Leonard Green and Partners

Private Equity

Est Annual Revenue:
$100m+
AUM:
$8bn-$10bn
Website
Industry: Private Equity

Leonard Green and Partners Interview Questions

5 total interview insight submissions

Interview Experience (88%)

The Interview Experience is a score from 1 star (very negative) to 5 stars (very positive) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the donut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire dataset.

4.2
  • Very Negative
  • Negative
  • Neutral
  • Positive
  • Very Positive
Interview Difficulty (93%)

The Interview Difficulty is a score ranging from very difficult (red) to very easy (green) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. The higher the number, the more difficult the interviews on average. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more insights, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire data set.

3.4
  • Very Easy
  • Easy
  • Average
  • Difficult
  • Very Difficult

Interviews at Leonard Green and Partners

YearPositionLocationGroup/DivisionExperienceDifficulty
2017Summer AnalystLos AngelesGeneralistPositiveAverage
2014Private Equity Summer AnalystLos AngelesGeneralistPositiveAverage
2014Private Equity AssociateLos AngelesGeneralistPositiveDifficult
2012Summer AnalystLos AngelesVery PositiveDifficult
2012Summer Private Equity AnalystLos AngelesPositiveAverage

Summer Analyst Interview - Generalist

Anonymous interview candidate in Los Angeles

Outcome

No Offer

Interview Source

College / University / On Campus Recruiting

Length of Process

Less than 1 month
Interviewed: August 2017 Date Submitted: Sep 04, 2018

Application

1 on 1 Interview

Interview

Invited to dinner with associates from the firm the day before the interview. 2 back-to-back interviews with some easy technicals. Mostly fit based. The firm really wanted to see a high interest in PE and living in California

Interview Questions

Why Los Angeles and not New York City, seeing as I was from the east coast and obviously much closer to new york. Other questions included the minimum stuff about leveraged buyouts, what other jobs I was considering, why I had a passion for private equity, and what I knew about the firm. I was also asked to perform a paper LBO which was pretty easy and I could find out how to do online. There were also some tricky but not impossible accounting questions that a liberal arts major might struggle with.
Sample Answer

Private Equity Summer Analyst Interview - Generalist

Anonymous interview candidate in Los Angeles

Outcome

No Offer

Interview Source

College / University / On Campus Recruiting

Length of Process

1-2 months
Interviewed: November 2014 Date Submitted: Nov 30, 2014

Application

Phone Interview

Interview

There was an initial 30min phone screen of most qualified candidates. From this pool, several candidates were selected for in-person on-campus interviews. From this a few more were selected for an on-site superday in LA.

The phone interview was pretty straightforward and brief. Started with the classic "tell me about yourself" then "why did you apply". Then a significant discussion regarding an LBO project I worked on and put on my resume. My interviewer focused on only my contributions to the project, and thus there weren't any high level LBO modeling questions.

Interview Questions

Tell me about the Precedent Transactions and Comparables analysis you did?

Walked through how I defined the universes (focused on similar size and same industry firms), what multiples I used (EV/EBITDA is most important by far), and the conclusions that can be drawn from the valuation.
Would there be any reason that a firm with low Fixed Assets might be a good target for an LBO?

He asked this after I described the target firm as being unattractive because of its low fixed assets (which isn't 100% correct). The answer is that this is a double-edged sword. A firm with high-fixed assets can use those assets to secure more (cheap) bank debt, but at the same time those firms often have to make more capital expenditures for maintenance. Lenders will realize this and will factor it into their credit analyses.
Sample Answer

Private Equity Associate Interview - Generalist

Anonymous interview candidate in Los Angeles

Outcome

No Offer

Interview Source

Recruiter

Length of Process

Less than 1 month
Interviewed: February 2014 Date Submitted: Jul 15, 2014

Application

Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview

Interview

A phone call screen but did not make it through to the in-person interview at the firm's HQ location. Fit based questions, deal based questions, and a few technicals.

Interview Questions

Remembering all deal details including income statement/balance sheet/cash flow items. Also asked about why LGP and why LA. Investment rationale for deals done.
Sample Answer

Summer Analyst Interview -

Anonymous interview candidate in Los Angeles

Outcome

No Offer

Interview Source

College / University / On Campus Recruiting

Length of Process

Less than 1 month
Interviewed: 2012 Date Submitted: Mar 16, 2013

Application

Phone Interview

Interview

First round interview via phone with 2 associates. They were really nice and asked a few fit questions and a few advanced LBO questions which I bombed. Not your average IBD interview difficulty but it makes sense since thie was for PE with the chance to stay 5 years until you go to B-School.

Didn't hear back for over a month though. They were not very good at responding to emails.

Interview Questions

Walk me through a sophisticated LBO with specific points addressing Revolver, Mezzanine, Sources and Uses, purchase and exit multiple, etc.

They wanted an actual model, not the concepts behind an LBO. Such as, you would first start out by modeling the...and so on.
Sample Answer

Summer Private Equity Analyst Interview -

Anonymous interview candidate in Los Angeles

Outcome

No Offer

Interview Source

College / University / On Campus Recruiting

Length of Process

Less than 1 month
Interviewed: 2012 Date Submitted: Nov 14, 2012

Application

Phone Interview

Interview

I applied through an offer for specific students at my school and set up a phone interview with an associate at the firm. After the phone interview, remained in contact, but after speaking with another student in the same position, it was pretty clear that they it wouldn't be a great starting job. He knew our interviewer and said they only hired one summer intern last year, and he didn't get a return offer. This wasn't really make or break, but I didn't really want to go out of my way and spend a lot of time working on this opportunity when I'm at a BB target.

Interview Questions

Walk me through a DCF model.
Walk me through your background and how you chose the school you attend.
Why Private Equity?
How would you value a building? Wasn't quite sure what he was looking for at the start, but he just really wanted the 3 valuation metrics.
How would you calculate WACC for the DCF model?
Sample Answer