Why PAI Partners: Interviews, Careers, & Portfolio

PAI Partners Overview

PAI Partners is a private equity firm which is located in Paris, France.

It’s one of the oldest firms, originating from Paribas Affaires Industrielles, the principal investment arm of Paribas, which began its operations back in 1872.

PAI Partners invests primarily in the following sectors:

• Business Services
• Food & Consumer
• General Industrials
• Healthcare

Most of their investors are insurance companies, pension funds, high net worth individuals, fund of funds, banks, and government organizations.

The firm’s latest fund, PAI Partners VIII, concluded in November 2023. It exceeded its fundraising target and secured €7.1 billion capital commitments – which is around 40% bigger in size compared to its previous fund.

PAI Partners AUM

According to PAI Partners public site record, the firm has €26+ billion assets under management.

PAI Partners Interview Process & Questions

Despite the changes in the interview changes for each candidate, the general nature of the process stays the same for the most part. In fact, you can anticipate the following:

• Interview rounds: 4-6
• Initial interviews are supervised by junior professionals, while later rounds are handled by more senior folks
• Unless it’s on-campus or on-cycle recruiting, expect that the entire process will last for multiple weeks

Get ready to answer a mixture of behavioral questions, technical questions, and fit questions when you interview at PAI Partners.

To help you with preparation, I’ve created a Growth Equity Interview Guide. Feel free to check it out.

Why PAI Partners

One of the questions you must prepare for is the “Why this firm” question.

If you’ve met employees at the firm during your networking efforts, make sure to mention them and how their experiences and testimonies helped in choosing their firm.

Also, do your homework and research the firm. You can try listening to interviews with its founders, management team, and investors to get to know them better.

For starters, here’s a great interview with Winston Song, Partner at PAI Partners:

More interviews

• Max Harrington, Principal at PAI Partners, on implementation of DealCloud
• Interview with Cornelia Gomez, Head of ESG & Sustainability at PAI Partners

PAI Partners Case Study

Communication skills and technical knowledge are two traits that investment firms highly value. To evaluate these, firms like PAI Partners ask candidates to perform case studies.

Most case studies will have you do financial modeling and investment recommendations. But for junior roles, a cold calling case study may also be part of the process.

Check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide if you need more help regarding case studies.

PAI Partners Salary & Compensation

According to Glassdoor, associates at PAI Partners have earned salaries of £18,000 – £23,000 per year, while there’s not recent data for analysts. Actual figures may vary depending on several factors.

Associate

PAI Partners Careers, Jobs, & Internships

View open roles at PAI Partners inside our job board where we also feature all open roles for similar firms.

PAI Partners Portfolio & Investments

As per Crunchbase, PAI Partners has made 9 investments and manages 10 funds. Some of their notable deals include Azets, ECF, and Alphia.

Notable Transaction: UVESCO

UVESCO operates a chain of supermarkets in the Spanish retail sector.

Through its supermarket stores, UVESCO provides fresh and local products which helps their customers purchase these natural local foods at reasonable prices.

In December 2021, PAI Partners, via its PAI Mid-Market Fund (MMF), acquired a majority stake in UVESCO to support its growth plans. The current shareholders retained their relevant interests in the business.

The said transaction is the 5th investment by PAI MMF after the acquisition of Amplitude Surgical, Angulas Aguinaga, MyFlower, and Scrigno.

Next Steps

If you decide to send your application and build your investing career at PAI Partners, I would highly recommend that you check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide first before attending interviews.

Growth Equity Interview Guide helps professionals get a good grasp of topics that are typically covered during interviews such as financial modeling, case studies, and more. Check it out and start learning today!