Infra vs. PE at Canadian Pensions

Hey all, I am choosing between PE and Infra at Canadian pensions. I have been fortunate enough to have experience in both at the pension level (internships), so hopefully users here can opine on some questions I have:

  1. What does pay progression look like for analysts and associates for PE and infra? Any total comp numbers would be great.
  2. Which one is harder to become more "senior" at?
  3. If you guys had to choose, which one would you go for as a new graduate? 
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There are really two scenarios here for a grad from my POV:

1) Infra Route:

You love infra, have passion for the space and you can see yourself in the long-run doing this

2) PE route:

You either have no passion for infra or you are more interested in a certain subsector or want to be a generalist for now

Infra is more niche for sure but also not as niche as it used to be given how the space exploded and what infra investors have put their money in. Sure there are classic plays of toll roads or water but there is quite a bit of exciting stuff like airports (Asterion invested in Italian airports), amusement parks (EQT invested in Parques Reunidos), education (Antin invested in Babilou kindergarden) but it is somewhat it's own space nevertheless and tied to contracted/protected cashflows.

Furthermore, overall infra is a bit of a grindy space as well due to its detailed nature and is also very, very model-heavy and a bit nerdy

 

thanks for that, really resonated with the model grindy and nerdy sentiments lol

 

What are the current views on upward mobility across the infra investing space?

Obviously fundraising has been incredibly supportive and the asset class is expanding to include more “generalist” types of businesses where funds should be able to exploit a cost of capital advantage.

My quick read is high end performers have a path to VP level but gets highly competitive from there. So not best time to join (compared to early - mid 2010s when large GPs were formed / MFs started seriously covering the space) but still constructive.

 

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