Getting into infrastructure

Want to be an infrastructure fund manager? Thereís no shortage of opportunities.

Andrew Valentine, consultant at Jon Michel Executive Search in Melbourne, says infrastructure recruitment is a sellersí market, with Australiaís biggest funds placing talent all over the world.

ìSpecialist infrastructure managers are putting teams into North America and Europe,î Valentine tells eFinancialCareers.

Meanwhile the Australian infrastructure industry is itself booming. Since 2000 the domestic sharemarketís infrastructure funds sector has grown from AU$2 billion to AU$46 billion.

Who’s hiring?
Who should you be pitching your CV to? The large Australian investment banks, such as Macquarie Bank and Babcock and Brown, are active recruiters of infrastructure specialists. So are some Australian superannuation funds, which have become active direct investors in the global infrastructure market, and thereís always fund management houses running infrastructure securities funds.

Who are they hiring?

What kind of profile will you need?
ìThe core competency for an infrastructure fund manager is valuation skills and familiarity with capital structures, but direct infrastructure experience is very valuable,î says Valentine.

ìInfrastructure funds managers are looking for transactional and valuation experience, but theyíre also taking on people out of engineering and construction.î

How much are they paying?
How much can you earn? Valentine says an infrastructure analyst with two yearsí experience can command a base salary of up to AU$ 110k, plus a bonus of 30% to 70%.

By comparison, infrastructure investment managers with nine yearsí experience can command AU$130k-$180k, with a bonus range of 50% to 100%. Not bad for dabbling in bricks and mortar.