Investor Glossary of Terms
Altus Andrews (Altus UK LLP)
Altus Capital Planning
Altus Cost Consulting & Project Management
Altus Edwin Hill (Altus UK LLP)
Altus Geomatics
Altus Group Limited
Altus Research, Valuation & Advisory
Altus InSite
Altus Realty Tax Consulting
EBITDA
GAAP
Altus Andrews (Altus UK LLP)
Prior to joining the Altus Group, Andrews was a UK based Cost Consulting firm with 42 staff in four offices, including Bracknell, Leeds, Southampton and St. Albans. A leader in its field, Altus Andrews offers a comprehensive range of professional services through three primary service lines: Building Surveying; Project Management; and Quantity Surveying, as well as a Health & Safety consulting division - providing consulting and management services on infrastructure projects such as highways, schools and hospitals, as well as factories, retail parks, warehouses, multi unit buildings, hotels and nursing homes. Altus Andrews clients include commercial, residential and retail owners/developers, as well as pension funds, financial institutions, and also public and government agencies.
Altus Capital Planning
Altus Capital Planning , part of Altus Cost Consulting and Project Management, is dedicated to developing capital planning systems for organizations looking for effective strategies to manage their capital spending in real estate and infrastructure assets portfolios. Altus Capital Planning is the world leader in capital planning methodology implementation, process change and planning technology development to real estate and asset owners/managers who focus primarily in the MUSH (municipalities, universities, schools and hospitals) sectors. Altus Capital Planning’s advanced multi-dimensional and long-term approach provides complete life-cycle asset management and regulatory compliance. These features assist customers to more effectively plan, manage and ultimately invest capital allowing them to optimize the whole life performance of new and existing capital assets through strategic prioritization and alignment with corporate objectives.
Altus Cost Consulting & Project Management
Founded in 1958, Altus Cost Consulting is the foremost professional quantity surveying firm and construction development consultant in Canada. The group provides a range of services designed to help clients understand and control construction and development costs, while still achieving the required standards, quality and functionality sought by all stakeholders. Clients are chiefly, but not exclusively, developers; architects; federal, provincial and municipal governments; universities; school boards; industrial and commercial clients; pension funds; insurance companies; trust companies; and other major lending institutions.
Altus Edwin Hill (Altus UK LLP)
With a solid reputation for over 50 years, Altus Edwin Hill is a national property consulting partnership based in London, UK that has earned a respected reputation as a top performer in its field, servicing a broad client base that includes blue chip corporations, real estate companies and investment funds. The company employs 132 staff composed of 17 partners, 72 other professional and para-professionals and 43 administrative staff, and has six offices based in some of the fastest-growing regions throughout the UK. With a focus on property owners and developers, Altus Edwin Hill's vision is to provide professional advice on all aspects of commercial property.
Altus Geomatics
Altus Geomatics is one of Western Canada’s leading providers of advanced geomatic solutions, specializing in oil and gas sector projects. With over 30 years of experience, Altus Geomatics combines the strengths of two of Western Canada’s best respected survey firms – All West Surveys Ltd, established in 1974 and Condon Group Surveys, established in 1969, to produce an valuable base of experience, shared knowledge and expertise.
Our team of professionals is capable of undertaking a variety of consulting projects using: global positioning technologies; geographic information systems; digital mapping and remote sensing; 3-D laser scanning; software and application development solutions.
We have developed a solid reputation for being able to develop client-specific solutions that utilize innovative technological applications to assure the highest level of quality and efficiency. Our proven experience working within aboriginal communities and in the northern areas of Canada also provide us with a solid understanding of the complex social, economic and political issues associated with projects impacted by land claims related issues.
Altus Group Limited
Altus Group leads the global real estate industry in delivering data and information about an organization’s assets, generating a wealth of knowledge and insight. With a staff of over 1,700, Altus has a network of over 70 offices in 14 countries worldwide, including Canada, UK, Australia, Asia and the United States. We operate five interrelated Business Units, bringing years of expertise together into one comprehensive platform: Research, Valuation and Advisory; Cost Consulting and Project Management; Realty Tax Consulting, Geomatics and ARGUS Software. Altus clients include banks, financial institutions, governments, pension funds, asset and fund managers, developers and landlords and companies engaged in the oil and gas industry.
Altus Research, Valuation and Advisory
Altus Research, Valuation and Advisory is regarded as Canada’s leading provider of real estate valuation-oriented research and advisory services. Originally formed in 1999 as a strategic alliance between 11 long-standing independent practices, the group’s services range from annual property/portfolio valuation and acquisition/disposition services through to customized market research and legal related support. Clients include pension funds, public real estate companies, REITs, financial institutions, private investors (both domestic and foreign), developers, various governmental bodies, law firms, insurance companies, trust companies and other major lending institutions.
Altus InSite
Altus InSite is considered the commercial real estate industry’s primary provider of national office market data and perspective. For over ten years, the company has collected and published real estate market data that is national, consistent, accurate, timely, credible, transparent and independent. Services range from conducting thorough market surveys through to providing independent market commentary and benchmarking, as well as feature access to Canada’s most comprehensive and up-to-date national online office market database. Clients include Canada's largest pension funds, public real estate companies and private investors.
Altus Realty Tax Consulting
Altus Realty Tax specializes in the field of real property assessment and taxation, ensuring that the real estate holdings of their clients are properly valued for tax purposes, so that they do not pay more than their fair share of property taxes annually. Altus Realty Tax Consulting offers a full spectrum of real estate tax consulting services that include assessment appeal (including expert witness); tax due diligence; vacancy rebate counsel; new construction/preliminary property assessment studies; as well as ongoing property tax management and budgeting. Clients include commercial, industrial, multi-residential and institutional clients around the world.
EBITDA
EBITDA is an acronym for "earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization." It is calculated by taking operating income and adding back to it interest, depreciation and amortization expenses. EBITDA is used to analyze a company's operating profitability before non-operating expenses (interest) and non-cash charges (depreciation and amortization). As such, it can be used to analyze the profitability between companies and industries, eliminating the effects of financing and accounting decisions.
GAAP
These are accounting guidelines, formulated by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) Accounting Standards Committee, that govern how businesses report their financial statements to the public.