Sovereign wealth fund prestige
How prestigious is an internship at one of the largest SWFs compared to larger hedge funds or BB IB? Also, does it aid in breaking into these industries?
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Please let it stop
You're never gonna make partner at a SWF so it's okay if you're a junior but as soon as you become a bit more senior it makes you a bitchslave
curious why would you never make partner?
Bump
Because a sovereign wealth fund isn't just a fund in which a state is LP. The state owns the equity in the business development company and retains full ownership. If you start allowing randos on the cap table you are enriching them with public funding, which is extremely bad optics. Just compare the leadership teams between KKR and Temasek
https://www.kkr.com/our-firm/team
https://www.temasek.com.sg/en/about-us/our-leadership
Of course, no doubt there's some performance mechanism at SWFs and potentially carry at the more senior levels, but you're never gonna be partner in the BDC, which means you don't have access to the partner profit pool
I assume it’s either Norway, somewhere in the Middle East or Singapore. Personally, I wouldn’t join a SWF in a country I’m not from, but they do have a lot of capital. In the short term, it’s great experience if you are doing direct investing and going to apply to roles that cover the country where the SWF is.
But if you *were* from a country with a solid SWF - what would that change? My country does have a solid SWF but I have no connections.
Without knowing what country that is, I would potentially join, but long term, unless ur connected or in the ruling class, your growth will be capped. If you are in the ruling class, then you could potentially make a shit load of money. I'm half assuming ur from the ME cuz I think Norway or Singapore are much more bureaucratic and thus less chance of really getting a bag. Still a decent opportunity short to medium term.
Would potential M&A advisory employers see this as relevant experience for an internship or full-time job?
I mean it’s buyside investing, you are an asset allocator. I expect a lot of manager selection, but I am sure the big guys have a lot of direct investments in public/ private equity/credit. If you’re doing direct investing I would say yes it is relevant experience but I am not sure how you would fare in IB recruiting past entry level analyst. It’s a fundamentally different role with one being an investor and the other being a service provider but of course there is overlap in the day to day skills like modeling, ppt, analyzing deals etc.
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