Best A&D groups 2026?

Here’s your complete list, as someone who’s worked on MM and BB Ind/A&D teams, I’m also more defense focused so take that as you will. This is also US only

Cool A&D companies (not parts manufacturers) are mostly run by middle markets and EB’s because the space is so nuanced, they’ll go to BB’s for financing as needed.

Touse: Baird (ran by Jean and John) used to run the middle market and DC area but their whole team literally just got poached to Evercore - so Evercore looks to be top of the street now. EVR was already extremely strong and now they look armed for war. Jean and John RAKE

For EB’s: EB’s come across random mandates a lot so I wouldn’t classify them powerhouses, more as scalpels - they do a lot of buyside work due to their relationships (PJT/CVP/PWP). They’re great firms but it’s less of a practice and more of just miscellaneous mandates (albeit pretty cool mandates). Gugg is bad don’t go there. Lazard is pretty solid but it’s a lot of cross border and MM-sized stuff. I don’t believe Moelis is particularly close to A&D stuff at all, they did that Boeing defense tech divestiture though (random).

For MM’s: KippsDeSanto runs the $20M-$400M EV range. Kipps is a great bank if defense is truly a passion. Houlihan still gets decent mandates but it’s a volume shop so a lot of mid mandates in there too. For reference, the Houlihan team used to be lead by Jean and John, then they got poached to Baird, and now just got poached to Evercore. Raymond James used to be okay but have fallen off hard (like one mandate a year), largely carried by ECM. Piper bought G-squared partners which has made them decent in the space. Jefferies is a great player in the space, a lot of good mandates, however they are also a huge volume shop and it’s a coin flip if a deal they bring to market will close or not. Lincoln gets decent mandates but competes more with a KippsDeSanto. An MD stayed back at Baird who’s great too - he mostly focuses on intelligence/spy companies, he’ll keep Baird running for a while.

For BB’s: keep in mind that you can’t specialize in A&D below the VP level at these banks, you’d just have to pray you get put on an A&D rotation (rotations usually change each quarter). Maybe you could be on A&D full time if your dad is Mr. RTX
- GS: best BB for A&D, run by a couple old heads who read the print newspaper every morning
- Citi: weirdly very strong in the space, they were on the United Tech / Raytheon merger (which formed RTX) and fed families for years with that one
- JPM: Bad. First off, their IB structure is extremely messy for A&D, you have diversified industries, commercial bank A&D (which does a lot of IB related debt work) and a separate Petno mandated 35 person team that all work overtop and against each other. The DC A&D people are a strange bunch, too: big egos, awkward in the room, and weirdly proud of a franchise they didn't build. JPM survives off of the JPM name. Very off-putting people - just my experience though
- MS: more tech heavy but they do cool things
- Deutsche: down bad for a mandate and can’t get one for their lives
- BofA: I don’t see much from them on the A&D front
- UBS: dead
- Barclays: used to be decent but not very hot anymore, maybe laying off half their North American bankers wasn’t so great for business

Other banks: RBC punches above its weight but its decks look like they’re straight out of 2003. Wells is mostly financing not much M&A at all.

Happy to clarify any of that