Done a lot of reading on this site about Restructuring and most posters seem to only discuss restructuring at MM or Elite boutiques (Lazard, Moelis, Greenhill, Evercore, PWP etc). Can anyone provide insight into what restructuring is like at a bulge-bracket? Thanks in advance.
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i don't think BB has restructuring...
conflicts with their lending activities...
BB don't do restructuring....in fact that's one of the things that gets you instantly dinged during an interview.
ubs has a restructuring group tied into its financial sponsors and lev fin group.
A lot of BBs have restructuring groups, but they are quieter and only go after certain types of deals. Also, many industry groups in BBs take on restructuring deals. The reason most restructuring falls in the hands of boutiques is partly because restructuring conflicts with their lending practice, but that is not the main reason. The main reason is that BBs don't want to create tension with their institutional clients, and normally restructuring deals involve negotiating with funds/pensions etc. that might be clients of the bank. That being said, there are some huge restructuring deals that have been done by BBs. One of the biggest recent deals was Charter and UBS's media group was the main advisor. Barclays has a big restructuring group, Morgan Stanley has a big practice (Fannie, Freddie, CIT), Goldman has a big restructuring group abroad, and the list goes on.
Boutiques usually do restructuring on creditor and lender side. BB's since they have lending arms can only do restructuring on the lender side otherwise it would be a conflict of interest.
Yea, blackstone and lazard usually do debtor, and HLHZ is famous for creditor restructuring...
BX, LAZ, Moelis, GHL Houlihan, Rothschild and PWP are the places to be for restructuring. You will get a good mix of debtor +creditor experience (leaning more towards debtor with the exception of maybe Houlihan) at these shops. The above posters covered the reasons for why BBs have conflicts.
You are able to do restructuring at BBs product groups, but like others have said, its more limited and you often do not get the "big picture". An example would be DCM group doing debt refinancing and injecting new debt at better terms and retire old bonds. You get to play around with covenants but you will not be dealing with a chapter 11 or anything like that.
Advisory88 pretty much lists all of the top restructuring shops. I would just like to add that Evercore had amazing year last year in restructuring. Moelis is very much a restructuring only firm at this point so they get a lot of volume, but quality of the deals tend to vary.
I met someone at one bank that does what they call restructuring, but it is not the same thing as the restructuring done at boutiques. He works on restructuring high yield debt the bank had lent to clients that are/will be facing covenant breaches. Don't know if this is similar anywhere else.
Restructuring in a BB (Originally Posted: 05/09/2007)
I am just wondering what is the deal to be in the restructuring team of a BB? Apparently it seems that these activities are better performed by small discreet and independant boutiques..
Moreover,if I start as a FT analyst in a BB and aim to switch to a good restructuring firm later,is it absolutely required to start in restructuring since the beginning or can few years in M&A do the trick?Any better suggestion?
If any of you already working in or having information about this area could answer it would be great,thanks!
ubs and a handful of other firms have restructuring groups - its aligned with leveraged finance so that might be the group you want to join
M&A experience is valuable for restructuring firms in that they give a solid valuation background, necessary for evaluating firms that are looking to drastically cut costs and generate cash. Remember, many firms undergoing a restructuring will require divisions to be sold, and so M&A is helpful. Starting in restructuring is definately not required.
Restructuring at a BB (Originally Posted: 03/09/2008)
I know there have been a million questions recently about restructuring, but most have been focused on boutiques. I'm curious about what restructuring groups do at BBs. I'll be working at a bank that excels at financing (think C/CS/DB/JPM). I'm assuming that BBs don't do actual advisory, but engage more in DIP and exit lending (though maybe I'm wrong). Is this the case? If so, what type of skill set do you gain from this type of work? Is it even worth doing restructuring at a BB, or is the experience only good at a Blackstone/HLHZ/Lazard/Buckfire type place? Thanks in advance for any help.
bump
my guess is that with the balance sheets at the BBs there is some conflict of interest vs. a strictly advisory based boutique or MM bank. As an analyst analyzing a potential DIP loan, I think you could learn a lot about the capital structure and collateral / liquidation value, etc. But my experience was at Rothschild, not a BB...we were working with the company, evaluating the DIP proposals, not creating them so my view is somewhat limited for Restructuring in a BB. At Rothschild, we were negotiating against the creditors on the company's behalf, evaluating the cash flow forecast, runway, new capital structures, debt forgiveness / equity grants, etc.
I am not sure if you would get that full experience at a BB unless they were strictly "advisors" to the creditors/debtors.
Corporate Restructuring Job at BB (Originally Posted: 10/22/2007)
For an MBA of Magic 7 without formal finance background (i was a management consultant before MBA), what is the best path to get in Corporate Restructuring Job at those BBs? Whose Corporate Restructuring is the best in the street? Anyone could share? Thx!
There really is no best BB in restructuring, as they do very little restructuring work.
The top 4 (mentioned many times on this board already)
Blackstone Houlihan Lokey Jefferies Rothschild
After that there are a couple boutiques, then BBs.
How to get in? Start networking your alumni now. Fresh associates have no experience anyway, but you have to get known.
You included HL, Jefferies, and Rothschild before Lazard?
I dunno, I'm a little ignorant about Lazard. Prestigious name, but never caught my radar in restructuring. Probably because they don't recruit at my school anyway.
I know about Wasserstein (I actually read his 800 page book). So I thought it was strictly M&A house with some asset management.
But yeah, definitely Houlihan Lokey before Lazard anyway. They did more assignments than Blackstone (and everyone else) last year.
They've got multiples of work compared to the other firms you mentioned - with an exception for Houlihan, but they're primarily advising the creditor groups anyways.
Now that got me all curious, so I did a google search for some league tables, this is the most current I could find.
http://www.gordiangroup.com/news/20070903-thedeal.pdf
Of course, it's from gordian's website, so they altered it, but I assume, only with color.
I'm actually glad I did that, there are some firms I should be contacting that I'd forgotten about.
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