Hi all,
I'm going through the oh-so-fun exercise of updating my resume for PE interviews, and I'm a bit stumped on if I I should include a recent deal I worked on that just didn't pan out. I want to include the deal because it involves an industry I'm interested in and can speak to in detail, but I'm not sure how to frame the fact that the deal never closed (company ended up choosing a cheaper deal in the 11th hour). I have 4-5 other deals that actually closed, so I'm not worried about filling space, but would prefer to highlight an industry I want to work with in PE.
For some background, I work in a principal investing group at a BB, although I imagine this can be applicable to IB deals too. I would be curious to hear any and all advice/experience with framing "dead" deals on resumes and in interviews (if advised, at all...). Thanks!
Odds are you're not mentioning the company name anyway, so people won't know. If you tell them that the deal unfortunately died, they'll still know that you underwrote a transaction and helped structure and diligence it.
Having a closed deal is obviously better all else equal, but I don't think people would look down on you for highlighting work you did which demonstrates ability to structure and diligence transactions.
How far did the deal go? Was an LOI signed? What all research and diligence did you do?
Thanks for the response. For some more context, we had a term sheet signed up to provide debt financing for a buyout (lower middle market TMT company), but, for various reasons which I won't get in to, didn't have exclusivity with this sponsor. We had gotten through investment committees and were working through final documentation/structuring when the deal fell apart (would have closed within days). Overall, it was one of the more involved deals I've had thus far as an analyst-- i.e. lean deal team where I was completely running with the IC memo/model/valuation, leading management diligence sessions, presenting the deal to committee, speaking up in term sheet negotiations, etc.
I think it begs the questions "why the hell didn't they get exclusivity?" Under almost no circumstances will a fund spend heavy DD dollars without exclusivity since it could end up being a waste of time and money (as in this case).
Did they at least pay the deal related third party expenses? (legal etc.)
Sorry to prod, but I do think most PE practitioners are going to be having the same question, and if the answer is not good, the deal may have to be rephrased a bit at the least.
There's nothing wrong with using deals that fell through if you feel you got a lot of good experience out of it. Depending on how you frame it, it's also a great opportunity to highlight why it didn't work out and what you learned from that process. Deals fall through all the time, and being able to convey a solid understanding of what happened and the key takeaways can turn it into a positive.
The deal I spoke the most about during my interview processes was one where we were ultimately outbid by another consortium. However, I learned a ton from the process and highlighting that experience was never an issue. To Texan's point, there are definitely certain questions you'll need to address but effectively communicating your experience/capabilities is much more important than whether a specific deal closed or not (especially at a junior level).
My 2 cents is that it doesn't matter whether a deal closed or not (for junior guys, since you have no control over that anyway). What matters more is what you did/learned.
How do you suggest phrasing a broken deal on your resume? Should I just list the deal (and not specify whether it's closed or not) and let conversation reveal the details?
In general you can probably put a spin on it by saying it's pending or something and then just say it's on hold right now for xyz reasons. It only becomes an issue if the deal is truly dead and your interviewer is knowledgeable about it.
HELP - Large M&A transaction died - Resume? (Originally Posted: 08/30/2016)
Need some advice on how to list some experience on my resume. I have been working on a huge M&A transaction (+$80bn) over the last 8-9 months and our bids very finally rejected by the target. Obviously this experience has been amazing (especially for someone not normally working directly in M&A) for me and I have learned a lot. So my question is, how should I list this on my resume? What can I include and what can I not say?
What about under Selected Transaction Experience you put "Potential US$80bn sale of _________ to _________" and then you can explain what you did if asked. However your resume is structured but you get the idea.
What's already in there public domain? eg is it known the target was in play? Is it known your client was a bidder? These are essential questions so we can work out what you can say.
No, it never became public information. We had several meetings with the target but they rejected our bids and it never leaked to the media. Based on that, I assume I cant mention the target company on my resume, right, even if its in the past and dead?
Also to further clarify, I am not at a bank, I am in a corporate M&A department so "we" are the bidders and there is no client involved.
If it's not public you have to remove mention of the companies
.
Think maybe a good way to phrase it would be "pursued a US$80bn acquisition of a [sector] company in the Industry space". Then maybe talk about the process falling off during the interviews itself. I guess the learning process is just as valuable as compared to a deal that closed, since many times deals die not from bankers' intervention.
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