Our guest today is Clifford Fraser, who is the Chief Business Development Officer at Equiton Inc. After working with several financial firms, he was brought on to Equiton when a close friend wanted his help in starting a real estate company.
Equiton has unique ways of finding deals which allows them to avoid bidding wars with larger companies, so Clifford takes us through their process. He also compares the stock market turbulence we have seen in 2020 to the one he experienced as a new lender in 2008.
Topics covered include:
- Yield expectations and the unique structuring of their funds.
- Equiton’s investor profile.
- Going door-to-door to search for apartment deals.
- Not seeing an increase in redemption during the pandemic.
- Challenges around asset valuation right now.
- Buying buildings which haven’t had their intrinsic value unlocked.
- Getting data on comparables despite a downturn in deals happening.
- The balanced fund at Equiton and its performance in this unique year.
- What Clifford learned during his time in lending.
- Comparing the 2008 economic crash with what COVID-19 has caused.
More about our guest…
Cliff is an experienced executive with almost 20 years’ experience in investment banking, real estate debt lending, insurance and pension funds. He recently worked as the director of business operations in the capital markets division of one of Canada’s largest financial institutions. Prior to that, he was a business manager for a leading foreign investment bank and a vice president at a boutique real estate debt firm. At Equiton, he is responsible for business development, working with financial advisory and capital partners, identifying new sales prospects, driving business growth and ensuring a high level of satisfaction with both clients and partners.
He is a CPA, and holds an Honours Bachelor of Accounting degree from Brock University’s Faculty of Business.
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