Big Infra vs. Buyout PE for Midlevels

Want to be relatively anonymous but contrary to the label, VP1 / "Senior Associate" / MBA + 1-3 years level here who's looking to lateral. Have gotten decent looks at some buyout firms in the MM (really UMM) range and some at larger infra funds too (think KKR, BX, Brookfield). Have absolutely no infra experience in PE or banking but have (perhaps obviously) touched related industries like industrials, energy, etc.

So my question is this: given the choppy market and the relatively high growth trajectory of infra, how should I weigh, say, a BX or a KKR infra offer versus a Brookfield versus one of the MM buyout shops? It's not so much that I care about the "prestige" of buyout or whatever but I just don't know how well I'll translate to the infra world. I'm interested in it, sure, but I'm interested in a lot of things. Would it be easier to transition to the buyout PE side at one of the MFs? How would you weigh these options against the bevy of $5bn funds that are out there (think idk AmSec, THL, Jordan, etc.)?

6 Comments
 

Nuance about infra, especially for big projects: half the game is political and you have to be comfortable already or want to develop that muscle. What I mean is literally putting together the perfect note so that the political connection you have can pull it out over a non-related dinner to try and push some mid level decision maker to be in your corner to push permitting on your project to a slightly higher level decision maker. Repeat for many years and hopefully you have a de-risked, valuable project.

 

There has been a move towards industrials out of infra funds due to crowded end in infra. KKR - Refresco is an example of this trend. To a lesser extent the Brookfield - Intel deal (it was very structured). Feel free to pm me for more on the infra - industrials/energy space as I have been researching it a lot recently.

 

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