Percentage of PE Associates from IBD

There is over 3,500 p/e firms world wide.

this could be an interesting thread. so we could try to work out the numbers. out of the 1000, how many : 1) go to b-school 2)continue in banking in the same firm 3) move to PE/HF 4)another industry 5)travel, vacations, suicide, etc. 5) move to a boutique

Just a warning to all who read this -- I think the numbers that are being thrown around are off. There are literally thousands of PE/VC shops out there, and a great deal of them are very reputable. Heck, last year my bank literally sent the entire graduating analyst class to PE (more than 10), and we're small compared to most BBs or even MM banks.

~~~~~~~~~~~ CompBanker

Out of my friends - I think about 65%-70% chose PE or hedge funds. Out of my group, we had 7 analysts leaving that year - all of them went to PE/HF except for 2 (and 1 went to a specialty fund of a MM bank).

I don't think there are 90 BB analysts at each bank anymore, atleast not next year. I'm not 100% sure, but based on summer offer rates I would think the average 09 FT analyst class size for IBD is around 50. Correct me if I am wrong, but that change in the assumptions would help out your PE odds.

In regards to the changing landscape, I addressed that issue in my OP. Obviously nobody knows where the market is going, given all the layoffs, writedowns, fund closing, etc...but I was just curious what the past was like to give a historical context. This may or may not be relevant going forward, but would be interesting to know and at the very least, to have the "good ole days" to think back about hah.

To gametheory and compbanker--I'm surprised the number is so high! I always thought it was much lower, so I guess that's good to know. Also compbanker, are there really that many reputable pe / vcs out there? I'm currently interning at a boutique bank and have been doing research on potential sponsors, and have not come across nearly as many as you say. In fact, the funds I'm starting to get down to on my list, have many associates with very obscure backgrounds (either no banking / consulting, or very small, unknown boutique bank).

to remove the outliers.

The world has changed. And we must change with it.

To be honest, there aren't thousands of reputable VC/PE shops out there, but there are without a doubt hundreds. I'm not sure where you stand job wise, but just looking at a private equity firm's website is usually not a very effective way to determine whether or not it is reputable. Maybe we draw the line different. I can tell you that the bank I work at routinely deals with hundreds of PE shops that are very reputable and staffed with your typically group of elite industry experts. The more I work this job the more private equity firms I interact with and learn about. As a college student, you may hear the same 25 names printed in the newspaper every week, but that is just scratching the surface. I'm not sure if you're only looking at firms in major cities, but that could be another factor as well.

I'll throw some names out there and let you decide. I'd list the below PE firms (and this is just a random sample of the first dozen or so that come up in my head) that I would consider reputable, but you may not have ever heard of:

KRG Capital Linsalata Capital Partners Quad-C Brockway Moran & Partners Friedman, Fleischer, & Lowe Sterling Capital Partners (there are actually about 3-4 sterlings out there, damn uncreative bastards) Thoma Cressey Bravo (recently split into Thoma Bravo and Cressey & Co.) Harbour Group CIVC Partners Weston Presidio (though I believe they canceled raising their latest fund) Arcapita

Honestly, the list goes on and on.

~~~~~~~~~~~ CompBanker

I think this is an impossible exercise, but here are my two cents: in addition to the mega-buyout funds, there are several hundred PE firms in the "middle-market" space that are more than reputable: they're elite. I'd guess 100+ guys like the ones mentioned by CompBanker (ie $1-5 Bn funds, industry agnostic, growth stage LBO shops) and then a couple hundered more slighltly smaller guys, or guys with specific industry focuses that may be great at what they do but well-known only by those in their industry (JF Lehmen in Aerospace, Catterton in consumer, etc). The problem is that many of them will be hiring zero people over the next year or so, and even in good times only hire 2, maybe 3 people each to replace their outgoing (b-school, etc) associates. As for estimating the number of analysts competing for these jobs? It is my opinion that 80% or more of second-year IB analysts would go to PE if they could. That said, I'd say less than 20% are successful. In considering these (wild) estimates, I'm including BBs and other big guys (GS, MS, JPM, you know who they are), elite boutiques (Evercore, Moelis, PWP, etc), very established middle-market firms (Jefferies, Oppenheimer, Thomas Weisel, SGCowen, Piper), some well-connected regional firms (Edgeview, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, etc) and a few international firms with US offices (Rothschild, etc). There are definitely WAY more than 1,000 analysts trying to get these jobs each year. I'd say it's at least 5,000, if not many, many more. So I'm not sure exactly what question we're trying to answer here, but if you think PE is a given just because you worked at a good bank, think again, at least for the next 3-4 years.

I think your estimates are way off base. 5,000 people is a lot. Even if you include the regional firms and boutiques, each of these firms might have 5-10 analysts per class, so you would end up with about 10-15 regional and elite boutiques equal to one BB