Investment Banking Confidentiality

Hey all,

I'm working at a boutique investment bank this summer and have been preparing for upcoming junior year interviews for EB/BB. Let's say I have on my resume that I created buyer/investor profiles for specific deals. Am I allowed to bring up the names of these specific buyers/investors?

I created these profiles to present to the company we were representing to help determine who to focus our outreach efforts on. We sent teasers out to some of the companies, but no NDA was signed with the companies we reached out to.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thanks, but try putting yourself in the other guy's shoes. Here I am asking him for his thoughts on the industry, about his work and some advice, but I myself can't answer anything? Pretty sure it'll be rather awkward and might not make a good impression.

I don't know, maybe I'm making much ado about nothing. But still kinda confused on how to approach this so looking for some suggestions. Thanks, though!

Move along, nothing to see here.
 

Yea, you're going to have to give him something. But look at it this way, your fund's anonymity is your assets. People will want to hear about you, what you guys are up to etc.. In this way you have more to give him than is usual in these dynamics.

"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 

It looks like you answered your own question. If you can tell him the deal size and who some of your limited investors are. However, I will venture to guess that you can not say that either.

"It's very easy to have too many goals and be overwhelmed by them... The trick is to find the one thing you can focus on that represents every other single thing you want in life." -- @"Edmundo Braverman"
 
Alexander Hamilton:

It looks like you answered your own question. If you can tell him the deal size and who some of your limited investors are. However, I will venture to guess that you can not say that either.

Are you freaking kidding me? Tell him who the limited investors (I will venture to guess you mean "partners") are? My fund manager would rather dole out the blow by blow details (pun intended) of an affair than disclose his LP's to a third party.

Move along, nothing to see here.
 

Also is your firm public or private?

"It's very easy to have too many goals and be overwhelmed by them... The trick is to find the one thing you can focus on that represents every other single thing you want in life." -- @"Edmundo Braverman"
 

It seems extremely odd that your fund doesn't even want to publicly disclose what sectors its investing in. How is that even possible? There are processes, there are bankers/lawyers etc... market participants end up knowing which firms were in which processes and what industries they're playing in.

There is a very big difference between making it known in the public domain vs. verbally discussing a deal in an interview. I wouldn't discuss particulars like a specific purchase price, but its more than acceptable to give broader discussions... even about valuation range (assuming this stuff is not active currently) or how you valued the business.

I personally wouldn't hesitate to discuss my experience on a no-names basis, and verbally. Obviously you want to make sure the questions you're answer aren't being asked for the sole purpose of gaining insight into a particular transaction vs. insight into your ability/role/value add. This level of confidentiality seems extremely odd and doesn't really make sense to me (maybe in the HF world).

Regardless, you're serving your own interests by interviewing for another position. In various scenarios you need to understand whether you're serving your own interests or those of your firm... on the job, obviously it should always be the latter. But in terms of managing your career, its not always possible to do both and you have to look out for yourself because no one else is going to.

 

Thanks, Marcus, this is helpful. I'll try to explain why we prefer stay under the radar.

Like I mentioned, we're in a city where there are maybe less than 5 PE funds, and all of these funds concentrate in this region only. We predominantly invest in family based businesses, and everybody knows each other among the promoters. We have a relationship with a lot of these promoters and if word gets out about who's funding whom, it could cause some serious damage. There's no conflict of interest or anything of the sort, let's just say that we are informal friends with rival promoters (only one of whom we're funding), and we'd like to maintain that status quo. Since these are quite small private businesses, there's no exposure to capital markets or merchant bankers, or any investment bankers for that matter.

One more important factor is our "managed deals". We're running the shitshow for some pretty large deals from behind the curtains, with a major BB acting as the face of the deal. This gets us more clout against a powerful politically connected promoter, obviously as long as we let the BB do the talking for us. Chalk this sort of structure up to superb relationship-management by my fund manager.

So well... I hope I've been able to explain my hesitance in discussing specific deals. Since I'm not looking to lateral right now, I'd rather not end up with a foot in the mouth syndrome by inadvertently disclosing something.

But, I'll take your advice and try to spin what work I've been doing without relating it to any industry in particular. Should be adequate while being vague enough.

Move along, nothing to see here.
 

You could jut put "over $100MM". In reality, most companies know the general numbers of their competition, so don't feel like you'd be giving them access to your entire operations. Or fudge a bit up or down -- if the number isn't known to anyone outside the company, how could they verify it?

 

Dolor hic et sunt perspiciatis veritatis quia qui. Ab vel magni esse non. Animi iure recusandae non illum libero. Recusandae consequatur maxime placeat. Enim ea assumenda nisi ea distinctio cum porro.

Voluptatem et quo rerum qui et et. Delectus maxime mollitia et eos rerum id labore. Rem autem laboriosam in. Animi dicta ut dignissimos quisquam incidunt nulla quia aliquam.

Harum non similique eveniet tempore consequatur qui et. Et doloremque esse rerum eos doloremque iste.

Commodi quasi maxime quo asperiores dolore est. Voluptas sit quia est repudiandae rerum quia aspernatur at. Explicabo vel dolores similique consequatur. Cum veniam adipisci voluptatem aut eius. Quae unde vitae cumque. Voluptatem culpa nemo rerum debitis totam. At hic qui fuga assumenda necessitatibus.

 

Voluptatem quae illo quasi ipsum et. Omnis occaecati rem illum.

Doloremque minus facilis id dicta. Ut rerum facere doloremque velit adipisci sit. Non est omnis aut voluptatem qui commodi. Omnis repudiandae est possimus quae est magnam qui natus. Rem voluptas quia quos non voluptatem cupiditate. Beatae esse dolorem rerum qui numquam beatae exercitationem.

Tenetur voluptatem fugiat quod id et soluta. Voluptatem quaerat quas distinctio necessitatibus. Et a corporis dolor reprehenderit officiis. Dolores non optio dolor laboriosam ea.

Excepturi atque molestiae in qui impedit est explicabo. Voluptatem possimus similique aut incidunt itaque repudiandae aliquam. Delectus incidunt non quam. Ut rerum optio quasi soluta maiores dolor ut. Natus ullam laborum quasi eum molestiae. Qui dolores recusandae minus alias expedita ea.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (85) $262
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (65) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (198) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
9
pudding's picture
pudding
98.8
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”