PE in Australia
I am currently UK based, looking to move back to Asia (Australia specifically)
How is the PE landscape in Australia? Who are the main headhunters?
Anyone who made the move back - how was it? Any regrets?
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Career Resources
Based on the most helpful WSO content:
PE Landscape in Australia
Main Headhunters
Experiences of Moving Back
If you need more detailed personal experiences or specific headhunter names, it might be beneficial to engage directly with professionals who have made similar moves or consult local forums and networks.
Sources: Q&A: Mega Fund Associate - Asia Pacific Edition, Any career regrets after moving from PE to public markets?, https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/private-equity/internationals-in-ibpe-where-are-you-now?customgpt=1, Moving from South East Asia MM Buyout House to America, Mobility options from Australia
Have had decent experience with Platinum Pacific Partners and East Partnership. Both reached out via LinkedIn and were quite helpful / proactive / knowledgeable as far as recruiters go.
I'm looking to make the opposite move (AU to UK) - any recommendations on London-based recruiters?
Dartmouth Partners, Greenwich Partners, Walker Hamill, Arkesden Partners, Finatal
Cheers mate, best of luck with the move
Ignore title, I'm a PE associate in Sydney
Some headhunters to check out are JS careers and Bradley Staines
Most funds are Sydney based but there are some Melbourne based too. Comp is generally low especially vs banking and firm culture varies wildly - some incredibly toxic shops and some very good cultures
Mid-market and local aus firms often do well vs large global MFs
Care to share names re bad and good culture?
Take this with a grain of salt because I haven't worked at all these firms myself, but my understanding of the ones i know a bit about is:
- PEP - work very hard, sweaty, but strong team
- BGH - very sweaty, don't yet have a proven track record, seem to have quite high junior turnover. Heard some stories from recruiters of toxic culture but can't put too much weight on what recruiters tell you
- Quadrant - both sweaty and very toxic culture, incredibly internally competitive and lots of politics, but it performs very well
- Adamanteum/Crescent/Livingbridge/Colinton/Advent/Five V/Potentia - I've generally heard good things about reasonable seniors and WLB at all of these firms (not to say it doesn't ramp up when you have live deals)
I don't know about the global MFs as well but they seem to generally work hard in small, very lean teams
Anyone have any colour on culture / WLB / comp at credit & special sits space?
UK looking to move to Aus. On the verge of leaving my role in M&A to try and make the move to Aus 'work'. Any advice from those who either went cold turkey, or just state of play etc out there currently?
Not sure if you are considering infra funds also as that’s a big thing in Aus. Currently work at a MM infra PE shop with great culture and hours. Pay is decent also - I feel people are overlooking infra PE and have a perception it may pay lower but given the size of funds in infra relative to employee count in Aus the economics actually results in higher pay for infra PE
Mind if I ask on your background? Was it infra m&a, BB or boutique? Or infra financing?
I was from infra BB (and various other backgrounds prior) but I find infra funds tend to be more lenient with backgrounds. I’ve seen many from MM/LMM IB, pension funds, Big 4 corporate finance/modelling/valuations/infra advisory teams, project finance banks, engineers, lawyers. BB infra teams tend to be weak in Aus. Top infra IBs here are Barrenjoey / Macq / RBC which pay quite well so people are less inclined to jump to buyside - unless it’s for a top fund like GIP/Stonepeak which pay more than IB but hours aren’t great
I'd echo what a few people have said above
1. Infra funds in Aus are the place to be. Good pay, not too sweaty, lots of activity and a growing sector with good returns (even if some of that growth is from moving into "social" infra). I spent a couple of years at an infra fund before moving to a corp dev role and would make the same decision if I had to go back
2. If you want to do corporate PE (for some reason) - the mid market firms are the place to be to make money and have a life.
3. Stay the hell away from PEP and BGH. PEP is probably the sweatiest shop in Aus (although I guess at least you get paid for it if their returns are anything to go by) - it's like Australia's Apollo. BGH is slightly better but also sweaty as heck and no track record - haven't exited a single investment since they started in 2016 or something and none that are rumored to hit it out of the park
4. The super funds aren't a bad place to be either - good pay, excellent WLB and job security (generalizing of course)
How about large cap funds to the like of KKR, Carlyle, TPG, EQT, CVC in terms of performance, WLB, and culture?
Varies a lot.. TPG has been the most consistent in the market over the last 15+ years, good performance and committed to the market.
EQT has generally done okay i think but I don't know much about them. CVC is reentering the market now so remains to be seen how they do and what culture is like. They left Aus in 2012 after losing $1.8bn of equity on a local media network deal so their IC may be cautious
KKR and Carlyle have both had several assets with big issues - see GensisCare, Laser Clinics Australia, Accolade Wines. KKR is very active though and has had strong performers too so it's hard to know where they land all up. They did well selling AVC last year and have a couple of good portcos that'll probably come up for sale this or next year that'll do well for them
All the globals run lean and work hard but I'm sure there are nuances in WLB between them that I'm not aware of
Most of the globals invest out of Asia or Global funds so doing deals is often a bit harder as you need to fight not only for the deal but also for deploying in Australia
Heard Blackstone and Brookfield has great hours unless peak deal crunch
Brookfield has made a slew of poor (corporate) PE investments in ANZ
this is correct - other thing i’ve heard about BAM is that when things go bad they tend to go on the aggressive and call in reinforcements from NYC and sideline the local team. It is never received well by any of their counterparties, and despite the local team having received numerous instances of feedback to the effect of “good god guys please tell the americans that their shit doesn’t work here and that they aren’t wanted”, they seemingly won’t or can’t listen. One thing the other Megafunds have done well that brookfield haven’t (from what i’ve heard) is adapted their strategy to the local market. TPG, KKR and Blackstone in particular (for all their faults) have done this masterfully.
Whats the normal working hours when no deal sprint / full sprint at large cap PE?
Would 6-9pm finishes normally and 11-2am during live deal sprints be reasonable assumption?
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