Big 4 TAS M&A Advisory Intern - Is what I am doing basically the same as IBD?
I am a rising sophomore halfway through an internship with the M&A Advisory Group in a Big 4 firm's "Transaction Advisory Services". It's all a bunch of weird ass names and subdivisions, and I guess I'm not sure if Big 4 can call a spade a spade, which is why I'm confused half the time.
Is what I am doing essentially the same as IBD/M&A in a BB/MM (with the exception of deal size)? Or is it somehow fundamentally different? I want to know because this summer has really shaped my perception of investment banking, but first I want to actually make sure the two professions are comparable, otherwise I'd be generalizing a job that I have never really held.
The internship was also in an Asian office, so they didn't really use too much investment banking I had heard of, outside financials - which is another source of confusion.
So far I have:
Assisted several clients trying to divest parts of their businesses by:
-Writing powerpoint slides to help pitch the client to potential buyers (Is this a pitch book? Not sure)
-Writing memos and briefs on the local industry space
-Cold called several leads to discuss opportunities
Assisted several overseas clients trying to acquire local businesses by:
-Writing powerpoint slides to help first pitch our firm to win their business (or is THIS a pitch book? haha)
-Created and ran a WACC model to assist more senior staff with their DCF valuation model for target companies
Assisted an overseas client trying to form a JV with a local company by:
-Translating an entire powerpoint slide pitching our services (into English from an Asian language)
All deals (prospective and actual) were around US$30-50MM.
Yeah so basically TL;DR:
1. Is what I am doing comparable/similar/essentially the same as IBD in a BB or MM bank? (excepting deal size)
2. Does anything I have described so far resemble a "pitch book"? Sorry - I've done some research but I still can't really figure it out. Would help with phrasing it in my resume!
That's basically what M&A interns do yeah, I'am applying for the summer internships this year, but I know a lot of friends who have done summer internships in the past, and it's basically doing pitchbooks and assisting analysts with models ... I work in a consulting firm and our "pitch books" have both of descriptionsyou mentioned above: you pitch your firm firm to get their trust and assure them your bank is the best that can help them, and then you pitch your investment idea, so don't worry buddy you just hang on because it must be tough, but it's definetly worth it :) I'm hoping to land a summer next year so congrats for your internship dude :D
Sounds similar but generally TAS groups are not involved in pitching, corporate finance groups are. TAS groups assist buyers with due diligence, structure and pricing for potential acquisitions and look at everything from quality of sales and earnings to tax ramifications and legal liability.
Perhaps it is different in your neck of the woods.
That's because he's not actually in transaction services: In big 4, TS is just a generic name to separate the advisory business from the legal audit. Within TS, you've got Corp Fin (so TS - corporate finance) which is what OP is doing and is pretty much the same as what a M&A shop would do; proper TS which handles the duedils; Valuation which helps with complex valuations,...
to the OP: a pitchbook is a set of slides where you try and sell your bank to a potential client so that he mandates you for a particular acquisition/divestiture/other service... The first task you described sounded like you worked on a teaser of the company that will then be distributed to a selected list of investor
Hope that helps! JJ
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