Bank of America IBD London Best Groups?
Bank of America IBD London Best Groups?
Would love to know the top groups, culture, exits etc
Thanks
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At the firm and frankly, I do not think contrary to popular belief there is that much of a difference between the groups from a buy-side perspective at the moment excluding the standard consideration. There are some previous posts on this topic that are still relevant.
Historically, M&A was great because you had a lot more deal exposure which will be relevant again in a year or so but at the moment most analysts are on at least 1-2 live M&A deals in every team so less important than before.
However, there are drastic cultural differences between the teams:
Good groups:
- HC: really great culture coming from the top, much more focus on WLB/analyst attrition; good deal flow, some solid exits
- UK: great group of people, think work hard but people seem to like it; good deal flow, some MF exits
- Industrials: can work very hard at times but strong social culture coming from the top (definitely a group where there are a lot of team events happening); good deal flow but not top 3 franchise, historically solid exits
- M&A: great group of people, work very hard at times as only work on live deals or sometimes RFPs, less social/party than other teams but still quite tight-knit; good HH perception, historically strong exit opps
- FIG: really solid team dynamic at the junior level with people enjoying themselves; but some seniors are psychos so be aware
Bad:
- C&R: everyone knows it; it is a horrendous group; work a ton, not a lot of interesting live activity; lost basically their entire associate class; AVOID
- TMT: good team deal flow wise but incredibly painful from what I have seen; and frankly not on the level of other top TMT groups on the street to warrant the culture
Cannot comment
- NRG: not close to the team and seemed ok when back in the office but lost >10 juniors in recent months; should say enough, good exits in Infra/RE though
- FSG: again, not entirely sure; on the one hand very qualitative as relationship management focused but also exposure to financing which is good for more debt focused exits
- LevFin: no clue
Great info, much appreciated mate
Will fill in for FSG and LevFin, know few people there having worked across them on a number of deals and having a friend in one of these groups.
FSG: small team that’s tight knit, works hard but gets good cross product and industry experience. Can basically work one day as a LevFin analyst, one day as an M&A analyst and the last day as an industry analyst. Seen good exits (o/w Onex, Centerbridge, some growth equity and entrepreneurship).
LevFin: team growing relatively fast and has been doing a ton of LBOs lately. Has very good exits on the debt / special sits (Permira, ICG DL & Special Sits, some Special Sits HFs) and ok exits on the PE side (some MM PE, Warburg Pincus, some SWFs) if that’s what you want (most people don’t want to do PE). Has very good culture but has lost a ton of associates during covid.
I see you are mentioning ICG DL, I got contacted recently by a recruiter for that specific team - how well is this firm & team? I have not much experience with private credit / special sits firms.
I heard their LevFin group is quite decent. Anyone knows about it?
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