Friday Letter A time for reflection…and voting

 As the year draws to a close and we reflect on the industry’s many highlights, it is the perfect time to cast your vote for the firms and individuals that stood out from the crowd.

As 2012 draws to a close, thoughts once again turn to the holidays, reflections on the past year, plans for the upcoming year…and the Global PERE Awards.

Currently in its seventh year, the Global PERE Awards arguably are the most highly prized accolades connected with the private equity real estate community worldwide. The awards are so highly regarded because they are totally independent – there is no sponsorship and no panel of judges. Our readers alone vote for the people and organisations that mattered most in 2012.

To check out nominees in the Global, North America, Europe and Asia categories, follow the link to our dedicated voting page and get voting.

This year’s slate of nominees is particularly strong and reflects a number of trends witnessed by the industry in 2012. For example, one of the hottest stories of the year was the emergence of single-family homes as an investment and consequently Oliver Chang, the man who helped to spur interest in the opportunity, is nominated as Industry Figure of the Year for North America. He faces fierce competition from the likes of Brookfield’s Barry Blattman, TPG’s Kelvin Davis and Oaktree’s Howard Marks.

Another trend was the difficult fundraising environment experienced by all levels of GPs (well, maybe not Blackstone, which is nominated again for Global Capital Raise of the Year). As a result, the regional contests for Capital Raise of the Year are pretty tight, with not much money separating the largest fundraises in each region from the average closing size.

In addition, many GPs took it upon themselves to raise their funds internally, hiring placement professionals and forming capital-raising teams. As a result, many of the contests for Placement Agent of the Year also are very tight, with no one firm really grabbing a contest-ending number of assignments.

Beyond those examples, there are plenty of other nominations and categories for you to ponder, and we look forward to monitoring each and every voting battle as they play out over the coming weeks. Voting closes at midnight EST on 18th January 2013, and results will be published at the beginning of March both on perenews.com and in PERE’s Awards & Annual Review issue.

Voting is easy. Simply visit our voting page and fire away. Each category has four nominations for you to consider. Or, if you think there is a strong candidate that has been overlooked, choose the write-in option. As with previous years, you can vote in all, some or even just one category; you just cannot vote for yourself or your own organisation.

So, which nominated individuals and firms deserve honors for 2012? Time for you to decide. We look forward to a robust final tally, and thank you in advance for taking the time to vote.

In the meantime, the editorial team at PERE will be taking a much deserved break for the holidays and will return to action on January 2. While we will not be sending out further daily news digest emails until the new year, we will be posting a couple of stories to our website each day, so please stop by to get your daily fix of PERE.

Lastly, PERE wishes you and your family a peaceful and safe holiday season.