Just curious as to how the mentioned groups vary in deal flow, particularly sponsors and M&A. I've seen good things about the bank on previous (outdated) posts and was looking if someone has some current information on deal flow, exit opps, etc.
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The product groups are definitely the strongest groups to be in at BAML. From what I know, it seems BAML sponsors and M&A have better PE exit opps. Both place very strongly in the upper middle market PE funds and will get you a lot of interviews with MFs... Lev Fin has decent PE placement (though definitely behind the other two) but also places well into credit and debt funds.... Beyond that it is really a personal preference on what type of work you would like to be doing and what culture you fit best with.... M&A has really strong deal flow especially over the last few years and you get the strongest modeling skills in this group... M&A hours will be pretty long but BAML M&A has a strong culture for the most part that people enjoy. This is also one of the larger groups so there are a lot of analysts in your class which people I know liked.... Sponsors you will definitely get strong LBO modeling experience and exposure but you probably do not have as balanced of an approach as you do in M&A... Sponsors is also a smaller group so it definitely has a different feel than M&A....Sponsors probably gets you the most bang for your buck in terms of hours... Should have less intense hours than M&A with very similar exit opps.... Lev Fin does a ton of deals and has incredibly strong deal flow at BAML but you do not get the best modeling experience for PE in this group.... LBOs and operating models are usually built out of other groups and the modeling done by Lev Fin is really mostly just debt modeling.... Definitely good for debt and credit funds but slightly less appealing to true PE than the other two groups... This is also a huge group so definitely a big group culture here... Hours are different than true banking as well since slightly more market focused so probably put in more hours earlier in the day and this group works pretty hard overall as well because of the deal flow.... Overall all three groups are strong just a preference as to what you want out of your experience. Hope this helps.
Sponsors for PE exits and culture. Strongest overall group at BAML in my opinion.
Thanks a lot bbc24. Bottom line i'm really interested in hearing what you'd have to say about sponsors. Could you please elaborate a bit? Thanks
Bump would like to hear additional thoughts on this
Also where do each of these groups stack up to their peers on the street?
bump
Have a close personal friend in one of these groups. He says that all the 3 groups from an overview snapshot level place about the same. The main difference is that Sponsors does the least modeling, M&A is all modeling, and Lev Fin. is in the middle. All have strong deal flow and M&A is a complete sweatshop (could be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective).
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