Fund finance analyst role at a bank - what does it entail?
I saw a fund finance analyst role advertised for a bank and was curious to know what kind of work this actually entails? It mentions origination, execution and structuring, and is a part of the financial institutions group of the bank.
Subscription Finance for private capital funds.
Yeah, typically that will entail subscription lines for PE funds, also known as capital call lines of credit. As well, you're starting to see some NAV-based facilities as well for both secondaries as primaries For the main fund finance bank product (subscription lines), the underwriting is very straightforward since it's based on the LP risk and they never default on a capital call so you'll find yourself wanting something more stimulating before too long. Not a bad way to break in though.
Very helpful, thank you for your response. There aren't too many threads on WSO about the Fund Finance group within a bank. What are your thoughts on working in a Fund Finance group (i.e. providing NAV facilities to PE Funds.. especially PE Secondary Funds) in terms of skillset and exit ops? Would it be possible to move to a PE Secondary advisory shop on the sell side (e.g. Evercore, PJT, Greenhill, etc)?
For most banks, > 75% of your time in a Fund Finance group will be dealing with the equity LP subscription revolving credit lines. Again, this is pretty boring work, since your underwriting the LP credit risk and most of the time they're sovereign funds, IG rated, and the analysis is very topical. In terms of corporate finance and credit skills you'll develop doing this - they're pretty weak and honestly not even transferable to other CB groups. You'd be much better off joining another CB vertical if you want more well-rounded IB & credit skills.
If exiting to IB is the goal (for every group OTHER than Secondaries Advisory), the best way to break in of course is to join directly at the An level. Lateraling from a CB role is also possible before VP, provided you are in a decent CB group, high performer, and can get a foot in the door at your target IB group (either internally thru networking at your existing shop - which is not that uncommon since banks would prefer to keep a high performer in house - or externally to another shop).
If your goal IS to break into secondaries advisory and you can't join a shop directly, the second-best thing would be to join a fund finance lending group that has a strong concentration of NAV-based loans. Make sure you ask what % of their portfolio are ESLs vs. NAV facilities (and what their focus is going forward) when you interview... Bank appetites for NAV facility exposures are wholly variable, so it'd be important to know that you'd get some good exposure for those types of facilities. Asking that question alone would set you apart from other candidates and show you've done your homework. You won't learn a damn thing working on the ELS's since it's mostly a paper pushing exercise, but with the NAV-loans, you'll get deeper into the weeds on underwriting the individual portco cash flows and credit risks and the overall fund valuation drivers since often you'll be provided a model by the sponsor and run some sensitivities on your own - those skills would be directly transferable to secondaries advisory.
Very helpful, thank you!!
You're a meat rider bro. Is everyone on this site a meat rider?
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