Apr 10, 2023

MF Liquid Credit SA / Analyst Programs

Interested to hear what people's thoughts are on these programs - especially because they're so new and there isn't much data on exits / career outcomes. To be specific, referring to liquid credit groups that focus on leveraged loans / high yield bonds (BX, KKR, Ares) as opposed to investing deep in cap structure (programs like BCC which obviously are spoken for).

Guess my question is what people view as the merits of such a role. To me, seems like if you want to do public markets investing (hedge funds, LO), this would be a better place to start than most banking programs since you'll have two years of thinking like an investor (analyzing earnings, talking to management, etc.) and plenty of practice modeling. Obviously, the downside is that you usually don't get a ton of experience deep in the cap structure or in distressed sits, but it still seems better than most banking programs (again if you want to do public markets) where you might not touch a model / think critically.

Full disclosure, sophomore in the process for one of these SA programs and weighing my options.

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I’m not at a mega fund, but my thought process at going into an investment seat doing HY/LL out of undergrad is based on the thought that I want to be an investor making decisions. It doesn’t make sense to go into banking when it generally sucks and I don’t love it. Better to get in a role doing research, making investment decisions and learning by doing.

 

Really depends how stressed / distressed experience you end up getting. If it’s a setup like Oak Hill Advisors or Bain Capital Credit where you do performing down to stressed / distressed, you can move to a lot of seats, if it’s just performing credit, you are better off doing banking -> PE.   By the nature of a performing liquid credit investor, you cover way too many credits to really, really dive deep. 

 

Generally, is it possible to move from private credit (~10bn global AUM) to a credit HF seat focused on more stressed/distressed names? We spend a lot of time on each name we underwrite, and with the docs during negotiation, but high returning stuff (PIK/pref/stressed refis) is more bespoke and definitely not the main focus.

Will be difficult cause you don’t also have the liquid experience as well. Might be doable from a platform that does a ton of non-sponsored deals and known to be hairier like a Blue Torch or MGG but if what you are doing is mostly sponsor unitranche finance, uphill climb.  Would suggest moving to either the private credit arm of one of the credit HFs like a Brigade or Silverpoint or moving up market to a firm like HPS that does a bunch of non-sponsored or a hairier group at one of the traditional PC shops.

 

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