Macquarie Capital: Interview with an Infrastructure and Utilities M&A analyst

Can you give a us brief intro about your background and how you came to Macquarie?

I studied a degree at Cass Business School which touched upon most areas within finance but had a strong focus on equities, fixed income and derivatives. I completed two internships during my degree, both with BNP Paribas. The first was an 11-month long term internship with the Nordic Debt Capital Markets team and I followed up with a summer internship on the Nordic Derivatives Marketing desk. I truly enjoyed the experience in BNP Paribas but wanted to move into corporate finance and decided to interview with Macquarie on the back of a tip from an ex-BNPP colleague employed within Macquarie Capital Advisers. I joined Macquarie's Infrastructure & Utilities team as a graduate a year later.

What does your work consist of on a day to day basis?

Day-to-day work comprises of everything from financial modelling, debt/equity structuring and interaction with lenders and investors together with a healthy dose of negotiating project documentation and liaising with internal and external lawyers.

What kind of skills do you need for this job?

You need technical skills as our projects demand large and complex financial models. A commercial and extrovert personality is also very helpful as you are expected represent Macquarie in external meetings from day 1. I also think a willingness to learn is important as the learning curve is fairly steep in the first couple of years due to the breadth of our business.

What aspects do you like and what aspects don't you like about it?

Long hours and the fact that greenfield infrastructure projects usually take 1.5-2 years from initial procurement to completion is not my favourite part of what we do. The fact that Macquarie is the market leader and acts as financial advisor and sponsor on most of the projects we are involved in has given me an extremely wide and useful set of skills by being part of deal teams closing flagship infrastructure transactions in Europe.

What are Macquarie's strength compared to other banks? How has Macquarie
been holding up during the crisis?

Macquarie is the number 1 infrastructure house and has been a success story for the past 40 years by playing to its strengths and growing organically. The Group seems to be synonymous with the funds business but have grown to be successful in several different sectors globally,proven by the recent mandate for the world's largest IPO.

Macquarie has suffered during the chrisis along with everyone else but looking forward towards the coming Financial Year which have started on a positive note.