For this episode of our Sightline Manager Conversations Part II series, Sightline Wealth Management’s Warren Gerow speaks with Vikram Rajagopalan, senior vice president and Head of retail markets at Trez Capital, a diversified real estate investment firm specializing in short duration mortgage lending in Canada and the U.S. During our first conversation with Trez Capital last year, we learned about the ways the firm seeks to generate returns for its investors. Now, Rajagopalan joins Gerow to explain his current views of the short-duration mortgage industry and provide an update on the Trez Capital High Yield Trust U.S. (USD).
Specifically, Gerow and Rajagopalan discuss:
- The current composition of the Trez Capital High Yield Trust U.S.
- The number of borrowers and average loan size for the fund
- Why the focus should be placed on home builders when selecting loans
- How third parties help the fund gain data on the latest demographic and price trends
- Challenges the fund faces due to operations in both the U.S. and Canada
- The fund’s current loan-to-value (LTV) ratio
- Recent loan defaults and how the fund mitigates them
- The fund’s percentage of retail versus institutional investors
- The individuals on the fund’s credit committee and the roles they play
- The fund’s audit process and who is responsible for it
- Why they stopped lending at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Trends in the U.S. mortgage investment space
You can listen to Gerow and Rajagopalan’s entire conversation here (password: HaTmqi8!). As always, please do not hesitate to contact us at (416) 945-6228 with any questions.
Important Information:
Warren Gerow is an independent investment wealth consultant at Sightline Wealth Management.
Sightline Wealth Management LP (“Sightline”) is an investment dealer and is a member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). Sightline provides management and investment advisory services to high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors primarily through fee-based accounts.
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