Project finance in a bank or in an advisory team?
Hi,
I’m currently hesitating between 2 offers for an internship in the UK. The first one is at a large Japanese bank in their PF team, mostly doing arrangement and very occasionally advisory. The other one is in a big4 project finance advisory team, so doing only advisory.
I know that advisory is said to be more interesting. Is that true? Should I go for the big4 even though the bank is among the biggest project finance lenders?
What attracts me to the bank is the team that is more « high profile » than the big4, the fact that it is a leader in its field and took part to some flagship projects that I find really interesting. But I am scared that I might only do boring stuff like reviewing documents or reading contracts without a lot of thinking involved and few client interactions. The big4 team works on smaller and less « iconic » projects but can, in some cases, help build the model and help governments and local institutions design PPP (the bank works on some PPP too) involving more client interactions.
This is only an internship and I am aiming at working later either in a infra fund or an energy project developer (or in some energy/transport/telecom… company).
What are your thoughts? Any advice?
Bump.
I would go for the bank as it would probably open up for other more interesting opportunities at other banks more easily
I don’t know what makes you think that reviewing contracts and documents is worse than advisory. In advisory you are… an advisor. At a bank you make investment / capital allocation decisions on the basis of the information available to you. I’d argue that if you just want to opine on things (substantiated of course), then go with advisory. If you want to put your money where your mouth is (aka read contracts and documents with the intention of making an investment decision), then go with the bank.
I thought advisory roles within PF were more highly regarded vs lending roles within PF?
The Japanese bank, easily. They're strong in this space. If you're talking about MUFG, then it's not even a question.
Go with the Japanese bank. Will recruit better for the roles you mentioned. The advisory work big four firms do is pretty cookie cutter and repetitive. And you’ll be doing a lot of documentation review regardless (especially with PPP advisory).
Easy one. Choose the PF Bank.
Source: I work in the sector.
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