Anyone have intel on Incentrum Group?
Hi all,
Has anyone here heard of a firm called Incentrum Group? They seem to have been founded only recently, but have some pretty big heavy hitters from what Im able to source through Linkedin - former BAML vice chairman, BAML / MS MDs, etc. I see also they have analysts but all seem to come from top-tiered schools. Yet, I can't really find any info on them with regards to deals or anything.
Seems like a diamond in the rough kind of opportunity for an internship, but they don't seem to have a dedicated HR staff so if anyone can provide any info on them at all, that would be super helpful, especially how their recruiting process works.
Interviewed with them in the Fall. They're a "merchant bank", so they have an IB side and PE side of things. Analysts work dedicate half their time to each side. Very good experience and I know of analysts who chose Incentrum over EBs/BBs.
Basically, those who accepted offers with them were interested in gaining both exposure to PE while gaining the skills in IB. They recruited on campus for my school where they had two back to back 30 minute interviews (behavioral) and then a superday.
They recruit juniors from specific schools (I'm pretty sure only specific Ivies, from those that I talked to) and look for people that will want to build their career with them. Like ib5136 said they dedicate half/half to IB and PE. I also interviewed with them in the fall and seems like they have good deal flow and talented people. Recruitment consisted of two phone screens followed by a leeengthy super day. I applied via my school.
It’s basically bunch of senior guys who already made big money (eg Lars who sold Monsanto to Bayer) and wants to capture the economics from a big hit or two + do the merchant banking thing. Experience from what I heard is mostly going nowhere but very complicated work / pitch around deals (eg if you tried to do a mega merger between Comcast and Verizon or something that wild) and can be no revenue for a while (which may impact comp). They put some money in as merchant bank (which is mostly not own capital, basically try to source a deal and get capital from others after, so not raise fund first like PE). All pains of a small, early stage place trying to grow. For internship (or even FT) if your other options aren’t BB/EB/well known MM - why not though
Think they attracted some great senior guys (more economics than anything) but I would probably argue it’s been difficult to attract great mid level (if I was an awesome VP at GS why’d I leave, if I did why’d I go to Incentrum over like Centerview). You’ll probably get exposure to senior guys - sure. But if you think a Vice Chairman knows what a summer analyst or analyst is doing (hit F9 to price update entire book), you are sorely mistaken. As Matt Levine put it yesterday
“ I love the idea that the key element of an investment bank summer internship is interaction with clients. Ah, yes, summer, when corporate CEOs stop getting advice from investment bank managing directors and start getting it from 20-year-old interns.”
Again - if this is for Summer 2020 where all banks did recruiting last Fall, why not?
I think the above poster brings up some good points and helpful insight, but I do think he is wrong about this not being an optimal place to start relative to BB/EBs or even good MM. For one, I think his points about a lack of middle management is valid but only when it comes to his perspective as a VP, and not so for those on the lower rungs of the totem pole. I think it's true wherever you go that VPs tend to not drift to newer places simply given that they've already been building up a track record at the firm they're at - this applies to M Klein,. Foros, Dyal, or Liontree as most of their middle mgmt. were all internally promoted as opposed to poached.
To give OP some context, I'm currently at a mid-tier BB and as a second year analyst I work most of the time with my associates and a few VPs. I'd kill to get the daily exposure to these veteran dealmakers that you can get at a small place like this. Part of developing yourself professionally is to have mentors to look up to, and frankly for me that only extends 1-2 rungs up the corporate ladder. See if you have the opportunity to engage with the directors and MDs on a daily basis - seems to be the case given lack of middle mgmt. Now, the one downside to joining a "start-up bank" I can see as an analyst is that your exit opps might be non-traditional. Not that you won't have great exit opps from a place like M Klein or Dyal, but being that they are so new, headhunters may not be made aware of your firm's reputation so placement for them may be more difficult.
Frankly OP, I think this is a great opp. I looked through Linkedin quickly and analysts there all seem like bright kids who graduated from elite colleges with internship experience at places like Jefferies, Goldman, Deutsche, and PJT. Think you'll be in good hands there. Best of luck.
My intel is from people who worked / interviewed there as associate. The senior people there def has a high bar and try to recruit top notch people (eg they want associates to come from BBs, now like PwC advisory) - but it’s been tough (whether you are VP3 or Associate 2 - same stuff applies. Would you leave an established GS/JPM to go there unless you are about to get fired / got screwed in bonus? If you are doing well and leave, 100% of the time you going to a Centerview / Evercore). Analysts - you can go to good schools and spread a wide net and grab some smart kids (plus pretty sure people with prior internship basically didn’t get an offer to go back, but I could be wrong). But associate / VP level it’s much tougher to get decent people in and they are the ones who actually tell the analyst what to do / how to do it (despite the assumptions here that analysts are Gods)
dang never heard of these guys but just checked out their website and all the partners look crazy legit... Anyone know why the partners from TPG would choose to do a merchant banking model vs starting their own pe shop?