Preferred equity is an equity investment that has a preference over common equity for cash flow distributions. The preferred equity is positioned between the senior debt and common equity in a real estate investment. This means that the distribution and return of capital to preferred equity holders’ investments are subordinate to the senior debt, and still have priority over the common equity holders. Thus, preferred equity is a hybrid of debt and equity products.

With the help of Eqvista, you can easily issue preferred shares. Preferred equity holders as a rule have some kind of rights, by which an exchange of control of the real estate can be constrained from the common equity holders to the preferred equity holders assuming that specific defaults happen. Preferred equity investments can be seen as more secure ventures when contrasted with the normal value given the rank in getting appropriations.

Now that you know all about preferred equity and how it is beneficial over common equity, the next question that arises is how shall you create the preferred equity. The answer to this is simple: with the help of Eqvista. Given below is the step-by-step guide to issuing preferred equity. 

Step 1Log in to your Eqvista account and select your company account. 

Eqvista login

On the dashboard, click on “Securities” and then on “Equities” from the left side menu.

Equities

Step 2: Once you click on the “Equities” feature, a page will open for you as shown below. Under “Equity Classes” on the left-hand side, select “Create New Class”.

create new class

Step 3: Under the Equity type, select the option: Common or preferred equity. You can choose “Common” for normal shares of ownership, voting, and shared price appreciation and “Preferred” for hybrid shares for ownership, non-voting and dividend payment. In this case, select “Preferred”.

equity type

Step 4: Once you have selected Preferred, you will be asked to input the following information: class namepre-money valuationconversion rate, and liquidity preference. Fill in all the details and then click on “Submit”.

Note that the pre-money valuation must be at least USD$1.

create equity class

If Liquidity Preference is selected “Yes”, you need to fill in additional information as shown below. 

Liquidity preference

Each of the parts that you need to add has been explained below:

  • Seniority: Order of payout of funds (Level 1 highest).
  • Liquidation Multiple: How many times of the capital contributed you receive (i.e. x1, x2, x3).
  • Participation Rights: Right to additional “participation” in receiving funds from common share ownership.
  • Participation Cap: Maximum times factor of additional “participation” rights not required. The participation cap must be greater or equal to the Liquidation multiple.
  • Dividends: Additional payments on capital contributed. 
  • Dividend %: The annual interest rate of the principal amount.
  • Dividend Frequency: Frequency of interest amount accrued (Daily, Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annually, Annually).
  • Dividend Type: The form of receiving dividends (Cash or Stock).
  • Compounding: Continuous calculation of interest throughout the period.

In the above example, we selected the option “No for Liquidity preference. Once done, click on “Submit


Step 5: Once you have added all the details and clicked on submit, you will see the new preferred equity created and you are taken to the next page where you can now begin the process of issuing shares by clicking “Add New Grant

add new grant

Step 6: This would take you to the next page where you now have to find the shareholder to whom you want to issue the shares.

select shareholder

Step 7: The created equity class can also be viewed on the Equities page under Securities. Here, click on “Issue Grants” to issue shares to shareholders.

Securities

To know more about other features of Eqvista and understand how other tables work under the latest Spreadsheet feature, check out our other support articles here. Feel free to contact us for further information.

Interested in issuing & managing shares?

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