Infrastructure Private Equity

I was hoping to hear about some alternative paths to infrastructure private equity outside of the typical 2 year IB analyst window. Does an infrastructure project financing role on the sell-side help make that leap or do you have to sort of hop into an IB associate role along the way? Other thoughts on the matter appreciated

21 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Bump, interested as well.

Edit: Anecdotally, I looked up the backgrounds of some analysts/associates at some infra investors (mostly pension funds, World Bank/IFC, and some insurers), and almost all had previous experience at a BB or similar working in project finance lending/advisory.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 

Depends fund size, reputation, geographic location.

I find that, in my region at least, that intrastructure PE funds are alot more forgiving in terms of hiring outside of IB compared to corporate PE.

Paths that I have seen into Infra PE are: - Project Finance from Commercial banks - Infrastructure/Project finance lawyers - Corporate Finance/M&A at Infrastructure corporates/developers - Big 4 Modelling/Valuations (infra pe funds love the modelling skillset at Analyst level as infra models are very modelling intensive) - In the rare case have also seen engineers transition over

 

Curious about this topic as well. What about getting an MBA from a top 5 school? Possible to come in as an associate/senior associate or still better to jump to IB or MBB to get infra exposure first?

It is what it is.
 

I personality started out in middle office at a tier 1 US IB in london, learned how to build project finance models by taking a couple of courses from advisory shops and got very good at this, then I jumped to a Infrastructure Developer Project Finance team for a year before jumping into infra PE (renewables). 

In the world of infra / energy, if you get the modelling skills down well, you have a decent chance regardless of your background... Pretty much every interview process has modelling tests

Other paths I've seen: 

- Valuation / modelling team at Big 4. 

- Modellers from bespoke project finance consultancies 

- PF advisory from commercial banks or IB 

- M&A at developers 

- even seen accountants make the move 

 

Sorry about the later response here. My response will be UK focussed, but you can get very good paid training cources from specialist PF model advisory shops like DWPF, Operis, Corality & the big 4. These are quite expensive, but there is some decent free materials online on the following sites: 

1. Ed Bodmer: https://edbodmer.com/project-finance/ 

This guy's website is insanely useful, he basically gives a 101 including videos of everything there is to know about building PF models. 

2. Corality: https://financialmodelling.mazars.com/online-resources/tutorials/

Lots of useful blogs about specific PF issues, very very useful. 

I can share some materials with you too, just drop me a PM 

 

Voluptate voluptate quis at et. Qui deserunt non neque cumque. Aliquid quas aut cumque placeat distinctio animi. Et ea natus ullam qui iste. Exercitationem deserunt iure aut sit et.

Est rerum itaque rerum expedita assumenda expedita. Et alias velit at. Deleniti neque sit voluptatem at ratione ipsam.

Beatae vero labore non sapiente velit. Voluptatem est et corporis enim officia qui sequi.

Nihil sed qui eos sit aut officiis. Tempore harum nostrum doloribus accusantium non blanditiis beatae. Vero aut ipsam amet aut ad voluptatem. Consequuntur adipisci impedit possimus occaecati consequatur maiores. Architecto eius velit excepturi.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Private Equity

  • The Riverside Company 99.6%
  • KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) 99.2%
  • Blackstone Group 98.9%
  • Warburg Pincus 98.5%
  • Bain Capital 98.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Private Equity

  • KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) 99.6%
  • The Riverside Company 99.2%
  • Ardian 98.9%
  • Blackstone Group 98.5%
  • Starwood Capital Group 98.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Private Equity

  • Bain Capital 99.6%
  • The Riverside Company 99.2%
  • Blackstone Group 98.9%
  • Starwood Capital Group 98.5%
  • KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) 98.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Private Equity

  • Principal (9) $653
  • Director/MD (24) $547
  • Vice President (97) $363
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (104) $281
  • 2nd Year Associate (234) $272
  • 1st Year Associate (411) $229
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (33) $157
  • 2nd Year Analyst (95) $134
  • 1st Year Analyst (271) $124
  • Intern/Summer Associate (37) $80
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (351) $61
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”