Project Finance or Acquisition / Leveraged Finance for PE exit?

Hi all, noticed that there has not been much discussion on Project Finance lately. I am kindly hoping to get advice on choosing between 1) Project Finance - Infra and 2) IB - Acquisition Finance & LevFin ("AF&LF"). Ultimately, I aim to work in a PE, be it on the debt fund or equity side. It seems from WSO posts that PE tends to look out for IBD Analysts, particularly from an M&A background and to a limited extent PF analysts.

Which option stands a better chance of transitioning into PE?

Thanks in advance for your advice. Appreciate it.

4 Comments
 

Hi hownowbrowncow, any of these topics helpful:

  • From Private Equity Associate to VP in Private Equity Opportunities out of PE Private equity is seen by many as the endgame, but what about for those who don't ... know is right here. Private Equity Job- What Do PE Associates Do? PE associates' days are ... to Become a PE Associate Before we tell you anything else, understand that private equity recrui
  • Overview of Leveraged Finance Leveraged Finance 5) Credit Analysis 6) Investment Considerations Introduction Unlike the equity market, the ... leveraged finance market (LevFin). We are focusing on LevFinfirst for the following key reasons: Depth ... securing financing: 1) debt, 2) equity, and 3) hybrid securities. We're only concerned with credit for ...
  • Private Equity Interview Questions- A Complete Guide Private equity jobs are some of the most coveted positions in finance. That's why less than ... a PE Interview You can expect these types of questions during your private equity interviews: Fit ... equity, then you better be ready to grind and prepare for all of these questions. private equity interview ...
  • Private Equity vs Venture Capital- Differences and Similarities a firm-to-firm basis- in general- private equity firms have fewer hours. Recruiting and Exit Opps for PE and VC ... for private equity firms often starts as soon as six months into your first investment banking job. ... There's a fine line between private equity and venture capital firms. Many get them confused ...
  • Leveraged Finance => Private Equity PE generally the route that analysts take after the IBanking stint, or are there other good exit opps ... as well from Lev. Fin.? Leveraged Finance ... stack up in terms of exit opps vs. other product and coverage groups at banks (M&A, Fin. Sponsors, ...
  • Private Equity Exit Opportunities Office- Exit Opps Interviewing for Private Equity Jobs? Want to land at an elite private equity fund try ... People Pursue After Private Equity? After a stint in PE, the path forward is much less defined. At this ... position if the end goal is to stay in private equity and pursue the partner track. P
  • project finance vs leverage finance vs M&A- Exit Opps Q. (reloaded) I have read most of the project finance exit opps threads here and I notice: 1) the lack of ... want to get in, how does project finance analyst look against leveraged finance and energy/infra ... appreciated. I would like to hear from those with direct experience in this field. Thanks C project finance ...
  • More suggestions...

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Project finance and infra is a very specific type of modeling. Leveraged finance will give you much broader exposure to different types of deals (refinancings, LBOs, M&A) and the skills needed for these types of models are much more aligned to your traditional PE work. That being said, it is a markets-driven role so if your firm has no pipeline you'll just be a pitch monkey with no deal experience. From what I've seen, recruiters tend to focus on tangible deal experience so my advice would be to take the position with the infra team and try to get on any of the energy infra deals that will be using high yield debt/working with the leveraged finance team so that you can have that experience on your resume as well.

On an unrelated note, leveraged finance does have a bit of a sexier ring to it than infra, but I worked with levfin so I'm biased

best of luck!

 

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