Area of work
Project Finance, Structuring
Studied
Economics, Harvard
Joined
2007
Working in
New York
My Project Financing region is the North American market. I mainly structure deals involving power generating projects, including renewable energies, as well as oil and natural gas pipelines. Project Finance is essentially a non-recourse debt financing. A sponsor creates a special purpose vehicle as a holding company for a project or multiple projects, injects equity into this entity, and then it's my job to provide debt financing based on the future cash flows of the project.
This type of structure is particularly attractive to our corporate clients, who are often large utility companies, because our only collateral for the financing is the assets and cash flows of the project. In other words, we have no claim on the clients' other assets. Such arrangements eliminate any liability associated with the project on the clients' balance sheets, and as a result the company's corporate credit ratings are usually not affected. So before we get involved in a project we need to be sure of its ability to generate cash for the full tenor of the financing, typically 10 to 20 years, so that our loan is repaid. It is my job to really drive down to the details and understand the risks associated with any particular project, such as operating and/or construction risks, and then deliver an optimal financing structure for the project that best meets our client's objectives.
I've always been interested in investment banking, but I took a slightly unusual route into this industry. After I finished university I focused on rowing and represented the US in the '04 Olympics. But when that was over, I'd obviously missed the final year recruitment events and normal routes into graduate roles, so I had to find another way in. I started working for the US Tobacco, then I looked to Moody's, a credit rating agency, as a stepping stone into investment banking. While working for Moody's I got to know BNP Paribas from the other side of Project Finance, as I was rating projects for their strength as investment vehicles.
BNP Paribas is committed to Project Finance and is very experienced in this industry. While many banks have dropped in and out of the industry, because the business can be very cyclical,BNP Paribas has maintained its commitment and strength cementing its position, during the past twenty years, as a world wide leader in Project Finance. I think this type of business suits us because we have a longer focus. Other investment banks seem to focus on the profits from quarter to quarter whereas BNP Paribas look more to longer term investments.
I was lucky enough to join the Associate program last summer, which introduced me to new aspects of the financial markets and acted as a five-week refresher course on the things I'd learned at university. It was great to get to know all the people I was starting with, there were 60 associate joiners to the New York office, from all different parts of the bank. It's created an invaluable network for me, I see all the guys quite often and it's great having a group of people I can call on if I have questions on other parts of the bank.
My associate network has really helped with the sense of community for me. I know I can really rely on everyone else throughout the bank for my daily work. Equities and Derivates provide us with commodity and interest rate hedges for the financings, in fact sometimes clients prefer to work with us because they know how strong we are at hedging risk. We also work closely with Syndication and Debt Capital Market teams, who are invaluable at providing market sounding advice when we are trying to tailor optimal financing structures for our clients.
I like knowing that the people I work with are my friends as well as my co-workers. It's very goal driven here; when you're working hard towards closing a deal with a definite end point and then you get there and close the deal successfully it's a great feeling.
