Daniel Argiros, Principal
Daniel Argiros is a successful, experienced alternative investment specialist in the Canadian private-equity sector where he is focused on real estate, infrastructure and renewable energy. Through his various affiliates, Mr. Argiros has established a strong track record in private-equity investment, earning an average net IRR in the mid-teens since 1990.
He began his career in 1985 with Deloitte in Toronto, where he became a tax specialist. Mr. Argiros joined a wealth-advisory group in 1988 where he maximized the value of a real-estate investment portfolio, particularly capitalizing on a 1993 recession. Following his buy-out of the investment portfolio, in 1997 Mr. Argiros founded Acanthus Real Estate Corporation, a TSX-listed company focused on real estate across Canada in the multi-unit residential, commercial, senior care, and hospitality sectors. Mr. Argiros ultimately partnered with La caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec in a privatization that valued the firm at more than $550 million in 2000.
In the same year, together with two other former Acanthus executives, Mr. Argiros co-founded Conundrum Capital Corporation (“Conundrum”), a Canadian private-equity management firm. Conundrum acquired, managed, and sold assets in various real-estate classes, aggregating $4.3 billion of historical transaction value by 2014 and deploying institutional capital from top Canadian and international companies including RBC, Manulife, Sun Life, General Motors, and numerous others. In 2010, through Conundrum, Mr. Argiros founded Potentia Solar Inc. which capitalized on Ontario’s green energy legislation and focused on the solar rooftop sector in Canada. Together with its major investor, Power Corporation of Canada, Potentia grew to become Canada’s largest solar rooftop developer, owner and operator.
In 2016, Mr. Argiros and Conundrum successfully sold Potentia to the majority shareholder (an affiliate of Power Corporation) for a total capitalization of over $700 million. In the same year, Conundrum entered into a partnership with Manulife, monetizing a non-controlling portion of the firm’s multi-unit residential real estate portfolio under its Q Management brand. Manulife is a trademark of The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, one of Canada’s largest financial institutions. Today, Conundrum manages $2 billion in assets in the multi-unit residential sector. All assets are internally managed by more than 220 employees comprising head office and field staff. Mr. Argiros founded Arch Corporation in 2017.