Since this was brought up on another thread.

Screened for U.S. focused buyout funds >$3bn, 2000-2008 vintages

Response URGENTLY needed!

A little about me...
For the past 2-3 years I've been in a back office/data proofing/operations role at a mid-tier investment consulting firm. I have a background in the humanities but I begin a part-time MBA program in August.

Phone interview...
I have a phone interview with a top P/E firm for the position of 'Valuations Analyst' which is not like Duff & Phelp's Valuation Analyst position. Instead, this position entails developing and improving the firm's valuation models (a lot of middle-back office work) across all asset classes and will not give me exposure to actual deals. It's kind of like a business analyst position focusing on valuation and financial models across all asset classes.

My questions are...

>> A bit about me
European guy, M&A background, now working in a mid-cap PE fund in Europe. Ivy League MBA. Passionate about media and tech, bit of entrepreneurial experience, active investor in startups.

>> What I want
West Coast job at a VC or a great startup.

>> The deal
If you can help me in any way (advice, leads, prep talk), I'll give you lots of advice on whatever you want: M&A or PE recruiting, MBA, you essays, your CV, whatever.

What are the pay scales generally for megafunds, upper middle market firms, and smaller firms? How much does one make as a first year pre-MBA associate, second year pre-MBA associate, first year *post-MBA* associate, etc and how does the pay change based on where you work?

How much would a KKR first year make versus a GTCR or MDP first year versus a no-name PE fund first year?

How does the pay change as you get more senior?

I searched the forum for this but found conflicting information because some threads were from before the crash.

Is there a better or quicker way to stimulate direct foreign investment into U.S. companies? Shuld the holding period be reduced to 180 or even 90 days? Any down side? Should there be a minimum of a $5 million block of shares? What do you think?

Hi all,

Considering interviewing for this company. Nearly $10 billion AUM. They do 1/3 equity co-invest, 1/3 mezz investments and 1/3 fund of funds - no control investments. Ultimately I was hoping to break into middle market PE, which I likely can still do, but probably with a smaller fund (think $200MM to $1B latest fund size). Was hoping to get some of your thoughts. Is it better to get a larger name on my resume (I come from middle market i-banking) even though I won't be doing control investments, or is it better to get the direct PE experience even though it might be a less well known fund? I'm definitely interested in the operational side of things, which unfortunately I won't get much of with the opportunity mentioned above.

Thanks in advance!

I recently got an offer with a lower-MM PE fund that had some issues raising its most recent fund and am hesitant to accept. I am also not crazy about the firm in general. Alternatively, I can accept a third year offer to stay with my group (top industry group at a non-MS/GS BB) and recruit over the next several months for opportunities with other funds. What do you recommend? Do you view a third year as a positive or negative for PE recruiting?

I (we) are trying to acquire a greater percentage stake in a formerly public company. We currently have a significant control position, but would like to sell the company and require over 90% equity stake to not have to deal with sign-offs from the many disparate shareholders. There are no significant (i.e. greater than .2%) shareholders remaining EXCEPT for "Cede & Co. Depository Trust", which holds around 10%. As far as I can tell, "Cede & Co. Depository Trust" simply represents shares held in street name. My question then is how to track down where these shares are held to potentially acquire the shares we need to get over the 90% equity threshold.

Anybody made the transition? How were you able to gain the public markets experience needed for recruiting? And how did you get around the stigma from hopping into PE after banking (instead of HF)?

Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks!

Did a search and couldn't find much insight on travel from a PE analyst perspective.

Any knowledge as to % of time spent out of the office and usually what a trip to go meet with a prospective investment/management team entails?

Thanks

Dear all,

I will be a first year associate at L.E.K. this Fall and looking to transition to private equity after a couple years. My work will involve mostly strategy engagements and maybe a few due diligence private equity cases. What are my prospects for recruiting at megafunds (in comparison to those with banking or MBB backgrounds)? Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Just out of curiosity, would love to hear people's views on this:

So many of us finance guys spend all their time worrying about getting into the top group at whatever bank so they can move to mega funds in private equity or big hedge funds, where the lifestyle can be close to if not just as bad as a banker's.

Personally, I always have seen myself ending up at a small fund with a few hundred million bucks under management...3-5 guys in a room, so to speak just slaying it with no bureaucracy. Outside of the 'prestige' and 'status', which no one outside of finance would even understand anyways, what is the appeal for you guys for ending up at a KKR or multi-billion dollar hedge fund in the first place?

What are places paying/what have you heard?

Gotta make this quick - at work.

After reading the risible, lambaste worthy & somberful post of "biggest life regrets"

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/the-single-b...

It's evident for MOST of the posters on this forum (whom I'm guessing are <25, 21?) loathe their college decisions, root cause being their high school decisions thus by transitive property loathe high school decisions.

Seems like many people would like a do-over in life because their models & bottles dreams never materialized (or never will). Honestly, thought the posts were hysterical. It seems like it’s too bad that many of you weren’t conceived in Amy Chua’s womb.

Gotta make this quick - at work.

After reading the risible, lambaste worthy & somberful post of "biggest life regrets"

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/the-single-b...

It's evident for MOST of the posters on this forum (whom I'm guessing are <25, 21?) loathe their college decisions, root cause being their high school decisions thus by transitive property loathe high school decisions.

Seems like many people would like a do-over in life because their models & bottles dreams never materialized (or never will). Honestly, thought the posts were hysterical. It seems like it’s too bad that many of you weren’t conceived in Amy Chua’s womb.

Was wondering if anyone on this forum had any insight into JMI Equity. It is a $2b growth equity firm with offices in Baltimore and La Jolla. I was curious what a pre-MBA associate's experience there is like, whether it is an entirely sourcing focused role, and how business schools / post-MBA opportunities view the firm. Any insight is much appreciated.

Hi,

I am a sophomore at a semi target w/ 3.7+ wanting to do IB and here's the dilemma I'm in. At the start of this semester I had no offers for summer, I had multiple chances during my first semester but I'm a terrible interviewer and got nada. To give you an idea of my interviewing skills well I had a IB interview, 2 PE, an interview with a boutique PWM and 2 with BB PWM and couldn't get any, a joke right?

However, I got my story down and was able to land a NYMEX internship (business dev) and had verbally accepted the offer. The offer is for part time this semester and full time summer. I was still interviewing after I accepted the offer and actually got a PE internship for this semester.

Distressed debt firm looking for an Analyst to join the acquisitions group. Based in Denver. No relocation assistance, but will fly out for final round interviews.

50% time will be spent supporting underwriting, 50% analyzing potential deals. Mostly dealing with non-performing debt/loan portfolios that are composed of nationwide CRE.

Some one-off operating company deals as well; DIP financing, bridge loans, C&I debt, etc.

Just PM your resume and I will get back to you if it could work. I am not a recruiter, just a long-time WSOer looking to expand our candidate pool

Requirements:
3.5 GPA
Degreed; I do not care where you went to school
Interest in RE, bankruptcy, corporate private equity
Expert level in Excel

I have an interview coming up with Warburg Pincus in few days. It would be great if you guys can suggest the kind of questions I might face. Few days back I appeared for Bain Capital Interview, and their questions were consulting type case based questions. Should I expect the same for Warburg Pincus or it will be more along the lines of traditional PE questions. Thanks.

I have a 2nd round interview coming up with a secondary PE fund. They do mostly LP secondaries of funds that are majority invested.

I'm still trying to understand exactly how they value these LP interests. In the round 1 interview, they told me that they do a bottoms up analysis on the underlying portfolio companies, and then assume a rate of return on the unfunded portion, which dilutes the value.

Can someone explain this in some more detail? What exactly goes into the bottoms up analysis? Does this mean modeling each company with an LBO, assuming a target IRR for the entire portfolio, and backing into a purchase price for each company, then summing them up? Do they use only equity for the purchase since the portfolio companies will already have debt?

Why searching LinkedIn I came across this person's profile:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/alexandre-perez-casare...

Why get get an MBA from Stamford and HBS?

Hi, I am a PE associate in a decent infrastructure private equity fund (decent brand name) looking at infrastructure equity investments: toll roads, concession assets, power networks, telco towers and more recently at real estate and public private partnerships (PPP).

How easy would it be for me to move to a corporate private equity fund to focus media, technology, consumer, retail, industrial companies?

I am so bored with the boring infrastructure assets, especially those PPP are killing me and everything is regulated and so incredibly boring...! In addition there is no focus on operations whatsoever as one would do in corporate private equity (improve costs, grow revenues etc).

Anybody made the move before?

Hi, I am a PE associate in a decent infrastructure private equity fund (decent brand name) looking at infrastructure equity investments: toll roads, concession assets, power networks, telco towers and more recently at real estate and public private partnerships (PPP).

How easy would it be for me to move to a corporate private equity fund to focus media, technology, consumer, retail, industrial companies?

I am so bored with the boring infrastructure assets, especially those PPP are killing me and everything is regulated and so incredibly boring...! In addition there is no focus on operations whatsoever as one would do in corporate private equity (improve costs, grow revenues etc).

Anybody made the move before?

- Decent sized shop that is agnostic/generalist
- Current fund size $500-700MM
- 2-3 Associates/class = 4-6 Associates total

*Currently a second year consultant recruiting for a 2013 Associate position.

What can I expect for this upcoming screen? For following phone interviews? For the super day in the office?