Duff & Phelps M&A- help!

Hi,

I'd appreciate any insight/info anyone has about D&P's M&A practice in NYC. There isn't a lot of recent information to be found using the search function, and I'd like to hear more about it- culture, deal flow, exit opps, b-school admission prospects, the usual.

More specifically, would you take an offer from D&P for M&A (FT) in NYC or a generalist IB offer from a bank that is "BB status" in its home country but MM in the US (think Macquarie/Nomura/HSBC). Unconcerned about immediate location, more concerned with overall career/business school admissions (which job would set someone up better for admission to a top MBA program in the US and potentially a job in investment management).

All advice/insight appreciated!

 
Best Response

Thanks for the replies- can you elaborate on why you'd take D&P over any of the others?

To clarify, I have an offer from one of those banks in the financial centre of its home country, and I'm comparing that to D&P in NYC. I've heard that international diversity (I'm an international student in the US) helps in b-school applications so I'm assuming that my b-school prospects would be better taking the "home" offer. However, one of the reasons I want to go to b-school in the US is to live and work here eventually (either remain in IB or move to investment management). Don't mind taking longer if the end result is better- so, to rephrase: would you rather accept one of those home offers, then transfer internally within the bank to the US (a possibility) or attend a top US MBA program and then stay on in the US, or would you still take D&P and be in the US immediately?

Main question is which offer would lead to better b-school/career opportunities in the US down the road- does your answer change now that I've clarified the offers are essentially working at a BB in its home country (not the US MM office of an overseas bank) vs D&P in NY?

 

I believe Nomura doesn't run much M&A out of the US, so you would be stuck doing CM work. Don't know anything about HSBC in the US.

I would go w/Mac Cap over D&P if you can get M&A placement (not sure how things are structured there). I know a few guys that moved from boutiques and upper MM shops to Macquarie and the M&A practice is doing decent. You will get to work on cross-border deals and larger deals than you will see at D&P.

However, if you could get stuck in CM at Mac Cap, I would go D&P b/c it is pure M&A. I've seen multiple D&P and Mac Cap guys in MM PE.

 

Thanks for the opinions. What about the possibility of lateraling out into a BB after a couple of years, is that likely? @peinvestor2012, I'm comparing an offer at MacCap/Nomura/HSBC in IBD in its home country vs. a potential offer at D&P M&A NY- thinking ahead because I've been invited to interview but don't want to waste their (or my) time if I wouldn't take the offer anyway.

 
notthehospitalER:

Thanks for the opinions. What about the possibility of lateraling out into a BB after a couple of years, is that likely? @peinvestor2012, I'm comparing an offer at MacCap/Nomura/HSBC in IBD in its home country vs. a potential offer at D&P M&A NY- thinking ahead because I've been invited to interview but don't want to waste their (or my) time if I wouldn't take the offer anyway.

My bad. Agree w/Whiskey. If you want to stay in US, just take D&P and if you need to lateral, you can.

If you want the best deal flow, those groups in the home country would provide that. But, it would be hard to get back to the U.S. w/o an MBA.

 

this really isn't as complicated as you make it out to be:

if you want to stay and live in the US, take a job here. its much easier to break into the market you are in from the inside rather than out.

if goal is to lateral anyways, who cares about culture at D&P? as along you are working on actual, live projects, you should be good to go. D&P isn't an unknown name.

don't know how well the other 3 banks perform in their home market, but if you were to transfer to their US office, forget it. dealflow for those guys are nearly non-existent in the US and sounds pretty miserable too from Chitown's comment.

 

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