
Assessed the accretive nature of various takeover targets for bidder; met with board member to discuss basis for cooperation, review combined portfolios for overlap and fit.
Organised a response to an RFP by a real estate company regarding its restructuring and value maximisation strategy, given its controlling interest in another market player.
Analysed major European real estate firm, built residual valuation model, mapped industry peer group, and presented competitive positioning to company CEO, CIO, CFO during IPO pitch.
Reviewed balance sheet and real estate (investment and development) property with CFO and Development Manager of client company.
Maintain relations among senior industry advisors and investors.
Software employed : FactSet Global, Bloomberg, Reuters, Mergermarket, Thomson Financial.
<Major real estate group
Senior Surveyor, International Portfolio Valuations, (London) Sept 2005 to February 2007
Conduct multinational portfolio valuations; responsible for portfolio analysis and reporting.
Liaise with fund managers, lenders, lawyers, and other group European offices.
Coordinate supporting offices and manage overall reporting process.
Analyse portfolios for credit risk, leasing risk, and sector/geographic exposure.
Valued commercial and industrial property in Western Europe.
Use of Circle Visual Investor and Developer (now Argus), MS Excel.
(Same) Major real estate group
Analyst, Investment Brokerage, September 2005 to July 2006
Deal analysis (MS Excel modelling), origination and execution.
Oversaw “sealed bid” auction sale process; communicated with investors.
Introduced $60m in new business; explored joint opportunities with international offices.
<Real estate group
Student Intern, Office Lease Brokerage Summer 2004
Student Intern, Research Analyst Summer 2003
Education
CFA Institute June 2008
Scheduled to challenge Level 2 examination June 2009
Level 1 First Time Pass
Financial News Training April 2008
Leveraged buyout modelling certificate
Advanced real estate modelling certificate
Financial Services Authority, London, England May 2007
Authorised and approved to provide formal advice in corporate finance
Major North American Business School; Sept 2003 – June 2005
Honours Business Administration, HBA, graduate with First Class Honours
North American Real Estate Association July 2004 – July 2006
Commercial Realtor, graduated with First Class stand (85%)
Major North American University Sept 2000 – April 2003
Studied Accounting, Investment Finance, achieved First Class stand (84%)
Extra Curricular
Committee member, Housing Initiative April 2008 – Present
Index global best practice in emerging market affordable housing schemes, develop and test policies through field work
To set and maintain meeting agendas, minutes
President, University Financial Services Society Sept 2003 to April 2005
Partially merged the three accounting clubs on campus to form one entity
Increased sponsorship and fee revenues by 500%; doubled membership
Languages
French (intermediate) ; Mandarin Chinese (elementary, ongoing study)
Personal Interests
Reviewing opportunistic residential investments in UK, African developments
Mountaineering, chess, European football, snowboarding, surfing.
If you want to contact/hire the owner of this CV, please contact him at MintLifeRealty@gmail.com
Note from the editor: If you want your CV to be reviewed too, please email us at editor@efinancialcareers.com.
Before you do anything you should start with getting the basic English corrected. Mixture of present tense and past tense, bad grammar, etc
If that is how you sell yourself you would not get past the CV review stage of many institutions….
Good luck.
Pedantry aside, that’s an interesting CV. Wouldn’t have thought you would struggle to get interviews in your area of interest, provided the seniority is appropriate.
JB, thats a silly comment
Can you not criticize without being childish? It is true that the tenses are mixed up, point taken. The rest is balderdash because he has not even started applying. He has brought his cv here to be reviewed and criticised constructively.
Nonobstant quelques coquilles, ton CV est d’une qualite sans commune mesure. Les postes auxquels tu aspires demandent davantage de relationnel et une certaine prise de risque. Le monde de la finance ce n’est qu’une affaire de piston.
bien Cordialement
Horrific CV. I don’t know where to start.
I wonder what one would have to do or to be to have their CV reviewed/published on eFinancial…
Personally, in this market, I would go down the PE distressed debt road, and look to make your CV highlight how you fit in terms of experience in this field. Your CV is quite long, in my opinion. Tailor it for each role, and make high-impact tailored points.
As an aside: I would say that property as an asset class will be dead for 10 years. Have some contingency plans for that scenario.
Give the guy a break. I think the content of his CV is more important than grammatical errors! If the critic is a headhunter….perhaps you can spell and be grammatically correct….but I bet you don’t do multi million pound deals! Give him decent advice and encouragement. Don’t put him down.
Listed below are Private Equity firms who look at Africa/Middle East. I do not know whether they are hiring but you can ‘Google’ and contact them:
Abraaj Capital – invests in ME, Africa and S. Asia
Actis Capital
Africa Venture Partners
African Capital Alliance – http://www.aca-web.com
Arabian Ventures
Arcapita
Brait Capital Partners
Carlyle – raised a $1bn ME and N. Africa fund
CDC – big in EM. Spin outs from them include Aureos and Actis – both also worth looking at.
Contant Capital Partners
Citadel Capital Partners
Emerging Capital Partners – http://www.ecpinvestments.com
GroFin South Africa Group
Helios Investment Partners
KKR – Makram Azar, Head of Middle East
Kingdom of Zephyr Africa Management
Maghreb Private Equity
Millennium Private Equity
Sasfin
Standard Chartered – they have a private equity team in Jo’berg
Travant Capital Partners
Zephr Managament
Hope than helps
Your CV is from a really different league, limited academics, no brand names, if I were MD I would never loook at something like this, I at least need to see 2 top tier brand name banks on the CV
Funny this is the city, people with your specs can get a job in IBD… interesting
If you want your CV reviewed, you simply need to send it to the email address given above (editor@efinancialCareers.com). We don’t guarantee to post all the CVs that are sent through for review.
CFA Institute June 2008
Scheduled to challenge Level 2 examination June 2009 Level 1 First Time Pass
The above statement my friend is a violation of the CFAI code of ethics
Regarding your CV, I thik it is way too long, and you can obvious some technical tasks and focus more on commercial abilities, as expected from an Associate. The French guy is right, even if he cannot write it in English, it’s all about contacts. I would also leave out some education (rewrite the CFA part!) and the “personal interests” section.
As per your possibilities, I think you are well suited for a jump into a new role in Africa or Asia, just sell the international side of your life, and improve your French so that you can defend your cv in that language. You will probably need it in Africa. Last, I would suit the cv for African OR Asian roles (not a common cv), since you will have to show that you are determined and love that continent!
Good luck!
Your profile is essentially solid real estate operations, so a move to PE or Corp Fin, let alone a CFO or CEO role would be difficult without a “career-shifting” intervention. The first step could be to apply for a permanent position in the financial sector. Thereafter, 3-4 years in roles with increasing responsibility would allow you to move out of the analyst position and into a place where you could get into a good MBA programme. The CFA is relevant to your current position, but not to your stated ambitions, so your resume should focus on evidence of your commercial awareness/skills. You would also be advised to start taking on more international work – there are good contacts in Asia that you could access through the Ivey alumni association, especially if you don’t mind playing into a real estate niche for a couple of years (the geographical move plus trying to claim a finance role will be a stretch).