"We see internship as a way to invest in the future for the industry, as well as an opportunity to mentor our next generation. This is our way of paying back to the industry."

With this noble mission in mind, we offer round-the-year internship opportunities, which include Full-time internships during summer vacation, and Christmas break, as well as semester placement, and part-time (2 days a week) internships during term time.
So far, we have trained dozens of talents. All our interns found the experience fruitful, and the internship adds value to their CVs. Our internship is gaining a reputation as a boot camp in investment and/or data analysis, and software engineering for serious coders. Some regard our internship as a mini MBA, with personal attention from an experienced banker and Adjunct Professor. Our Interns come from the Global top 100 universities, majoring in various subjects. Our internship community is international. In addition to local Hong Kong Chinese, we had Taiwanese, mainland Chinese, Indonesian, and local Hong Kong Indian on our team. It is exciting to see many of our former interns have entered into a full-time analyst, consulting, or banking roles with top international names upon their graduation.
We see our internship as a long-term mentorship relationship rather than another "check-the-box" item on the CV. Andy has an outstanding mentorship track record in his previous banking life. His mentees excel in their careers on their chosen path, and some reach as senior as Executive Director rank at International Banks. For those who chose to switch careers in the new economy, they joined big tech names like AWS, Google, and Uber, all in the US. Andy's personal recommendations also got his mentees admitted to top MBA programs, including MIT Sloan and Imperial Business School. And with Andy's previous role on the Final selection panel at a bank for graduates recruitment, we know what it takes to get into top-name financial institutions. And more importantly, what to cover in a meaningful internship to make an impact on your CV.
Depending on individual interns' academic background, learning curve, capability, and career aspiration, a typical internship at A50 Real Assets could cover the following area:
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Investment Analysis:
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Research into an asset class in a territory which you have no prior knowledge on;
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Learn about the US economy and Commercial Real Estate ("CRE") market;
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How to analyze a CRE opportunity: supply/demand analysis, location analysis, valuation basics, real-life application of return metrics like IRR, Cash-on-cash, Equity Multiples, Cap rates, Loan terms and Financial Covenants in CRE financing, Waterfall structure in the cash flow forecast, Tax Considerations, Sensitivity Analysis and Financial Modeling;
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Data Analysis:
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Quick and dirty (but reliable and economical) way in determining the supply data of a target location;
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Application of Machine Learning techniques in filling in data gaps;
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Building up of a valuation platform;
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Use of Python as a tool in accomplishing the above, and learn about the best practice of software engineering in a Git collaboration environment;
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Other "must know" business/market knowledge:
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Learn from Andy's banking experience: In our "spare hours", Andy has shared his experience in an award-winning Leveraged Buyout transaction, explained what causes the Great Financial Collapse in 2008 (in which you would know how a CDO works in real life and what went wrong), transfer pricing in international transactions, LP/GP structure in Private Equity including the Catch-up Waterfall Structure, Green Buildings and Sustainable Investments, and more.
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In our daily morning huddles, we will also talk about market events that affect the investment world. Recent talking points include the bonds defaults from Chinese Property Developers, Minimum Global Tax, Linking Supply Chain disruption to Inflation, and the collapse of Archegos.
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Let's hear what our former interns say about their experience with A50 Real Assets Ltd:
J.P. (Surveying 2021, University of Hong Kong), ex-Investment Analyst Intern Fall/Spring 2020/21, since joined as Investment Analyst at Colliers' Capital Market and Investment Services team upon graduation
"....A50 Real Assets which has taught me professionally and personally in numerous ways. I had the opportunity to hone my research and financial modelling skills through work ranging from market analysis and property valuation. Throughout my journey at A50 Real Assets, I got various opportunities to analyze the U.S. real estate market through a financial lens, apply and enhance my academic knowledge in a real-world setting, and equip myself with the necessary skills needed to build a strong foundation in investment analytics. I’m so thankful to Andy, for always encouraging me to do my best work and for flattening my initial learning curve in a fast-paced environment....I have gained a truly invaluable experience that I will forever cherish and take the skills I have acquired...."
M.L. (Quantitative Finance 2020, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), ex-Investment Analyst Intern Spring/Summer 2020, since joined Standard Chartered Bank's International Graduate program upon graduation
"......The company does provide me a high degree of flexibility and autonomy to initiate projects. I was advised to create a systematic methodology, which composes of competitors, demand and supply and geographic analysis to screen and evaluate US student properties. Also, I was encouraged to build complex valuation and waterfall cashflow distribution models.....I genuinely express my gratitude to A50 for offering me a precious learning opportunity and the trust to build long-term employment with me. This experience absolutely helps me prepare well for the next chapter in my career in the banking industry......"
A.L. (Finance 2021, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), ex-Investment Analyst Intern Spring 2021, since joined as Management Consultant at KPMG upon graduation
"......The company provides us with a highly interactive working environment and promotes exchanges of ideas. I have gained hands-on experience in different methodologies for identifying and evaluating investment opportunities, including supply and demand analysis, regional analysis, rental analysis. As a finance major, I had some experience working on financial models. At A50, it was the first time that I have applied them to real estate, in which the waterfall distribution model is used. By analysing properties in real-life situations, I now have a much deeper understanding of the US Student Accommodation market.
I genuinely wish to show my profound gratitude for the experience that I have gained at A50. This will definitely be beneficial to my long-term career development and will allow me to excel in the industry......"
A.K. (Law 2021/PCLL 2022, University of Hong Kong), ex-In-house Legal Intern Fall 2020, since joined Stevenson, Wong & Co as Trainee Solicitor upon graduation
"The company encourages us to explore different initiatives and provides us with the flexibility to develop our own ideas. During my time there, I was given the opportunity to work on both legal and commercial related projects which provided me the exposure to the international investment and real estate business. Andy, the managing principal who is a seasoned commercial figure with vast managing experience in major banks, has provided me with valuable guidance on how to improve and add-value to myself. He is a down-to-earth individual who does not mind sharing his professional knowledge and experience with us. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to A50 and Andy for giving me this unparalleled opportunity. I believe my experience at the company has equipped me with the essential attributes that can propel me to success in the future. I cannot be more thankful for everything that this company has given me."
S.R. (Global Business 2021, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), ex-Investment Analyst Intern Summer/Fall 2020, since joined BentallGreenOak as Real Estate Analyst upon graduation
"A50 Real Assets has been a great learning opportunity for me. During my time I worked in both the data science side as well as the financing and valuation side of the company. I was able to learn a lot more about the US student housing market really thoroughly. Furthermore, Andy, the managing principal, also pushed me to innovate and ideate in different areas where I could apply my skills and created a data scraping tool from the ground up that assisted in generating several new key frameworks for the company. But what made this experience so special for me was that I was given the opportunity to be hands-on with my work like tax forecasting and valuation of properties as well as and was able to undertake end-to-end ownership of my projects and build frameworks that would assist in the goals of the company. I am thankful for A50 Real Assets in placing their trust in me for helping the company grow as well as building a professional employment relationship with me. I am also grateful for the company in reinforcing a mindset and skillset that will help me greatly in my future career goals."
E.C. (Data Science 2023, City University of Hong Kong), ex-Data Analyst Intern Spring 2023, since admitted to a postgraduate program at Duke University
"My internship experience with A50 is fruitful and unforgettable. As a data science student, I gained experience in gathering high-quality primary data according to our business goal, which serves as the most significant part of data analytics. I was encouraged by Andy, the Managing Principal, to improve the training dataset and reduce the prediction error step by step. And I was given a lot of opportunities here to improve my coding skills while learning a lot of domain knowledge of the real assets investment industry. Moreover, the most valuable thing that I took from my internship is the soft skills that I learned from Andy. Andy taught me the lesson of how communication skill matters for a tech person and trained me the ability of “telling the story of my data to a layman” through daily catch-up meetings. I am grateful to Andy for giving me meaningful guidance on my career goals in the last semester of university."
K.W. (Insurance, Financial and Actuarial Analysis 2023, Chinese University of Hong Kong), ex-Investment Analyst Intern Fall 2022
"Interning at A50 Real Assets has been a fruitful experience for me. I was given the opportunity to evaluate different investment projects, gaining a deeper understanding of the investment analysis process in a primary market setting. Particularly, I have conducted macroeconomic research and performed cashflow projections. And I learned to be detail-oriented when performing due diligence with the consideration of the offering memorandum and rental contracts. Besides, I have much appreciated the effort put in by the Managing Principal, Andy Ho, together with his exceptional support towards interns. He has provided me with comprehensive feedback on my work and discussed the financial news with me regularly, which has been great guidance for advancing my personal development and career pursuit."
D.W. (Quantitative Finance 2021, Chinese University of Hong Kong), ex-Advanced Analytics/ Machine Learning Intern Summer 2021
"The company has a dynamic working environment where all interns would discuss their work and exchange their ideas on a daily basis. Andy, the Managing Principal, also encouraged us to present our ideas and actively gave us feedbacks for interns to improve on how to best convey our messages to the target audience. This internship has given me great exposure to the commercial real estate market, particularly the student housing market in the US. Before joining the company as an Advanced Analytics intern, I had limited coding project experiences. The company has given me much training on how developers collaborate with each other on a single project under the GibHub and how to code properly in Python throughout my internship. By undergoing the project to develop.... the company database, and machine learning model for supply estimate, I am now much more confident to code both independently and collaboratively. I am really grateful for the opportunity to work at the company, and I feel empowered to pursue a career in programming.
K.L. (Surveying 2022, University of Hong Kong), ex-Investment Analyst Intern Summer/Fall 2021
"During this internship, I have gained first-hand experiences of the financial analysis and modelling of the real estate market in practice. Mr. Ho not only gave me invaluable feedback on my work to fine-tune my methodology, but he was also willing to share tips and advice on how I should get better prepared for the actual business world, e.g. how to pitch ideas to a client, how to allocate my time with loads of information under time constraints, etc. As a former corporate banker with more than 20 years of experiences, Mr. Ho often shared his insights and relevant news of the industry and helped me identify my shortcomings. Moreover, I was encouraged to propose new ideas and observations and explore any patterns or correlations hidden in the data. I am truly grateful for all the guidance and constructive criticism, throughout the internship till my last day here. Equipped with all the soft skills acquired at A50 Real Assets Limited, I believe that I am ready for a future career in this profession."
J.L. (Computer Science 2023, University of Hong Kong), ex-Investment Analyst Intern Summer 2022
"...As a computer science major, I had no prior experience with financial models. However, under Andy's fruitful nurturing, I had the chance to learn and apply a financial model in a business setting: the waterfall distribution model. By analysing properties in real-life situations combined with Andy's real-life experience, I now have a much deeper understanding of the macro-environment and the US Student Accommodation market, which I believe would benefit my future career. I genuinely wish to show my sincere gratitude for the knowledge I gained at A50.."
Intern at A50 Real Assets Ltd
For those who are interested in interning with A50 Real Assets Ltd, watch out for our job posts at JIJIS, the job board at the Career Office of your university, as well as on our LinkedIn page. We welcome talents from different disciplines. We plan to expand our data analytics capability further, and we will have more technical positions for STEM students in the future. Our internship is arranged either on a Work Experience Students mode, under the ITC STEM internship scheme, or on part-time contract basis. We look forward to growing with you!