Cowen vs. Leerink?
Hi All
I'm graduating from a semi-target in December, pre-med major, 3.5+ GPA. I'm wondering if anyone could share some thoughts on Cowen Healthcare and Leerink in terms of prestige, deal flow(# and size), and exit opportunities?
Obviously I'm interested in Healthcare IB. I know Cowen is a top boutique but having trouble with their HC group. However, I've never heard of Leerink until recently but I was told they are comparable to a typical HC group in a BB, is this true?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated,
Thanks.
From what I've heard, Cowen is slowly falling apart.
Leerink does smaller deals but they are supposedly very legit (have a friend in healthcare PE that speaks highly of them).
Jefferies has a great HC group (albeit sweatshop).
Have also heard that Stifel is building out their HC group.
yeah, don't know about healthcare specifically, but i know that place is a complete mess right now
leerink is very reputable in the HC space. not sure about cowen
Do you have offers from any of these places? If not, I'd worry about that first....
Cowen's HC group used to be decent for a MM bank - falling apart. Head of the group was fired for trying to shop the group, few others were laid off. Not sure how they are doing now, but last I heard they weren't too busy. Bonuses were below street (big range, but top bucket was not top street bucket).
Leerink has essentially restructured their banking division in the last few years:
They've been on an upswing lately (winning some decent mandates, first lead left, etc.) but there is still a long way to go before you could consider them like a HC group of a bulge.
Don't think they're hiring except to fill holes (they have a lot of deal capacity).
Heard good things from legit source about Leerink HC
I have only heard great things about Leerink. As far as HC specialists go, they are the best.
stay away from cowen hc - i have heard from several ex-employees that the place is falling apart. lots of people trying to hit the door
A friend of mine did an internship with cowen this past summer. Accroding to him, he learned a lot but didn't enjoy working with the folks there. He turned down the return offer afterwards.
actually cowen's HC group was poached by Stifel, who also acquired Thomas Weisel Partners, so no don't join cowen because their HC group doesnt exist anymore.
Cowen's HC still exists - they just poached a couple of MD's from other MM shops to fill in the HC void after the Weisel defection.
But Leerink, being a pure HC bank, is definitely better if HC banking is your passion.
Leerink is a great healthcare bank, but from what I know, they are still mostly engaged in co-managed deals only, as opposed to Jefferies, Piper Jaffray, the few of the MM firms that strive to do bookrun deals for middle market transactions.
if you think co-managed and bookrun deals don't matter, feel free to ask anyone in the industry. Banks have turned down deals because they refuse to be co-managers to certain banks due to fear of setting a precedence, even though by being a co-manager, you're just in for the ride, and don't really need to do much work since you're not running the deal.
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