Imperial Capital - Thoughts or insights?

Thoughts? Comments? What's life like there? Exit Ops?

Recruiter wants to know if I would be interested in a Sr. Analyst position (NY Office). Trying to make the jump to PE but have had relatively little success (Currently finishing up my second year at a small boutique) so I told him I would also be open to some IB jobs.

 

Not too sure about "culture", but a friend who interned a year ahead of me at a boutique works there in research. Great place for distressed and HY research. Not sure about what your ambitions are, but I'd jump on the chance.

Not sure how good research places in PE though.

good luck

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
 
nprnyt:

how does imperial compare to guggenheim?

I have interned at both firms (IBD) and can shed some light into this. Imperial is a good MM. They are not Jefferies or HW but they are still good. They have a good lev fin arm, they are full service with S&T, ECM, ER, Credit Research etc..but unfortunately they fall in a very very similar business model as Houlihan Lokey and during my internship many people constantly talked about them going head to head with Houlihan Lokey (half a block away from each other in LA) for many fairness opinions or smaller restructuring deals and losing. The problem is that although they are good at what they do, they lack prestige/name brand (an associate that was at the firm was telling me this) which should not matter but actually does when they are going head to head with another bank for a deal and then have to offer lower advisory or underwriting fees just to win the mandate when the client isnt sure to trust imperial with the transaction.

In relationship to Guggenheim (i interned there this past summer in NY) i really would not put them in the same boat as Imperial. I know people there full time that took Guggenheim over lower tier BBs that they didnt get a top group. They dont do smaller private deals like Imperial might but do MM sized deals as well (as low as $100MM to BB sized deals of $1-5B) and constantly were going neck to neck with other elite boutiques/BBs for a deal. Guggenheim is also being led by Alan Schwartz (for IBD) and ex-global heads from JPM, BAML, Barclays, Bear Stearns etc. The team they have put together for NY and even LA is very impressive. All the MDs i have met have come from top BBs or elite boutiques and they have gotten on very sizeable deals in the past 2 years (http://guggenheimpartners.com/services/securities/all-recent-transactio…) while now recently starting a restructuring arm and ECM one as well. Imperial senior bankers were not on the same level in terms of previous work and just didnt handle themselves as professionally. The firm is well positioned to keep poaching top MDs from global positions at banks (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/guggenheim-hirings-idUSL2N0DP…) is really taking off. Plus, as an analyst you get exposure similar to how Goldman's analysts do and work on several products/deal types within an industry vertical (ex- ecm, lev fin, M&A) rather than just doing coverage/a single product group.

Culturally though, the LA imperial office is phenomenal. Lots of fratty young Berkeley/USC/UCLA studs that know how to get work done and party at the same time. Guggenheim tends to be a bit more serious as they are trying to recreate a Bear Stearns 2.0 and are ambitious about doing so. Cant put a price on culture!

Hope this clears up some of the misconception and yes OP they are actually stronger that division so i would pursue the position if possible.

 

I have no idea how good the firm is for junior employees, but I had an unreal experience with one of their senior bankers, who tried to get onto a buy-side mandate after losing out on the sell-side that we were representing.

He was easily the biggest moron I ever came across in the many years I spent in banking, and he was operating well below board. One bad apple should not condemn an entire firm, but I do know that he is still there.

 

Don't know much about the NY office, but LA office definitely has a fratty vibe. Bunch of UCLA and USC guys.

Also, it's a solid MM, not boutique. Interviews are very technical and they like to ask questions that aren't in the guides, but if you have an understanding of accounting/finance, they're not that bad.

They have a strong restructuring practice, but not too much RX dealflow now obviously. SA and analyst program is generalist. Exit opps probably limited to MM PE, know a couple of guys who've gone on to HFs and distressed funds.

Overall a solid firm and would be a great SA experience and would serve you well if you wanted to move on to BB/EB for FT.

 
Best Response

the structure is pretty similar to other MM firms, but for some reason they are VERY top heavy. they have (or had) like 15 MDs I was told and only take ~3 FT analysts in the LA office per year. The analysts supposedly work a lot, and ~90 hrs/week isn't uncommon. from what I was told, the LA office has like 7 VPs, ~7 associates and ~7-8 analysts? so an office of like mid to high 30ish bankers in LA. analysts/associates get a great experience in the sense that they work on several product groups across many different industries (ex- consumer, A&D; M&A, lev fin, restructuring)

but I know from networking that the analysts are paid street at least, 70 base and last years bonus was 50k for 1st years (don't think they do buckets, but I could be wrong because they take like ~10 ft analyst a year)

there is an LA office, SF office, Minneapolis office, NY office, Boston office and I think Chicago. LA is HQ but NY office still has a presence.

also- couchy is right (they do more debt/LevFin than M&A) and decent restructuring work (2013 closed transactions- http://imperialcapital.com/Services/services-01-e.aspx). looks like they'll do some M&A activities here and there but seems to be under lower MM sized deals or some private companies etc.. still not bad but def focus on levfin, debt and distressed deals

they are full service as well, have trading floor and ER team in LA as well and other regional offices. analyst that interviewed me said they hope to be the next Jefferies one day (so I guess they are calling themselves a MM firm)

do a simple linkedin search and you'll see where some people have worked but im sure there is a shit ton of competition in LA as you still have GS, Moelis, MS, HL RX, CS getting first shot at PE/HFs. for exit ops from talking to people in PE in LA, they are similar to Houlihan Corp Fin exit-ops but discounted a bit just because of the HL name and the Imperial name not being as strong. so exit ops will exist but mega fund non-existent and looking at lower level MM funds. Imperial also should have exit ops to distressed funds as well. (note- I did a lot of research on them before my superday this past FT recruitment so I know a good amount haha). hope this helps dude.

I don't throw darts at a board. I bet on sure things. Read Sun-tzu, The Art of War. Every battle is won before it is ever fought- GG
 

I talked to one person who works there and they didn't seem all that impressive. It didn't sound like deal flow was great. I think their only real office is in LA, and is supposed to be in a pretty nice area, but who knows?

 

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