Is there any issue with going straight into SSits/OpVal/DD investing as opposed to Rx IBD first?
I’m based in london and the restructuring pipeline is basically full of people doing summers and then converting.
I’ve done M&A for two years and really enjoy it, but I just can’t sit straight without wanting to know what the rest of the Capital structure looks like. I’ve always wanted to be investor mostly private but could entertain some public, & have had the main goal of being able to look at a company in its totality and then invest across the cap structure.
My issue is I don’t really want to go back and do a masters for the summer seat & waste a year, especially after doing two years in m&a, so I’m wondering if it’s best to just try & land a small special situations or distress credit hedge fund.
Also, from what I’m gathering some of the transactions you can end up with in restructuring investment banking aren’t actually relevant for SSits/DDinvesting either & are more just stringing out existing creditors agreements or pre-packing administration sales. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Furthermore, if we go from one extreme to another, BX TacOps hires straight out of undergrad, so clearly they’re missing the two years at a restructuring bank and still fairing quite well/are able to pick up the reins across the cap structure.
Would really appreciate the opinion of people in the industry. Let me know if my logic seems off. I know I’ll be sacrificing the size of deals at a smaller fund compared to in restructuring at a bank, but I still think I’ll be able to work my way upstream from this position either way.
Appreciate your time.
Even if you’re in credit & have done Rx banking, would appreciate your input on how Rx bankers compare to those who got a PC Analyst place straight out of UG & if they lack in anyway. Cheers
It's not that serious, you don't have to be "unable to sit straight without knowing the rest of the capital structure" to work in distressed. BX tac ops (or hybrid value at Apollo, Carlyle, etc.) aren't distressed teams anyways if that's where you want to work.
Have u seen/heard of SSits/DD investors that don’t have Rx experience I suppose is rly the question.
Not sure I fully get your question, but I’ve written about this quite extensively in the past so I’ll give it a shot
I think Rx banking is a very valuable seat specifically for distressed / flexible mandate type seats because most Rx seats in London run very lean teams and have high deal flow, meaning you get to see a lot of different types of deals and interact with different types of funds (RM, hedge funds, private credit funds, sponsors, corporates etc). That in itself is valuable and is not something a BX/KKR/APO analyst can easily replicate (I have other thoughts on these seats as well but neither here nor there).
With that being said, there are plenty of people in distressed seats that didn’t do Rx, especially because process heavy Rx trades have fallen out of favour with a lot of funds. I can’t speak for all funds but where I’ve been at what I have personally looked for are candidates who are technically strong, hard working, and intellectually curios. So long as they seem mouldable, it’s somewhat irrelevant what they did before. With that being said, most shops don’t hire often and when they do it’s for one seat, and so you will naturally be at a disadvantage at the first hurdle given the competition will include loads of people with “relevant” experience. Once you get past that hurdle it should in theory be fair game.
What I think is true is that an RX stint will open more doors to distressed funds versus where you are today. What is less clear is whether a stint at a “lesser” distressed fund would open the same number of doors. My suspicion is generally not, just because some funds do value track record / pedigree as a litmus test / proxy.
If I were in your shoes, I’d probably try to see what seats I can get first and explore an associate Rx seat as a backup. Assuming you get both, you can then weigh up whether the investing seats available to you today are worth it. Getting actual offers will make it a bit more real life than pontificating on the internet.
Exactly the type of response I was hoping for. Appreciate your time. I wonder if Rx Asso spots are readily lateral-able for an M&A Asso, it was my presumption that RX is a different ball game and so would require an An start. I will take a look, thanks. 
Have you seen debt solicitors move directly into distressed/HY, or do they generally need to go through an IB seat first? I've passed CFA Level I to signal comfort with the numbers, if that helps. Any advice would be much appreciated.
What trades have these funds pivoted to? Instead of Rx heavy
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