Credit Suisse Healthcare

bump

SF or NYC?

SF

Is there a significant difference?

Sorry don't know SF group. I have a few friends in CS HC in NYC.

I think their experiences would clarify quite a bit for me. Is there anything you can share?

PM

Thanks for the anecdotal details, guys.

I'd really love to hear the opinions of someone who worked or is working in CS HC.

Bumping. Talking to them on Monday, so any info between now and then would help a ton

bump again!

I interviewed with the some people in the group earlier this fall. They have lost a lot of bankers to Lehman. They are sort of in rebuild phase. They have made some lateral hires and have gotten a few good people. I cannot say anything about the culture of the group, it is probably still developing.

very good group. i am also taking CS offer, did u get it through placement?

however in Sf they lost a deal team (md, vp, associate, analyst) to Citi about 3 months ago.

do you guys know how many analysts they're going to be hiring? SF office specifically...i have final rounds coming up thanks to a connection.

There is no CS healthcare in SF. The team that left was the last healthcare team there.

hi chanky, you get off work early

uhh..you seem to not know what you are talking about zirh..where did you get your source from?

CS HC is a pretty good group, definitely one of the better HC groups

CS HC in SF poached the old MS HC Menlo Park team - so yes, there is a SF HC team

I applied for an Analyst position at CS HC in SF within the last few months. So, yes. It exists.

They closed an SF health-care office back in '09, but seem to have reopened it this year after poaching an MD from Morgan Stanley. They've always been legit, pitching companies like Genentech, Gilead, Amgen, Celgene, etc.

The group still exists. Do you guys know anything specific about the group? Deal flow? Specifics about the industry prior to a interview?

very small team. most deals are out of ny

bump.. would like to know more about the group

The MD in the SF office covering biotech/pharma has been doing very well. The CS brand still resonates well with PE shops and recruiters

http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/Stub.aspx?StubID=20635

MD came over from MS couple years back and is also Co-Head of America's Healthcare, small team and good deal flow. PM me if you wanna know more.

just for further insight on this-- CS HC SF solely focuses on Biotech. Sit right next to the TMT guys from what I've heard. CS HC NY is everything else (managed care, life sciences, pharma, etc) & is also a good bit larger. Smart people on both coasts.

the group is decent, but defintely not one of the best healthcare groups on the street. traditionally, the firm has been weak over the years, but had strong 2006 year. it worked on hca deal, but from what i heard, the only reason it was awarded that was because cs and ms were the only 2 bb's that didn't have conflict of interest and therefore were rewarded with fairness opinion mandate.

also advised bayer this year on its $16.5 billion acquisition.

which banks do you think have the best heathlcare groups right now?

1) UBS 2)JPM 3) GS

Healthcare at GS is good, but not as great as the other groups. However, GS name carries lot of weight.

what about Merrill?

Merrill had a monster year. UBS historically was the best, and still does pretty well, but its a sweatshop run by a shady guy everyone knows and has a terrible culture. JPM is dominant in HC, especially on the LevFin side and I would say is a close tie with Merill right now for first, although JPM lost some good people in the last year. GS is GS, they will be on a lot of the big HC M&A deals, not much financing

totally forgot about them, not sure why....yeah i'd day ML is defnitely up there in top 2......UBS hc culture blows though, ben lorello is a prick from people who have worked for him even at vp and director levels.....ubs usually gets lot of deals that other banks reject one way or the other....it is a sweatshop for sure as well.

I know for a fact that JPM HC lost 2 senior guys to CS, 2 to Lehman, and 3 to GS just in the past 7 months alone.

a megafund after UBS healthcare?

I am an analyst in a life science group (won't tell you where for obvious reasons. Strange that ppl on this board keep mentioning UBS as #1 in health care, since I've never heard of them as doing all that much relative to other groups.

If you look at the high profile Pharma M&A deals, UBS hasn't advised on any of the top 10 transactions all time. Looking at underwriting rankings in 2005 for Spec/Pharma and Biotech, UBS is third behind Cowen and CIBC...What am I missing here, why is UBS so great.

It's funny, I was talking to my VP about who he considers top banks in healthcare. He said Goldman, Lazard, JP Morgan, and Merrill.

What are the exit opportunities (b-school, PE, Healthcare VC, etc.) coming out of Goldman's Healthcare group?

Is the group itself well regarded (forgetting for a moment that it is under the GS brand name)?

Has anyone heard anything about the group in particular (lifestyle, hours, personalities of seniors, etc.)?

under Lorello has done a ton of deals and really dominiated the midmarket space, which was mostly services oriented, up until recently. They have fallen, but still do a good amount of deals.

GS HC is a good group, you'll get worked hard like any banking group, but your exit opps are still really good (people placed at TPG, KKR, Apollo, top hedge funds, etc) over last couple of years, if you want mega PE or HF, and you're good, you'll get placed (senior folks will put the calls in for you). You will do a lot of M&A in as the group historically focused on big pharma, but I hear that is chaning to get involved in more financing

look anywhere for the top HC bankers, and you will ALWAYS see Jim Forbes Head of HC at Merrill and Alan Hartman Head of HC M&A at Merrill (no, I don't work there). Right now, they're the dominant franchise on the street.
B of A did the lion's share of the financing for the HCA deal and several others, so, for Healthcare financing (at least debt financing) they're right up there with JPM. I wouldn't count their actual Healthcare advisory group as that great, though.

ML may be the hottest HC franchise right now, but Goldman will always be Goldman.

...maybe we're not looking at the same league tables? Oh well.

They give full-credit to all of the banks involved in a deal, no matter how far down the list of co-managers the bank was. So, Wachovia claims to somehow have been involved in HCA (I have no idea how they think they were involved if you search "Wachovia and HCA" on Wall St. Journal.com, nothing comes up, maybe they provided some of the debt financing) and on the league tables, they'll get full credit for the value of the deal - the same as, say, Citi gets, even though Citi was one of the original banks involved in the advisory part of the deal. League tables are useless - look at who's involved with what deals and, more importantly, what that bank's role is. Lead, joint, co-manager, it is all the same on the tables, but it makes a huge difference as far as the prestige of the industry coverage group.

Staying on GS Healthcare for a second, how does the exit opps and general prestige of the group compare to other GS groups?

Obviously, TMT would be tops, but what other groups are regarded more highly at GS?

Thanks for the input..

Working at a place that often gets screwed in league tables because of what you just mentioned, I certainly understand that. However, I don't get why everyone is so interested in debt financing. I also don't understand why seems to be viewing HCA as some sort of gold standard. Sure, it was a big deal...but c'mon, it was one deal.

I guess my view is, and I admittedly have my own biases, I'm interested in M&A. If you want to talk big M&A in life sciences, than a few posters perceptions are pretty far off in terms of which groups are "good."

Nusi,

So who is tops in healthcare M&A in you opinion? Was your post "entirely disagree" regarding Goldman or Merrill? I thought Goldman was big in healtcare M&A. Also, you mention Lazard, do you know what the exits are like out of Lazard healthcare? Thanks.

Lazard Life Sciences. Heard the exits out of there are pretty good. Any insight into the group?

I'm not here to bash anyone's shop, so perhaps I phrased some of my posts poorly. I just didn't understand the lovefest for UBS in healthcare. They have a great shop, and we all have heard how great their LA office places. But I just hadn't heard from anyone that worked in the field that they were a major player.

But I'm just a first year analyst can't say I'm an expert or anythig, so I am always open to new learning about other places.

I do know that Goldman is great for big pharma, obviously. They do all of J&J's stuff for instance. Merrill is great as well. If anyone wants to talk more, they can pm me...esp. since my associate is about done with this turn and maybe I can go home.