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Commercial Banking --> PE
 

CorporateMonkey's picture
 
Points)
 on 6/9/12 at 7:30pm

I'm currently a commercial banking credit officer (basically a step-up from analyst) at a BB... I've been told that PE firms are open to hiring people with commercial banking experience, and I'm considering making the attempt to switch.. my question to you guys is given my experience in commercial rather than investment banking.. which types of PE firms would my skills (evaluating debt service, collateral, etc. as opposed to equity valuations) be more relevant to? ...

Cries's picture

Look at GloCap. A lot of

HF
 
Points)
 on 6/9/12 at 7:43pm

Look at GloCap. A lot of their jobs tend to be open to commercial bankers.

I wouldnt focus on collateral, but rather the modeling and cashflow skills you have developed. A big part of what they do is model EBITDA and cashflow for two main purposes:

1.) To apply a multiple to EBITDA to approximate an EV.

2.) To test: cash flows to avoid defaults and pay down debt; future cash deficiencies needed for CapEx; and cash to fund dividends to return capital to investors.

You can or should be able to do both of those by now. Or you should at least be able to fill in the minor gaps that you dont have exposure to yet.

Alternatively, look into hedge funds with a focus on credit/distressed/leveraged securities and bank debt. Often these guys will buy bank debt (the stuff you have been originating for 2+ years now) of companies that go into workout. This is probably much more applicable, because they use fundamental credit analysis everyday - straight PE firms generally dont. Some examples: Ares Management, Apollo Global, etc

CorporateMonkey's picture

awesome.. thanks for the

 
Points)
 on 6/9/12 at 8:42pm

awesome.. thanks for the input!

could you (or anyone else here) provide some more examples of PE firms that are open to commercial bankers or hedge funds with a "credit" focus (preferably located in california)?

or if anyone can direct me to a source where i can obtain a list of such firms myself, that would be great too... i'm completely fresh to this.

Cries's picture

Nearly all of these funds go

HF
 
Points)
 on 6/9/12 at 9:47pm

Nearly all of these funds go through headhunters. Almost none of them are large enough to justify having an internal HR group.

I would just try using google to find some names if you are curious. I dont think Ive ever seen a complete list - I just know a bunch of names from hearsay.

Glocap is definitely commercial bank friendly, though. Check out their jobs, and sign up for alerts.

couchy's picture

do lev fin at ur commercial

(King Kong, 1,386
 
Points)
 on 6/9/12 at 11:57pm

do lev fin at ur commercial bank

OMS's picture

you should aim for mezz or

PE
(King Kong, 1,886
 
Points)
 on 6/10/12 at 12:10am

you should aim for mezz or senior debt funds that do financing alongside with PE firms. Someone of them do equity coinvestments so you will get some good exposure. silicon valley bank comes to mind and might fit your Interests being in cali. lots of other regional banks that have that vc/pe focus. WF also has a financial sponsors coverage group within corporate banking, they are based in LA.

Your best bet is to transfer to a ib (lev finn/sponsor) group within your current company if it has one.

CorporateMonkey's picture

thanks for the info everyone

 
Points)
 on 6/10/12 at 3:35pm

thanks for the info everyone

joseph.klein.20's picture

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(Chimp, 3
 
Points)
 on 1/2/13 at 10:44pm

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