MM M&A vs. Structured Finance for Infra PE exit?
2 offers: 1 from a MM M&A team and 1 from a Structured Finance team.
Which option would provide the best chances (skills and exposure) to transition into an infrastructure private equity fund role in the future?
MM M&A offer. This is for the bank’s strongest team, though it focuses on a specific industry that occasionally attracts infra-fund investments. A good percentage of their work involves M&A advisory for funds or portcos.
Structured/Project finance. This is within a bank's project and structured infrastructure finance team, which provides financing and debt advisory services for energy transition and digital infrastructure projects.
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here's what you need to know:
MM M&A Offer:
Structured/Project Finance Offer:
Considerations for Transitioning to Infrastructure PE:
Relevance of Experience:
Skill Development:
Career Path Trends:
Conclusion:
This analysis is based on the highest-ranked content on WSO and current trends in the industry.
Sources: Interviewing For Infrastructure Investment Roles, Overview of Infrastructure Private Equity, LevFin to Infrastructure: The Need to Build, Infrastructure PE vs Traditional PE, Infrastructure Compensation
Bump
Needs clarification: Is the project finance team at a much more prestigious bank or same bank? If the latter, what is the bank's positioning in the infra space?
My thinking now is that both roles you mentioned seem more or less equally competitive when it comes to recruiting for infra PE. But M&A is more versatile and gives more options outside of infra if you change your mind down the road. Only thing is if you're truly interested in infra and can't care less about the industry you mentioned - then project finance makes more sense.
If you are deadset on infra PE- do project finance no question. Infra is unlike many other fields: the infra experience is very niche, modelling is complicated, and that specific sector experience in project finance will be highly valued in Infra PE.
If you are not dead set on infra, obviously take the M&A gig for more optionality.
I started at a very large renewables developer doing project finance and am now in MM Infra PE. I've seen a handful of others do this.
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