Morgan Stanley London: Top Groups

I was wondering if anyone knew what the best groups are at Morgan Stanley IBD in London.

By best, I mean in terms of deal flow and exit opportunities. Also interested in knowing which groups have better hours.

Thanks!

 

Media & Comms used to be great for PE placement. No clue how this holds up these days though. M&A is is the execution pool so technically it isnt M&A but great to be in as you will work on a range of verticals (also capital markets related). Healthcare is a great team still

"too good to be true" See my WSO Blog
 

You mentioned that the M&A team assists all teams across sectors. So, what does the industry team do? I can't imagine it would be rewarding to pitch all day and then hand over the executing to the M&A team? Also, any info on the real estate group?

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It varies - as I said earlier, depends on which senior banker has the closest relationship to the client and how the senior banking team decides work gets allocated.

Execution work is hardly fun to do too sometimes - weekly steering committee decks, process timetables, VDR management etc...

Also - some industry team heads prefer the model where their team hands off an execution to the M&A team to run and the industry team remains in support in terms of modeling, refreshing comps and market updates. There can be so much going on in an execution that some teams can't afford to be bogged down with every bit of the execution.

As for real estate - it was once a severe sweatshop but less so now as two very painful German senior bankers left.

 

Ah I see. That sounds like a pretty strange set-up. I can understand why industry teams are involved in an IPO but I didn't think the M&A team would be unless it's a dual-track.

Thanks for your help!

 

How does lifestyle compare in Media and Telecoms or another industry team vs M&A execution? What about the actual work? Does anyone know which role is more modelling intensive? Any insight about placing? How important is to develop sector knowledge?

 

Media and Comms is a sweatshop but is one of the top (if not top) coverage teams in EMEA The UK coverage team has pretty decent hours The Leveraged Finance team in EMEA doesn't do much short of execution, LBO modeling is parsed out to the Industry teams and M&A teams most of the time The Financial Sponsors team doesn't do a whole lot beyond coverage as they are very thin at the junior level

 

MonkeyBusiness, would you be able to provide some insight into the differences between the work done in an industry coverage group and a regional coverage group? An Associate in an industry coverage group at MS London told me before that regional groups pick up a lot of residual work from industry coverage groups, is this true? Also, any insight on exit opportunities? Would be interested to hear the differences to a pan-European industry coverage team if there are any other than the obvious working with companies in region X / industry Y.

 
Best Response

It varies - most regional coverage teams will try to shove the work on to the Industry team because of the Industry team's "expertise" in the sector. So the Industry team will find themselves running model, the comps, the sector updates.

The Regional team often will be the one doing alot of the admin process related work or the M&A workstream if the standalone M&A team is not involved. Of course, sometimes the regional team takes on more of the heavylifting and only uses the sector coverage team as an "industry consultant" and runs the entire process - particularly the case where:

a) The Regional team has very strong juniors (not always the case especially with Dubai) b) The Regional team has capacity c) The Client does not speak very good English and most interactions are done in the native language.

That said - you're at MS and it will vary from deal to deal as it also depends on which MD/ED has the closer relationship to the client.

Exit ops from my POV seem to be even across all Groups when all things are equal but as usual, PE follows cycles so lately you see fewer hires out of Natural Resources, and more in hot sectors like Healthcare and Telecom.

 

MonkeyBusiness, do you know how the MS London teams are standing these days(2017-18) in terms of dealflow and exit ops? My impression based on dealflow and rumours is that Media & Comms is still the strongest industry team (and still a sweatshop), M&A very good, but what about other teams (Tech, CRG, HC, Industrials, Power&Utilities, RE, NRG)?

 

I have since left MS London but I would say that Media & Comms will remain a sweatshop as long as senior leadership doesn't change.

I know the FIG team was pretty bush as was Healthcare.

I never thought our Consumer or NRG groups were particularly strong. Industrial and P&U would be busy but didn't have great deal flow between 2011-17

 

For PE that's about right, would add M&C bit overall every team will send ppl to MFs, UMMs. Seem people from less popular groups exiting there (BMG, Services, Transpo, GPUG)

HF is more arbitrary so it's the usual suspects plus other teams. Industrials sent and A1 last year to Surveyor..

Also, RE has sent kids to Starwood (x2) within 6 months and c.1 year on their analyst stint

Laborare Pugnare Parati Sumus
 

Best exits: M&A, Media & Comms, Healthcare, Tech, FIG and then maybe Industrials, GPUG and RE

Worst exits: Not a thing really for MS but would say Services, Sponsors (not that bad actually but ok) and BMG

Best hours: Maybe Services and Sponsors

Worst hours: FIG, Media & Comms, RE, M&A, maybe Transpo and possibly others

Good culture overall: M&A, Transpo, Tech (?)

Bad culture overall: FIG, Media & Comms, RE (?)

Might be forgetting some teams

Laborare Pugnare Parati Sumus
 

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