Thank you very much for your answer Brian! Really appreciate your perspective.

Thanks. Yes, I think your profile is good enough since PF/infrastructure is quite specialized and they want people who know the sector really well. Finance is easy to learn if you’re already an engineer – it’s much harder to find people who know the sector and everything that can happen on the ground with infrastructure projects.

I did my undergrad in Civil Engineering, from one of the top 5 unis in Asia (HKU) and graduated with a 2:1. I have since worked for about three years now, at a leading engineering and consulting firm within the infrastructure sector, in the capacity of both an engineer and a management consultant concurrently. I have worked on some really high profile infrastructure projects worth 3.5 Bill USD and have been involved in management consulting projects that have influenced the infrastructure sector at a national level within Asia. I am really passionate about working within the infrastructure finance space and thus I also ended up taking CFA on the sides. I have passed both Level 1 & 2 of the program with good scores. I am headed to UCL coming fall for their MSc program in Infrastructure Investment & Finance, it’s a specialized program focused specifically on infrastructure and is offered by their faculty of Built Environment which is currently ranked the world’s best department as per QS Subject Rankings.

I do really wanna switch over to the finance side of infrastructure, but I do lack direct work experience in the finance aspect of it. Do you think that my profile is decent to target the big investment banks/funds in London/Asia focused in the infra space? I am specifically interested in advisory or buyside roles. I will be applying for analyst roles in the coming intake and wanted someone’s independent perspective.

I think it should be doable because you use the same modeling techniques and analysis in all areas of infra PE. It’s just that the numbers and assumptions differ between different asset types. But it’s not like you’re moving from FIG to oil & gas, for example, where everything is different.

Thanks! Glad to hear it.

Yes.

So, we don’t officially teach infrastructure modeling currently, which means I can’t answer your question definitively, but in the models I’ve gathered, I’ve seen both approaches (factor in these tax elements or ignore them). I think it mostly depends on the model complexity and if you’re doing it at the corporate or asset-level.

Hardly any LBO models, in practice, include the bits around interest deduction limitations because they’re not common constraints with normal leverage levels.

I’ve found your article really insightful and was hoping to ask for a bit of advice on breaking into the industry.

I’ve been looking into a PPP investment arm of a construction conglomerate. Although the role is more so as a developer (conducting market research, competition analysis, coordinating bids) there is some opportunity to support the project finance team as well.

Do you feel this is a good opportunity in general to gain industry experience, rather than perhaps in an infra advisory big 4 capacity?