Building a Market Leading Infrastructure Franchise in France

Client

An independent boutique investment bank with a strong reputation in infrastructure advisory across the UK and Northern Europe. The firm was known for senior led execution, long term client relationships, and a deliberate, low volume approach to mandates.

Context

Despite an active flow of cross border work involving French assets, the bank had never formally established infrastructure coverage on the ground in France. Senior management increasingly felt that without a credible Paris based presence, the firm would struggle to compete for the largest and most complex mandates in the market.

Rather than pursuing rapid team build out, the bank was clear that France required a single, senior appointment who could anchor the franchise and shape its long term direction.

The Brief

Croft & Co was engaged to support the creation of a new infrastructure platform in France. The objective was to identify a Managing Director who could originate and lead major French mandates while remaining fully integrated into the firm’s UK and European culture.

Unusually, the client was not focused on hiring a long-established Paris based banker. Instead, they believed the right individual would come from the UK market, trained in a highly competitive advisory environment, but with deep, trusted relationships across France and wider Europe. The candidate's anglo-saxon experience would help smooth some of the friction that can come when the two markets look to work together.

Confidentiality was critical. At the time of the search, the bank had not publicly committed to a French expansion and wanted to avoid market speculation.

The Challenge

Infrastructure advisory in France is relationship led and highly concentrated. Client trust is built over long periods, and senior bankers are often closely associated with a single institution.

The pool of candidates who combined French market credibility, cross border fluency, and the appetite to build something new was extremely limited. Many visible names were either well embedded where they were or unsuited to the entrepreneurial nature of the role.

A conventional search process risked surfacing familiar profiles without answering the more important question of whom the French market would actually follow.

Our Approach

We began by stepping away from firm by firm mapping. Instead, we focused on how influence really moved through the European infrastructure market through several detailed sourcing calls.

By analysing historic deal activity, repeat advisory relationships, and patterns of collaboration between UK bankers and French corporates, sponsors, and public sector bodies, we built a picture of who was already trusted by French clients, regardless of where they sat on an org chart.

This allowed us to identify some UK based Managing Directors who were, in practice, deeply embedded in the French market, even though they were not formally positioned there.

We deliberately avoided candidates who were active in the market or visibly mobile. Our focus was on senior bankers with long tenure, strong internal standing, and a track record of being asked into complex or sensitive situations.

Before approaching any individual, we quietly tested their reputation with sponsors, executives, and co advisors in France and Brussels. These conversations focused less on deal tombstones and more on judgement, behaviour under pressure, and the ability to navigate political and public sector environments.

Only once this external validation was complete did we make first contact.

Alongside the search itself, we worked closely with the client to shape the role in a way that would resonate locally. This included advice on regulatory considerations, employment structuring, and a compensation framework that balanced performance upside with the stability expected in the French market.

Rather than a transactional interview process, the eventual hire was engaged over several months. Discussions centred on strategy, client migration, and how a Paris platform could complement, rather than compete with, London.

The Outcome

The bank appointed a UK trained Infrastructure Managing Director with more than fifteen years of experience and long standing relationships across France, Benelux, and Southern Europe.

Within three months of joining, the individual had established a Paris based advisory presence and begun originating mandates with French sponsors and corporates.

The appointment gave the bank immediate credibility in the market and strengthened the connection between its London headquarters and Continental Europe.

Impact

Within the first year, the French platform became a meaningful source of new mandates and a gateway for broader European growth. The Managing Director went on to play a central role in shaping the firm’s wider EMEA infrastructure strategy.

For the client, the search demonstrated that entering a complex market does not require scale or noise. With the right individual and a disciplined approach, it is possible to build authority quietly and sustainably.

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Croft & Co supported not just a hire, but the foundation of a long term franchise.

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