BofA/BAML Global Industrials Group
Recently received an offer for Bank of America's 2025 Summer Analyst Program in New York and have a particular interest in Industrials. Was wondering if anyone had insight into the group (WLB, Culture, Biggest Recent Deals, Best Verticals/MDs) or information on exits from GIG. Would the exits be primarily MM/UMM PE or is MF possible? What about private credit/special sits/distressed debt/equity HF? Any information would be greatly appreciated!
Bump, incoming SA in this group
Congrats! Let's start with exits. These will primarily be MM/UMM. At BofA, to break into MF, it's M&A and FSG that give you the best chances. If all you care about is exits, stick to these two groups. In regards to culture, pretty solid. GIG can be a bit sweaty but I think the culture makes up for it. Deal flow is solid. They announced Textainer/Stonepeak ($7.4bn deal) in October '23 and Brookfield/Triton ($13.3bn deal) in April '23. Those are the two biggest deals I can remember and they've been a couple other billion dollar deals in between. So, very solid deal flow.
Thank you!
Bump
I work in a product group that interacts with this team regularly. Overall very solid.
Pros
- Solid deal flow. We work across all coverage groups, and industrials deals are consistently a huge part of the pipeline. You absolutely will get a couple deals on the resume in your 2 years there, which may not be the case for some of the other groups. Industrials has been carrying the past couple years. It’s solid across the board, there isn’t one vertical in particular that brings in all the $$$.
- Culture. There are some dickhead MDs but that’s probably true for every bank/industry group. The culture from VP downwards is pretty good from what I’ve seen. People are relatively normal, personable, and willing to help.
- Exit opps are OK, a transition to MM/UMM is very feasible, as is private credit. You might not get the same looks as someone at Goldman or PJT, but if you put in the work you’ll get something decent.
Cons
- Can be very sweaty. Good deal flow comes at a cost, my peers in industrials work a lot more than most of the other coverage groups. I think the culture makes up for it, though
- BofA pays like shit across the board, and industrials is no different. Some people in the group have expressed frustration that they’re busy bringing in deals, working 80-90 hours/week consistently… while other groups receive very similar pay and do some light bitch work from 9-7 and get the dinner and Uber home. It depends on what you want, but for your career growth it’s probably better to be on a team where you get deal reps. If you want to coast though, there are better places to be (cough EGRC).
If you’re an analyst coming in for 2 years and out, you could do much worse. Not sure I’d recommend staying longer though, I’m not a huge fan of how BofA’s IB arm operates (ie paying poorly, not firing underperformers and allowing them to collect checks, EGRC falling flat on its face, etc).
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