“I joined an eight-week internship serving as a Private Equity Intern at a Hong Kong-based Alternative Real Estate Investment specialist, A50 Capital Partners Limited. The company had just repurposed its general business direction into offering alternative stable income source (specifically commercial student accommodations in the US and the UK among many other asset classes) for ultra-high net worth families, professional investors and corporates as a complement to their conventional fixed-income investments. 

The first week was packed with lessons on commercial real estate, including but not limited: (1) The distinction between commercial and residential real estate (2) Commercial real estate asset classes (3) Elements of commercial leases (4) Replacement cost (5) Highest and best use (6) Deal states. The second week I learned to operate an investment model that calculates a number of return metrics (i.e. IRR, and returns for project level, returns for equity investors, returns for project sponsor, return on cost and debt cover ratio). The rest of the internship I helped the company create a framework to assess the viability of alternative real estate as an asset class within the US and UK student housing markets. 

The GLEF program has equipped me with not only the preliminary quantitative expertise in financial modelling and valuation techniques but also the ability to grasp financial rationales which proved to be very helpful during my internship.

GLEF has been nothing short of my expectations, the program is competitive and rewarding.”