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Oct 13, 2021

Turning My Passion For Snowboarding Into Investing with John Brant at A3 Financial

John Brant has been investing in alternative investments since 2000. He’s spent the last 14 years managing a private investment partnership and recently joined A3 Financial in Denver, Colorado as a portfolio manager.


“We have a lot of investments that come from relationships with people we've done business with before. That builds a certain level of trust because they know that we can get things done and on time. That is where we're finding the best opportunities today.



I was a microbiology undergraduate. I figured out very late in college that I was more interested in business than microbiology or attending medical school. When I graduated, a friend and I decided to move to South America to ski in Chile and Argentina. And we decided that it would be a good idea to look at different business opportunities down there. We ended up starting a snowboard company and that sealed the deal. So I decided to attend business school to transition more into business, finance, and investments.


My first job out of business school was working for a large agricultural and rural infrastructure lender called CoBank, which is part of the farm credit system. I was specifically focused in the capital markets group on structuring bank loans. I did that for about five years and then moved to GE Capital where I was doing a similar type role, specifically focused on media and telecom focused on credit, primarily on first lane and a senior structure.


The other thing that was interesting to me was the focus on income. I think that's where A3 is trying to set itself apart in terms of focus. It's nontraditional with regards to fixed income markets. I was excited to join a firm with people I already knew, trusted and enjoyed working with. We also had a structure where we could bring out similar types of investments on the private side. Then bring those out in an interval fund structure that gives a broader group of investors access to these types of investments they're looking for, specifically with an income orientation.


That's one of the real benefits of A3. There are significant opportunities in bringing investors access to private investments through vehicles that are easier to invest through. And that's been one of the challenges for traditional investors to get access to private credit, real estate, and natural resources in a way that they're still earning reasonable returns."


A3 Financial Investments Logo

John G. Brant Jr., Principal

www.a3.financial.com


The A3 Alternative Income Fund, a closed-end interval fund, offers investors efficient access to a portfolio of non-traditional income-generating assets. The Fund’s investment objective is to seek total return through investments that offer regular income or the potential for price appreciation. A3 Financial Investments is led by an investment team with decades of experience investing in capital markets. Interval funds provide investors such features as daily pricing, 1099 tax reporting, and quarterly repurchase offers with a fund-level redemption of 5-25% of NAV. The interval fund structure allows non-accredited investors the opportunity to access less liquid, potentially higher-yielding alternative investments.



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