Insights from Tiger 21 Conference

Dear Investor: I recently attended my second annual Tiger 21 conference where some of the biggest names in the investment world shared insights alongside 379 private investors of Tiger 21 (whose collective worth is over $40 billion). I wanted to share some valuable takeaways from the headliner speakers with you:

Thomas J. Barrack, Executive Chairman of Colony Capital, Inc. (the third largest private real estate equity fund in the world), arguably one of the country’s greatest real estate investors spoke on current real estate trends:

• Barrack compared real estate to a slow moving train with large, long cycle moves
• He reminded the audience that real estate is forgiving, but debt is not
• The most important aspect of any project is free cash flow and understanding how to change the use of property to create more cash flow
• He went on to say that the best class A building sitting on Market St. and Main St. in a large city with a AAA tenant has only one way to go – down. It cannot get better so therefore, it can only get worse
• Barrack also held that credit today is still fairly tight with conservative LTVs, and that supply and demand are roughly in balance. Thus he did not believe that we are in a “bubble” real estate market
• When asked what advice he would give a young professional he said, “Be able to elegantly withstand pain, work harder, learn more and be prepared and ready to take risks when the right deal comes along”

David Bonderman, Founding Partner of TPG Captial (one of the largest private equity firms in the world), listed by Forbes 400 as one of the 170 wealthiest Americans spoke about today’s economy…  Continue reading →