What is the best BofA IBD group for exit opportunity to PE / HF? (London)

Based on the M&A and sector coverage group within BofA, which group is best for a PE/HF exit? Is it better to be a sector generalist especially if maybe you are interested in infra/energy fund rather than vanilla PE?

12 Comments
 

Being in an industry group absolutely does not limit your ability to exit into another industry whatsoever. You just have to demonstrate a level of thoughtfulness and genuine interest in your targeted exit industry group and it won’t matter. 90% of the modeling is the same (unless you’re only working on insurance or banks) and all of the basic skills (understanding how a deal process works, being able to do the ground level BS work like managing the VDR, PPT skills, etc.) are 100% transferable.
 

Nonetheless, my personal opinion is that generalist M&A is a better experience if you’re more focused on gaining a deeper level of modeling experience. But don’t be scared about working coverage.

 

It really depends on the group structure. In some M&A teams, you're only working on 'legal stuff' and not much modelling as the sector teams cover that. The reason is that the M&A team rarely holds the client's relationship and generally lacks industry-specific knowledge (although the M&A team may be on client calls regardless). Honestly depends on how strong the industry team is at modelling M&A. If at BofA most of the M&A modelling is outsourced to the M&A team then that's great, otherwise, a strong coverage team may even offer more exposure. 

 

Come on, NatRes is not good. Once upon a time they were one of the best on the street but that was like 5+ years ago but somehow they manage to hold the reputation. Neither the energy team nor the power team is even middle tier anymore and can’t recall a single major transaction either of them were on.
 

Would say the mining guys are solid (although previous head left) and have good culture but it’s a relatively small sector. The overall team still places well in infra but if you’re looking for traditional PE exits or actual deal experience, pick a different team.

 

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