Best Banks for Project Finance

I was a project finance analyst a couple of years ago. Copy-pasting my comment on an older thread below (link). Info might be a bit dated and I probably would've framed a couple of things differently with the benefit of maturity but overall sentiment still checks out.

Adding some updated info as I'm currently at a BB's project finance team in NYC. We get lumped in with all the product groups in IBD (i.e. we're under one umbrella with LevFin, DCM, ECM etc.) and as such our base is the same and bonus is similar to traditional coverage, maybe the aforementioned 10-15% lower. Hours can be as bad as IB when you're running a deal, but on average I'd say 70hrs/week, with a couple of Sundays every month.

Our bread and butter is the advisory / bond structuring side of things, and when we lend or participate in a syndication it's usually purely relationship. Important to note that the French / Japanese banks do indeed dominate loans due to low interest rates and huge balance sheet, but we BBs outcompete them in advisory / bonds since those processes require a bit more diligence and technical knowledge. In my opinion the advisory deals are a lot more interesting and you learn a lot more leading a process rather than just lending $XXmm. Our main competitors in the space are certain other BBs, EBs with debt advisory capabilities (e.g. Evercore / Lazard), and yes the BNPs/HSBCs of the world.

Most of what was said above about day-to-day is pretty accurate. We do all the modeling (coverage, e.g. energy or industrials specializes on corporate-level - we do all project-level modeling, with IBD sending us industry slides every once in a while. Stuff like "China Trade War Update on Trans-Pacific Shipping"), and my group is also responsible for origination so we take care of almost all pitches that come in, which obviously has its pros and cons (pro: more experience and modeling. con: more hours). We also work with companies across their capital structure, so our issuances could be AA or also something like B - important to note even in non-IG deals we still take care of everything, i.e. LevFin doesn't get involved too much. Coverage doesn't do jack on most of our deals which is kind of annoying since it equals more hours on stuff that really isn't our focus.

Exits are good if your group does the modeling (like mine), but if you want to do PE then you're constrained to Energy / Infra funds. Within those niches, however, you have a shot at everything, incl. the KKRs of the world. Given our strong credit modeling background you also have recruiters spamming you for opportunities at credit funds (e.g. credit HFs or Blackstone GSO). I personally am leaving to an UMM Energy fund once I finish my two years.