project finance jobs

project finance jobs

Exploring Career Opportunities in Project Finance: A Comprehensive Guide

1. Introduction to Project Finance

This guide does not offer a history or comprehensive overview of project finance – such content already exists and readers can access such summaries at the end of this guide. This is a practical snapshot of the project finance industry today, detailing what sort of personalities work in the industry, their typical responsibilities, and the technical skills required. We also outline the recruitment process and what resume-boosting efforts students and professionals can take to get involved with project finance as soon as possible. Lastly, we address other frequently asked questions and additional advice. The intention is that this guide will stimulate people interested in project finance, helping individuals navigate this relatively low-profile career by leveraging valuable and practical information from current professionals.

Welcome to this comprehensive guide to exploring career opportunities in project finance. We have combined several decades of practical project finance experience to offer curious finance professionals a complete snapshot of the project finance industry. The purpose of this comprehensive guide is to showcase the distinct, horizontal career opportunities in project finance so that ambitious finance professionals can better assess if the industry is attractive to them, and if it is, how they may become prepared for careers in project finance. We hope that the personal testimonies of project finance professionals throughout the guide bring to reality the exciting career possibilities that project finance offers.

2. Key Skills and Qualifications for Project Finance Jobs

Financial Modelling Experience This second set of required skills and qualifications is typically assessed by asking the candidate to build a financial model. The interviewee could be required to perform a top-down analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Case-in-point questions could involve having a candidate build a small financial model to combine the pro-forma results of two businesses (merger scenario) or recognize the cyclicality of the business and how this would affect the financial and physical metrics associated with a particular business.

Business Knowledge First and foremost, you need to have a clear understanding of business concepts, such as sales revenues, cost of goods sold, general and administrative expenses, and depreciation. Knowledge of business concepts is important because financial modelers must have a strong understanding of business models to accurately model the financial inflows and outflows of a business. You also have to identify the underlying economic, legal, and financial issues that need to be included in the financial model. This often requires significant interaction and patience with business developers who are unfamiliar with financial details.

Business knowledge, financial modelling experience, specialized degrees (MBA & CFA), knowledge of project finance legal concepts, project finance deal experience, and undergraduate degrees in Business or Finance are some of the key skills and qualifications for a person in project finance jobs.

3. Types of Project Finance Roles and Responsibilities

The influence of short-term bonds and other financial mechanisms can afford most project finance projects the ability to raise a majority of both their debt and equity commitments from institutional investors. Indeed, investors in project transactions are predominantly pension funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, and separate accounts, as well as non-bank financial companies, hedge funds, distressed debt investors and specialists, sovereign wealth and private equity funds, and debt and equity issues of corporations. Financial intermediaries that represent these institutional investors include project finance advisory and commercial bank subsidiary positions through investment and merchant banks and institutional equities, fixed income (bond), and equity underwriters. Because both bonds and equity shares in project finance do not trade on stock exchanges or in other secondary financial markets, ownership and investment positions are not registered centrally, and investment positions are often difficult to value.

Project finance offers a variety of career opportunities for individuals undertaking roles within corporate finance, investment banking, and legal and consulting professions. These roles include both financial advisory positions associated with service providers that help clients raise funds in financial markets, and corporate finance roles within the sponsors themselves responsible for structuring, raising, and monitoring funds for the companies that they control. Moreover, such advisory positions are usually filled by intermediaries that help raise funds through selecting underwriters and buying a project’s debt or equity in connection with a financing transaction, through diligence and other advisory services during the project’s construction and operational phases, or through the disposition of the investment or restructuring the financed company en route to its flotation. Those involved in financial, commercial, and legal advisory positions are often highly specialized in their expertise in the skills that they offer corporations in their capital raising processes.

4. Career Paths and Advancement Opportunities in Project Finance

Numerous professionals who specialize in areas other than finance or economics apply their knowledge to project finance. Fields such as environmental science, engineering, law, liberal arts, and urban planning can be applied to project finance in one form or another. For the more enduring corporate finance, real estate, and energy finance professionals, the transition to project finance can be surprisingly seamless. These professionals have some of the more easily transferred skills into project finance.

Today, a career in project finance can offer numerous avenues for learning and professional growth. In addition to combining two of the world’s fastest-growing sectors: finance and infrastructure, the skills acquired in project finance can provide project finance professionals with a great deal of career mobility. This career guide provides an insight into the diverse opportunities in project finance as well as the natural progression which will help novices as well as industry insiders to navigate and understand the variety of options.

5. Navigating the Job Market and Securing a Project Finance Position

Nonetheless, taken on its own, the information presented here is rich and useful. Such a valuable compendium is worth having around! And so, in that ethos, we present and dedicate the paper to all students studying finance and related subjects.

At the same time, due to its narrow focus and exclusive orientation toward one field, the interviews cannot help with more general questions about the job market, such as what the status of the field project finance is or whether project finance benefits from network effects. This information may be available, but if so, it will be in, for example, discussions on Internet forums or as informal knowledge shared among lesser players.

Professional backgrounds, day-to-day responsibilities, and career track aspects are covered from the perspective of a cross-section of personnel involved in market sectors central to project finance. In doing so, we provide detailed information on various aspects of project finance-related careers – in one study and in one place – not easily available in the existing career literature.

Often, students ask me for guidance on how to prepare for and secure a project finance position. This paper is, in part, a response to that question. It provides over 20 on-the-record interviews with individuals who work in the project finance field. Although the interviews are only in one specific field, they cover syndicate and sales positions in structured finance (including project finance) and investment banking, positions with project finance advisors, with accounting and law firms, and with commercial and investment banks. Their content is extremely rich.

Currently, there are several databases which provide listings of project financings. Depending on the databases, it is sometimes possible to download more information on a given project, frequently including key project agreements, the project company’s financial statements, and more. At the same time, finding information on project finance professionals and their background currently takes more work.

Introduction and Executive Summary