The Associates Task: Financial Tales of Changing Place

Jennifer Smith is a seasoned financial analyst for Pioneer Realty Funds, a private equity firm with a new closed-end real estate investment fund that's seeking urban real estate opportunities during 2009's unsettled property market. Smith is considering three properties for the fund. She plans to run the numbers on the properties to create valuation fundamentals and test risk implications and different amounts of leverage through sensitivity analyses, helping her to form investment recommendations for her boss. In this case students consider the analytic tools needed by the analyst as she matches the risk and return profile of each potential investment to the fund's goals. This is the first of a two-part case study.