Infrastructure Investing - Interviews 101

14/08/2019 Infrastructure Investing - Interviews 101
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by Brian DeChesare Comments (56)
Infrastructure Investing: What It Is and How

to Break In
If there’s one long-running unfulfilled request on this site, it’s coverage of

Project Finance.
I have gotten about 100+ requests to feature it, and I’ve even had numerous
interviewees sign up and volunteer to speak about it… and then drop out at the
last minute.
The bad news is that this is still not that elusive article on Project Finance.
But the good news is that this is very close, and it covers an area that is even more
interesting in some ways: infrastructure investing.
https://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/infrastructure-investing-interviews/ 1/25
If Project Finance is the “venture capital” of the toll road/bridge/airport world,

infrastructure investing is the “private equity” of that same world.
And all you have to do to get in?
Land a bulge bracket offer in Australia, get forced out, wind up in Hong Kong
without knowing the language, and improvise your way to success from there.
Here’s the full story:
Offer… Rescinded? How It All Began
Q: So let’s get started with your initial plan for getting into the industry, and
how you ended up in an unexpected place.
A: Sure. My background wasn’t that unusual – I studied business/finance at a

university in Australia and then applied to investment banking through the
graduate recruiting process.
I had no idea what I wanted to do, but sitting in an office and wearing a suit
seemed cool at the time (little did I know…), so I was set on IB from my 2nd year
onward.
I applied for graduate positions in my last year, and the process itself was very
similar to recruiting anywhere else: online assessments, phone interviews, and a
few rounds of in-person interviews with questions and mini-case studies.
Q: Really? Not much was different even though you were recruiting in Australia?
A: Not really. The only quirk in the process: the “final round interview” consisted
of a cocktail evening at an MD’s house, and they made you go up on stage and tell
the bankers something about yourself.
That was probably the low-light of the recruiting process for me, and I can’t even
remember what I said (or maybe I blocked it out?) – but it didn’t seem to matter
much: I received a call the next day with an offer to start working at this bank.
Q: But the timing wasn’t the best.
A: Right, this was as we were heading into a recession and all banks in Australia
were deferring or cutting graduate hires.
They asked if I was willing to move to Hong Kong because of “headcount issues”
– they liked me, but could not support an additional hire in the Australian offices.
I said “no” at first because all my friends in family were in Australia and I really
didn’t want to move all the way to Asia. Plus, I had heard that the hours were very
long, even by IB standards, in HK.
Decisions, Decisions
Q: What made you change your mind and say “yes”?
A: Well, for one, the economy was terrible and there weren’t that many other
options for new graduates. I had no real connection to Hong Kong and didn’t
know the language(s), but I wasn’t about to lose a desirable offer just because I
wanted to stay at home.
I got there and was placed into the Power & Utilities industry coverage team right
away.
Since I didn’t know Mandarin, they had me work with companies across the
entire Asia-Pacific region and I traveled to Southeast Asia (Thailand and
Singapore) quite a lot in my first year there.
I wouldn’t say the hours were “worse,” necessarily; they were just as bad as
NYC/London work hours. But the travel kept me sane and made it a bit more fun
than the average “>IB analyst role, where you really are chained to your desk
95% of the time.
Q: I see… yeah, business travel tends to be fun at first and rapidly decline in “fun
value” after a few months. So how long did you end up staying there?
A: Just over 2 years. I had done a ton of pitches and a few deals by then, and I was
ready to move on.
IB in HK is increasingly driven by mainland China, so if you’re not a native

Mandarin speaker or you don’t have relationships there it’s extremely tough to
make yourself useful.
And as previous interviewees have pointed out, it’s not just the language: you can
be from Taiwan or Hong Kong or Singapore and still not be “Chinese enough” to
fit in with the mainland business culture.
Banks do cover Southeast Asia and other regions out of the Hong Kong office, but
deals in those places fall apart very frequently – at an even higher rate than
normal deals fall apart.
So their preference is to focus more and more on deals and clients in China.
Q: Yeah, that makes sense. So then you started looking for buy-side roles right
around this time?
A: Yeah, just past the 2-year mark. At first, I focused on traditional PE funds in
HK but I realized that roles for non-Mandarin speakers were limited and that
Southeast Asia coverage roles were not necessarily ideal.
So I started thinking about going back to Australia and branching out into areas
beyond traditional PE – one field that interested me was infrastructure
investing, because it is a huge, developed market there and much bigger than
you’d expect based on the country’s population and economy.
I found a few firms on eFinancialCareers, applied, and got in touch with a

headhunter who set me up with phone interviews and eventually in-person
interviews there (which was very tricky to coordinate since I was still working
full-time in Hong Kong at that point).
Infrastructure Investing 101
Q: OK, great, so before we move into the recruiting process, I wanted to step
back and explain what “infrastructure investing” is.
We’ve gotten tons of questions on Infrastructure vs. Project Finance vs. Public
Finance, and with this article and the previous public finance series we can
address at least 2 of those…
A: Sure. Just like in traditional PE, you split your time between origination
(finding new assets to invest in) and deal execution (doing the deals), as well as
managing the existing portfolio. There’s also some fundraising work depending
on the fund that you’re at.
The difference is that you’re investing in assets that provide essential utilities or
services – toll roads, airports, power plants, telecom, or even “social
infrastructure” like hospitals and schools.
Infrastructure does NOT include real estate assets that are strictly for people to
live in or for businesses to operate from – the distinction is that there must be
some kind of essential service offered by the asset.
Many of these assets are extremely stable and will be around for decades; some,
like airports, have natural monopolies that make them incredibly valuable.
They’re also less sensitive to economic and business cycles, and, at least in
Australia, most of the investors in this sector are pension funds with an
extremely long-term outlook who may favor stability over higher potential
returns.
Many of these assets are dependent on government regulation, or are even

developed in partnership with the government.
In Australia, for example, lots of utilities and transmission/distribution networks

are regulated by the government and they actually tell you what your “allowed
rate of return” can be and then set the pricing and terms to enforce that.
Q: I’m getting visions of 1984.
Isn’t it risky to invest in a sector that’s subject to so much regulation?
A: Haha, yes, in a way it is because the government could always step in and
change the rules to reduce your returns.
On the other hand, the government is also keen to attract investment into the
sector so that sort of balances things out.
Also, these assets are very, very stable, almost to the point of being boring.
You see assumptions like revenue growing at 3% per year, forever, linked to GDP
growth or inflation – it’s not like working with normal companies where growth
rates and margins may fluctuate wildly from year to year.
Q: So what are your targeted returns? Lower than normal PE, I’m assuming?
A: Yes, we tend to target 10-15% IRRs here – and sometimes the holding period
is 10 years or more. Partially, that’s because there’s less liquidity and the buyer
pool isn’t as wide as it might be for normal companies.
But it’s also because many of the assets have long-term contracts with suppliers
and we try to take advantage of those when we hold the asset – a power station,
for example, might have a power purchase agreement with a retail company
lasting 15 or more years.
So it’s in our interest to hold the asset for as long as possible during the terms of
that agreement.
Q: I see. And why is the market so big in Australia? I would have thought that
infrastructure would be more significant in emerging markets.
A: It’s mostly a result of pension funds here growing to massive sizes because
everyone has to contribute 9-12% of their salary toward pensions – and they like
to play it safe and invest in stable, predictable assets such as infrastructure. The
same thing has happened in Canada.
Developed countries still have a need for infrastructure: just look at the US, where
most infrastructure is crumbling and desperately needs to be replaced and
upgraded.
In Australia, another factor is the mining boom and the additional energy and
mining projects that are driving infrastructure investment here.
All these new mines need a way to transport commodities to market, and much of
that transportation might count as “infrastructure.”
Q: I see… so it’s partially government-driven and partially market-driven.
Last question before we move on: what’s the difference between Infrastructure
Investing, Public Finance, and Project Finance? They all deal with similar types
of assets.
A: I’m not an expert on the other two, but here’s how I see it:
Project Finance: This is investing in the debt required to fund the construction
of infrastructure assets, or required to acquire existing assets. PF rms spend a
lot of time assessing the downside risk, how much money they can get back in
the worst-case scenario, and so on.
Infrastructure Investing: This is investing in the equity of infrastructure

assets – mostly acquiring existing ones, but sometimes also green eld
projects.
Public Finance: Less about building assets or buying assets, and more about
the nancing of these deals and how to get the funds to do everything – and
you are raising those funds for governments rather than investment funds or
normal companies.
Breaking Into Infrastructure Investing
Q: So let’s move back to your recruiting process at this firm – what was it like?
A: My fund has fewer than 20 “investment professionals,” so the process I went

through was quite informal. I spoke with around half the office, and most of the
questions focused on my deal experience, what I thought about the market, and
how much I knew about infrastructure.
I had almost no time to prepare for any of this, but I went back through all my
deals and reviewed every model there line-by-line (or at least, the closest I could
come to that) and devoted most of my time to that.
They were interested in me because I had experience in the power/utilities

sector, and increasingly infrastructure is expanding beyond toll
roads/bridges/airports into power and energy-related assets.
As I said, the fund I’m at is relatively small so I didn’t have to complete

traditional case studies or modeling tests – they mostly just asked about my
experience.
Q: OK, so what specifically did they ask about the models you had built and the
deals you worked on?
A: You could divide the questions like this:
Why? – What was the purpose of the model and how did it impact the deal? For
example, did I gure out that the asking price for a power plant only made
sense if energy prices were 50% higher than current levels?
What? – What did you build? For example, I might have explained that I built
an operating model for a power generation company by separating it into its 3
main geographies, calculating revenue and expenses for an “average” power
plant in each region, and then aggregating everything across all the regions.
How? – How did you make the assumptions? Here, I would explain what
sources we consulted for energy price assumptions, expense/margin trends,
and also the impact of di erent assumptions on the output.
What Next? – How did you personally contribute to this deal and what ended
up happening? As a junior banker, of course, you’ll mostly be running the
numbers and assisting with due diligence so most of your contributions will
come in these areas. But you need to highlight discrepancies you found,
numbers that seemed unreasonable, or potential problems that came up in due
diligence. It’s OK if the deal fell apart, but you should probably try to frame it
more as, “It’s ongoing – we’re still waiting for the buyer/seller to make a
decision.”
Q: Great, I think that’s a good way to think about all your deals, even if you
haven’t worked in power/utilities or infrastructure. So they liked you and gave
you the offer right away?
A: Pretty much. I went through a few rounds of phone interviews, and then heard
back a few days after this in-person firm visit.
They were flexible with start dates, so I had 2 months in between quitting my
bank and starting at this new fund, which I used to relocate back home and travel
a bit.
Q: And it sounds like, just as with traditional PE, they are really looking more for
experienced candidates from IB and related fields as opposed to students
straight out of undergrad. True?
A: At the junior level, every single person at my fund worked at a bank or at least
in a “banking-type” role such as an analyst at a smaller corporate finance or
advisory firm.
Industry experience can help a lot in infrastructure since it’s so specific. I haven’t
seen anyone come here from a power or utilities company, but I’m sure it could
happen.
I don’t think we’ve hired anyone from Big 4 accounting firms, but with the right
skill set it might be possible. It just depends on your technical skills and how
much sector exposure you’ve gotten.
For the more senior people, backgrounds are more varied. We’ve hired lawyers
and other professionals who don’t necessarily have a finance background, but
who do have extensive relationships and experience in infrastructure.
Q: Awesome! Thanks for your time. Now onto the job itself and the technical
side…
A: Next time, next time.
Infrastructure Investing / Infrastructure Private Equity – Series:
Part 1 – What Infrastructure Investing is and How to Break In
Part 2 – On the Job in Infrastructure Private Equity
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Brian DeChesare is the Founder of Mergers & Inquisitions and Breaking Into Wall Street. In his
spare time, he enjoys memorizing obscure Excel functions, editing resumes, obsessing over TV
shows, traveling like a drug dealer, and defeating Sauron.
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Comments
Read below or Add a comment
Josh
January 24, 2018
How does Project Finance differ from Infrastructure Investing? Isn’t Infrastructure Investing more
or less a subset of Project Finance, since most Infrastructure deals are done in a Project Finance format?
I saw what you said below, but was still hoping for some clarity. Thank you.
“If Project Finance is the “venture capital” of the toll road/bridge/airport world, infrastructure investing is
the “private equity” of that same world.”
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
January 26, 2018
OK, ignore that description. Please see: https://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/project-
nance-jobs/
The better analogy is that PF is like lending to support infrastructure deals, and infrastructure PE is like
equity investing in those deals (or developments).
 REPLY
Julie
December 3, 2015
Thank you for this article, it is very hard to nd reliable info on infra investment.
I am a student at a top business school in Europe (ranked #1) and just landed a 6 month off-cycle
internship at SocGen in France, in Infrastructure PF. Here in France, the 6-month internship often leads to
a full time position after graduation. So if I go there and do well, I will probably start my career within the
same team.
Hence my question. Is it possible to move from infra PF to infra PE after 2y as analyst for example ? Is the
skillset acquired in PF (modelling, documentation, structured debt etc.) valued in other positions, besides
M&A industry groups ? (did m&a in a BB for a summer and did not like it)
Thanks a lot for your help !
 REPLY
Ananda
August 13, 2014
Do you have a list of all the major global infrastructure funds? I have been trying to nd
something like this online with major players in Europe, NA, SA and Asia but haven’t been able to nd
anything. This sector interests me so it’d be great to get some info.
 REPLY
M&I - Nicole
August 13, 2014
We don’t have a list for that. Have you checked out programs like CapitalIQ or Bloomberg?
They may have a list that is relevant.
 REPLY
Alzomb
April 22, 2014
Great post!
With >7 yrs Civil Engineering experience in large infra projects, I was wondering if I have a shot at
Infrastructure PE rms without any nance experience? Do such rms take the time to train/mentor
someone without much nance background? I am going to a top MBA program this fall and would love to
explore this area. OR would PF at a bank be a better bet?
 REPLY
M&I - Nicole
April 23, 2014

Yes you do have a shot, especially given your MBA credentials going forward. Since the MBA
gives you the opportunity to retool yourself, I’d use that experience and aim for the
infrastructure PE funds directly
 REPLY
Alzomb
April 23, 2014
Thanks Nicole!
 REPLY
M&I - Nicole
April 23, 2014
Anytime.
 REPLY
Jody
September 19, 2013
Good Post.
Comments on your de nition about Project Finance vs. Infrastructure Investing vs. Public Finace.
Project Finance: This is not equivalent to Venture Capital, it is far from it. In Project Finance, banks provide
senior debt to infrastructure Projects. Since they are providing senior debt, they are very conservative in
the Projects that they lend to, as they are receiving low margins on their loans. More often then not they
do take construction risk, but the construction aspect is highly structured to ensure that the Project
completes and if it doesn’t complete that the lenders get paid out.
Infrastructure Investing: In the broadest sense is investing any form of capital into Infrastructure assets
i.e. different forms of debt or equity, hence Project Finance could be classi ed into infrastructure
investing. In a more narrow sense if you want to de ne Infrastructure Investing by Pension funds, you can
assume they they are investing in brown eld projects, in developed markets, and are taking equity stakes.
 REPLY
M&I - Nicole
September 20, 2013
Thanks for your input!
 REPLY
Hawkgirl
June 11, 2013
Excellent article, thanks!

 REPLY
M&I - Nicole
June 11, 2013
Thanks for visiting M&I!
 REPLY
Hunjsuk
June 10, 2013
Why does the Australian Investment Bank Macquaire dominate the Infrastructure Investing
market? Is no one else as interested in Infrastructure Investing as much.
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
June 10, 2013
I don’t know exactly, but I think they have a stronger track record in the area which attracts
more deals and clients in the rst place. Also, they were one of the rst banks to market there, which is
a big advantage.
 REPLY
Jaime
June 7, 2013
Great article!
I am currently interning at the corporate strategy department of the investment division of a big Chinese
state contractor. We only do green eld, specially power, but I would like to use this internship to move into
project nance at an IB or infrastructure investment. Do I have any chances or I should look fro other
plans?
Is it posible to contact the interviewee?
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
June 10, 2013
Yes, I think it is possible to move in from that background but it would be more di cult to do
that if you came back there full-time and then tried to make the transition. Firms outside China will still
“discount” the experience to some extent. I can ask the interviewee, but he is quite busy so no
guarantees on getting a response – this interview was conducted a few months ago.
 REPLY
Jaime
June 10, 2013
Thanks Brian, I would really appreciate it. Aside from Macquaire which other Banks are
strong in this eld? BBVA?
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
June 11, 2013
I’m not sure offhand, but Goldman, CS, and Macquarie seem to be the top 3 overall in
Australia: http://blogs.wsj.com/dealjournalaustralia/2012/09/28/goldman-macquarie-top-ma-
league-tables-down-under/
I would imagine the infrastructure-speci c league table looks similar (I could not nd it online).
 REPLY
Themb
June 18, 2013
BBs have started to get into PF advisory (MS and GS advising universities on parking
privatisations). In the UK they are also getting more and more involved, especially since
alumnis have to the public sector in wake of the crisis.
Major project lenders and advisors are also SocGen, BNP Paribas, RBS, HSBC and RBC.
On the lending side, Japanese and German banks are always very active.
If you are looking for advisory, Big $ (especially KPMG, PwC and E&Y) might be an option as
well.
The question if, whether you are interest in infrastructure M&A or project nance advisory.
While the topics intersect more and more, there might still be a difference and sometimes
might work exclusively on project nance advisory while others work exclusively on M&A
deals.
M&I - Nicole
June 18, 2013
Thanks for your input!
Hi
June 4, 2013
Hi Brian,
I’ve been signed up for the Premium BIWS courses, and was wondering do you have en estimated time for
how long each course takes to fully grasp the materials?
Fundamentals, etc.
I’m trying to t the courses into my summer internship, but I’m not sure how much time to devote to each
course.
Thanks!
 REPLY
Hi
June 4, 2013
Also, would there be more industry speci c courses available? I’m thinking along the lines of
industrials, healthcare, etc.
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
June 5, 2013
Other industry-speci c courses: probably not in the near future, but we will be adding a few
bonus case studies in the areas you mentioned very soon.
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
June 5, 2013
Thanks and welcome to the course. If you look in the FAQ, there are estimates for the time
required for each course under “Financial Modeling Courses” question #2:
Excel & Financial Modeling Fundamentals: 50-60 hours
Advanced Modeling: 40-50 hours
But that assumes that you are attempting to complete everything.
What to focus on really depends on what you already know – if you know Excel well already, I would
skip that or only focus on the more advanced parts in Module 5 (Formulas) and skip the last module on
VBA, for example.
You should also receive a quick start guide and course highlights document soon (or you may have
already received these).
 REPLY
Analyst In Infra PE
June 3, 2013
Hey Brian,
Good to see that you are still very active. I think that you remember me, and I want to make a small
contribution or addition to the article based on my experience in infra investing in Canada.
1) Recruitment:
Even in Canada, it works the same way the interviewee described. The level of “formality” of interviews
will depend on the type of fund you are interviewing with and they tend to favour people with a previous
experience in infrastructure (IB, PE, Big 4, etc).
You can have case studies at some funds like Borealis or Capstone, and you won’t at other funds like
Fengate Capital or Fiera Axium.
2) Investments:
Some funds will target assets that are already built and operational (which we call brown eld
investments) and others will target assets that will need to be constructed (green eld investments).
Again, it depends on the funds and their mandates.
3) Pay:
What I saw here in Toronto (please keep in mind that some people might disagree with this based on their
personal experience) is that basis salary at the analyst and associate levels tends to be similar to the one
in IBD. Bonus tends to range from 30% to 60% of the basis with the possibility of getting some carry
interest (it is more common at the VP level, but some rms offer carry interest at the associate level).
4) Lifestyle:
Obviously, the lifestyle is better than that in IBD. However, when a deal is near completion, you’ll be
working as hard as in IBD.
On average, I would say that you work between 10 to 14 hours a day with some spikes when a deal heats
up.
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
June 4, 2013
Thanks for adding all that – great additions. I’ll make a note of those points in Part 2.
I think pay is higher in Australia for some reason, but the rest seems to match the interviewee’s
experiences so far.
 REPLY
Curious
June 2, 2013
Does anyone have a good answer to “How is it that Infra projects are giving IRRs of 12%, when
bond yields are under 2%”?
I doubt the duration, equity and liquidity risk premiums make up the excess return over the risk free rate.
 REPLY
Analyst In Infra PE
June 3, 2013
If Governments were to make the investments themselves, they would have to consolidate the
borrowed debt to their balance sheet. So by letting private sector players invest and get returns, they
only consolidate the annual payments that they make to those investors (in the case of a social project
like a hospital, they make monthly payments; in the case of power assets, they make payments through
the power purchase agreements, etc).
 REPLY
Augusten
September 10, 2014
Hi,
Thanks for all the inputs on infra investment in Canada. I have a case interview coming up with
Capstone. What shall I expect? How can I best prepare for it? I’m guessing they will ask me to value
a particular wind/solar/hydro projects. Find discuss the pros and cons.
Cheers,
Augusten
 REPLY
M&I - Nicole
September 10, 2014
I am not familiar with Capstone’s interview. I think they may test your valuation and
analytical skills. Yes, they may ask you to value particular projects. Readers may have more
suggestions.
 REPLY
Sean38
June 6, 2013
IRRs in PPPs aren’t really driven by the State looking for off balance sheet nancing. It will still
have an impact when the ratings agencies assess a credit rating, whether it is on or off balance sheet,
as revenue is still required to support payments to the SPV.
Investments in PPPs are far from risk free. With construction, operating cost and abatement risks
being some of the basic risks transferred, which the State pays for. PPPs are also highly leveraged,
often in the neighbourhood of an 80:20 debt to equity ratio. Hence, equity is at signi cant risk if
something goes wrong and can require an equity IRR in the 12% range. The project IRR will be below
this and comparatively higher Australian bond yields also drive the higher rates in the local context.
Once construction of the project is complete, the IRR will fall.
 REPLY
Themb
June 18, 2013
I’d say that for certain project with availability-based renumeration and a generally low risk
pro le (standard school or hospital DBFOM in a mature market), leverage of up to 95% is still
feasible, even considering the current crisis.
 REPLY
Lisa
June 2, 2013
Great article ;)
If you had the opportunity coming out of undergrad to work at either one of these funds or BB IBD, which
would be better?
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
June 2, 2013
Thanks! Depends on what you’re looking for, but most people would say a bulge bracket bank
is better to start at. Maybe if you know want to stay in infra or power/utilities for the long-term, you
could make an argument for an infra fund instead.
 REPLY
Cameron
June 1, 2013
Hi Brian,
Great article, most appreciated. A couple of questions:
1. Whilst the fund owns the assets who is responsible for maintenance, a 3rd party?
2. What are the exit opps?
3. Is there much dd beyond the usual in infra investing that might require a construction/engineering
background?
Apologies if any of this is covered in part 2, I’m looking forward to reading it.
Cameron
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
June 2, 2013
1. They would hire a 3rd party to do the maintenance, but the fund would still have to pay for it.
2. Covered in the upcoming Part 2, but anything infra / power / utilities / energy-related could work.
3. Potentially useful, but you don’t really use the technical knowledge much… more useful if you have a
lot of contacts in those elds and can nd out about new opportunities from them.
 REPLY
Rohan
June 1, 2013
Is the situation that bad is australia that he couldnt be employed there and had to be booted out to HK?
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
June 2, 2013
“Right, this was as we were heading into a recession and all banks in Australia were deferring
or cutting graduate hires.”
“Heading into a recession” = took place several years before I spoke with the interviewee as opposed to
the present day
 REPLY
KM
May 31, 2013
Interesting, thanks! I was wondering what are the fees at an InfraFund? Traditional 2/20?
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
May 31, 2013
It’s lower than 2 and 20 because of government regulation and the involvement of pension
funds – more details in Part 2.
 REPLY
Jason
May 30, 2013
Apparently, you only have a 2% chance of obtaining a summer internship at Goldman Sachs:
http://news.e nancialcareers.com/us-en/142682/you-have-a-2-chance-of-getting-an-internship-at-
goldman-sachs/
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
May 31, 2013
…and? I think previous articles have covered the odds. They never look good for the same
reason college admission stats at the top places look impossible: lots of people who have zero chance
of getting in apply anyway.
 REPLY
Themb
June 1, 2013
If blackouts would last 2% of the year, we would be out of energy for more than 7 day. I think 2% is
not all that small.
 REPLY
Themb
May 30, 2013
Since I am most likely responsible for a fair share of the 100+ requests: Thank you very much for
this.
I am fairly surprised about hearing that the interviewee’s rm has seemingly not hired anyone with a Big 4
background, since KPMG, PwC and E&Y are among the global leaders in infrastructure and project nance
advisory. And here in Europe I actually see quite a lot of former Big 4 infra advisors having joined infra
funds. And in Australia, UK, Canada and the US these teams are generally quite large, so there is a lot of
talent, probably even more so than at banks. One reason I could imagine is the simple fact, that bankers
have more M&A experience, which might be of more use in the secondary market, though I think the skills
are pretty transferable, especially on a junior level.
On a side note, I would like to know whether the interviewee’s fund actually takes construction risk? Also,
what is their attitude towards other risk (demand and regulation, in particular).
And, does the fund exclusively invest in Australia or is it an international vehicle.
Once again thanks for this piece, very much appreciated.
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
May 30, 2013
You are probably right, it may just be a regional difference in Australia though I am not sure of
that one. I think anyone who has worked in infrastructure at the Big 4 would have a good shot at it.
They do not take construction risk in most cases and almost always acquire existing assets, with a few
exceptions occasionally. There’s more of a discussion of that in Part 2, but they try to reduce risk by
diversifying into different areas of the country and different asset types.
They focus only on Australia for now.
 REPLY
Hai_banker
May 29, 2013
Great Post Brian! when can we expect Part 2??
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
May 30, 2013
In a few weeks most likely

 REPLY
Hai_banker
June 12, 2013
Perfect, I can’t wait!
 REPLY
Hai_banker
July 2, 2013
ETA for part 2?
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
July 2, 2013
Next week, if you want it early please email accounts@breakingintowallstreet.com and I
can send it
 REPLY
Frank
May 29, 2013
Modeling course in P&I sector on the agenda?
What’s the hours and pay like in Infrastructure Investing?
Thanks Brian!
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
May 29, 2013
Modeling course – at some point, maybe, but not in the near future. Hours and pay – fairly
similar to normal PE, though pay is at a bit of premium in Australia depending on the rm. These will
both be covered more in Part 2.
 REPLY
Analyst In Infra PE
June 3, 2013
I work at an infra-focused PE shop in Toronto (Canada). Basis is the same as in IB. Bonus
tends to range from 30% to 60% to your basis salary. Depending on the rm, you might get some carry
from the associate level
 REPLY
Matt
May 29, 2013
Great insight, especially as I have an IBD Summer Analyst stint coming up within the Power &
Utilities coverage team. Thanks for sharing!
This site is a fantastic resource by the way, and helped me immensely with landing internship offers. I
can’t recommend it enough to those looking to break in – cheers to Brian and the team.
 REPLY
M&I - Brian
May 29, 2013
Thanks for reading and good luck!
 REPLY
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by Brian DeChesare Comments (56)

Infrastructure Investing: What It Is and How

If there’s one long-running unfulfilled request on this site, it’s coverage of

If Project Finance is the “venture capital” of the toll road/bridge/airport world,

And all you have to do to get in?

Here’s the full story:

Offer… Rescinded? How It All Began

A: Sure. My background wasn’t that unusual – I studied business/finance at a

Q: But the timing wasn’t the best.

Q: What made you change your mind and say “yes”?

IB in HK is increasingly driven by mainland China, so if you’re not a native

I found a few firms on eFinancialCareers, applied, and got in touch with a

Infrastructure Investing 101

Many of these assets are dependent on government regulation, or are even

In Australia, for example, lots of utilities and transmission/distribution networks

Q: I’m getting visions of 1984.

Isn’t it risky to invest in a sector that’s subject to so much regulation?

Q: I see… so it’s partially government-driven and partially market-driven.

Infrastructure Investing: This is investing in the equity of infrastructure

Breaking Into Infrastructure Investing

A: My fund has fewer than 20 “investment professionals,” so the process I went

They were interested in me because I had experience in the power/utilities

As I said, the fund I’m at is relatively small so I didn’t have to complete

A: You could divide the questions like this:

who do have extensive relationships and experience in infrastructure.

A: Next time, next time.

Infrastructure Investing / Infrastructure Private Equity – Series:

Part 1 – What Infrastructure Investing is and How to Break In

Part 2 – On the Job in Infrastructure Private Equity

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April 23, 2014

Excellent article, thanks!

In a few weeks most likely

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