Investment manager Qualitas has been recognised as Firm of the Year: Australia in the 2023 PERE Awards. Following the news of the achievement, Qualitas thanked PERE, its investors, partners, and peers for supporting the firm throughout the year.
Group Managing Director and Co-Founder Andrew Schwartz recently reflected on the firm’s growth and challenges over the past year in an interview with PERE. When asked about what was responsible for the company’s success, Andrew highlighted how investment discipline is vital.
“We have maintained a very strong culture of discipline around our investments, because groups like ours live and die by our track record. Because of our discipline and asset management approach, we have had no credit loss- es and the returns on the underlying funds have been good. We also have a team which has been very stable and most of us have been doing this for multiple decades. We are one of the few groups with people who worked through periods like 1991, which was a devastating time in Australia. That cyclical experience is important.”
Andrew Schwartz, Group Managing Director and Co-Founder, Qualitas
Challenges were also present as 80% of the company’s work is within the residential market. Andrew also discussed the challenges that the company had to overcome in 2023.
“Our debt focus means our fund returns go up with interest rates, but we have undertaken portfolio reallocation like any good manager, looking at things and deciding we are happy to be refinanced out of certain positions because we have better opportunities elsewhere. We were able to exit the positions we wanted to exit because there is plenty of liquidity. Around 80% of everything we do is residential, so the tailwinds have been considerable. There is very low vacancy, very high demand, impediments to supply and limited capital, all of which combine in aiming to generate attractive returns.”
Andrew Schwartz, Group Managing Director and Co-Founder, Qualitas
The news also follows the appointment of Qualitas’ new CEO Ahmed Fahour, who has aided in the firm’s success since he accepted the position.
Qualitas made it clear that the recognition would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the Board and team. The team’s multi-cycle experience and strong culture of discipline around the firm’s investments has been critical to its success over the past 15 years and will be highly valuable as it continues to scale and navigate markets.
Qualitas made several announcements last year, including its partnership with Gurner to deliver 3,650 apartments, securing a A$750m private credit commitment, and a new joint venture with Malaysian developer OSK to develop and operate a Build to Rent scheme within the Melbourne Square precinct in Southbank.
