I'm recruiting right now and trying to learn more about Project Finance as it sounds interesting. What are the best banks that I should look at for Project Finance? Thank you
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Japanese banks are leaders in the space: Look at MUFG and SMBC
HSBC has a decent platform in Europe. Honestly can’t go wrong with any of the BB’s but MUFG is #1
MUFG and SMBC being on top of league tables for PF doesn’t offset that they pay hilariously below market
just shot you a message, curious to hear about the comp at these banks in PF.
Bulge brackets will be best as they do more advisory work. Japanese and French banks are mostly lending although they get some advisory mandates here and then. Be sure to ask in interviews the split between advisory and lending work. Also note that project finance advisory is different than infra M&A (coverage) team advisory- PF advisory is focused on debt structuring, running the model etc.
awesome thank you! I'm having trouble finding internships, would they be under asset finance?
These are all lean teams and I dont even know if those groups at the BB's will do internships. I know SMBC does a Project Finance internship, not sure about the rest of the banks. SMBC and MUFG, along with the top French banks will still be great experience for PF.
Citi runs an internship in Project Finance under Financing&Securitization.
BNP / HSBC
Isn’t CIBC solid in the project finance space?
Yup they have been ramping up in PF very recently, they are huge for renewables
Soc gen / Santander / CACIB / SMBC / Natwest / MUFG. The Dutch banks are solid too
Some do more advisory than others though, and the advisory side is where the most interesting bits are.
Caveat I’m looking at EMEA PF.
I would say Macquaire > Japanese banks (Also Macquarie operate one of the largest infra PE in the world with great internal movement)
Project Finance, in general (as far as I have exposure to) is debt-focused mainly... in the lending world, brand name > what are they doing
Unless you are working for BB, otherwise I think Energy coverage in the corporate banks would have more exposure to advisory work
Some boutiques would offer you excellent exposure and fair pay + the selection is less strict (like Green Giraffe)
Are there any other places like Green Giraffe you would recommend? Thank you!
Are you EMEA/US based?
I'd agree on Macquarie. I've always viewed them as the best in this space.
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.
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Just to add to all the great options people have shared - look into what they do. Some mainly stick to 1 and done construction loans that get refi’d in a year in infra.
not bad, but the comp reflects it
UBS has a solid infra team and also has a fund of funds infra team. And I know they get clowned on pretty hard on here but I’ve heard Credit Agricole is pretty strong in the infra space. They also have a transportation group which is infra adjacent but works with advising and lending to airlines and rail companies rather than working with the real assets themselves.
As someone who used at CA, thats pretty accurate. They tend to be competitive this these spaces due to their balance sheet.
However, the culture is pretty shitty and the comp isn’t the best as well.
Asian: MUFG, SMBC, Nomura, HSBC
European: Deutsche Bank, Santander, Credit Ag, Soc Gen, BNP, ING, NatWest
US/Canadian: First Citizens (fka CIT), Truist, CIBC
The majority of these will have offices in NYC. Some may have postings for their specific groups and others will just have general Corporate/Investment Banking Internships. For those with general postings, your best bet is to go on LinkedIn and try to connect with people who work in the group you are looking for.
BMO nyc?
Haha at the people who say Advisory is the most interesting work. It’s literally the worst. No one wants to spend all that time advising for a small fee when you can close an LNG mega deal with a gigantic interest rate swap. Most Advisory mandates are due to balance sheet contribution anyways. Comments here just show how nerdy this site is and a lack of commercial acumen.
could you expand on this?
same
MS in their GCM has a great project finance team that has solid exits into UMM/MF infra funds. It's by far the best MS GCM and is super competitive for placement due to it's better exits than other groups within MS GCM. GS Project Finance also seems like a good platform amongst the BB's, and would also second the shouts for DB, and also add in RBC/Citi/Barclays who have a decent ton of deal flow but am not 100% sure if their PU&I team handles stuff vs project finance.
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