It seemed to me that there have been many recent discussions that ask about best groups at this or that ibank.
With many of the posts on this topic outdated in the forum, I thought it might be quite useful to aggregate this info here, in one place. So, monkeys, what are the crown jewel groups of various investment banks and EBs?
Note: To avoid pointless arguments about prestige and which ibank has a larger e-penis, please list the ibanks in no particular order.
| +314 | Return Rates For Interns Are Falling? | 131 | 39m |
| +141 | Article: Why UBS's Asian M&A bankers are thriving and UBS's American M&A bankers are not | 15 | 40m |
| +119 | I am a drunk MD AMA | 40 | 7h |
| +95 | Evercore > Goldman and I don’t think it’s particularly close anymore | 44 | 8m |
| +85 | UBS Offer Day | 29 | 1h |
| +57 | An Outsider’s View of RX Banking Out of College | 6 | 6d |
| +53 | I hate Wells Fargo | 14 | 1h |
| +46 | No return offer - feeling like a failure is an understatement | 16 | 6h |
| +43 | WF Return offers | 28 | 1d |
| +39 | Should I go back into a junior IBD role for comp? | 16 | 22h |
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I'm just listing what I know. NOT an exhaustive list. Alpha Order
BB: Barclays Natural Resources CS Energy GS TMT GS HC GS FIG JPM M&A MS M&A MS Power
EB: Most of the boutiques are relative generalists but these subsets I know are good: Blackstone M&A Blackstone Restructuring Evercore Energy Evercore Restructuring Jefferies HC Lazard Restructuring Lazard Power
Please feel free to add on to this list.
Add to this- GS Consumer Retail, MS Tech (Menlo), MS MediaComm, JPM HC, CS Sponsors, Citi M&A, DB LevFin, Greenhill M&A-- I don't believe in these sorts of lists, but figure I might as well add some groups that most certainly should be on one
BAML CRG, Barc power
This is so fucking inane!!
I don't get people complaining about these lists. Everyone wants to go to a good group. Even if you don't get offers from every single one, it's valuable to know which groups generally place well or have good deal flow. It's only a problem when people get into a bitch fit about it.
Doing any sort of power ranking is dumb, but with the continual change in groups year to year, it's valuable to maintain an accurate list of the better groups each year to aid in the new class in determining an optimal approach to recruiting.
nvm
Are these groups best overall or just in NY? I would love to know sth more about groups in London.
In the U.S. GS TMT is in SF, for example.
Well...not exactly
I get what your saying. Especially regarding the GS TMT and MS M&A. Don't agree on no proprietary knowledge on some but if one tries to do an exhaustive list then yes, there is some level of bullshit.
Agreed with above. I think it's up to the OP to conduct his/her due diligence upon receiving offers. Look at stats at Dealogic, see fee share details, and most of all, talk to bankers from those various groups to get a feel for deal flow and most importantly, culture and how junior and senior levels interact with one another.
I know this is off topic. But I feel like these lists dominate these forums. Am I the only one who busts my ass and gets 1 or 2 offers at mediocre places? I'm just happy I broke into IBD.
I don't have these kind of options..
I think this is useful. Even if you aren't ever going to get offers from these groups (or care). It will save at least 10 threads a month. The information may be inaccurate, and it is wise for people to do their own hands on research, but that's up to them. Having all this information in one thread will be better for the forum
My understanding is as follows:
Goldman: FIG/TMT....followed by HC/CRG. However, everyone says that if you want culture and great exits, take CRG or HC over FIG/TMT. Also, I know people at TMT who claim the group is in a mild decline and may even be outplaced by CRG and FIG.
MS: M&A, Media and Comms, and Power and Energy. Power and Energy has a great culture and Media and Comms is on a slight decline.
JPM: M&A and Sponors (maybe Lev fin...). Lots of people like to throw in all sorts of other industry groups like TMT and HC when talking about top JPM groups. I know JPM pretty well and I can tell you that anything outside of M&A and Sponors wont place anywhere close to any of the other groups listed here.
Evercore: You are technically a generalist but are later placed into industry groups. My friends there say that tech and transport are the best groups there. Hopefully, I didnt mess up the group names...I heard this a few months ago.
Lazard: Restructuring and Healthcare always come up as the top groups. I also hear that TMT is good and I know they have placed well recently.
Moelis: LA I think still outplaces NYC but LA gets worked hard.
Greenhill: I dont know much here. I think they still place very well as a firm into PE/HF. However, I have also heard exits are in decline.
BAML: Sponsors I thought placed the best followed by M&A and Lev Fin.
Citi: M&A is the best group followed by Sponsors is what I believe the consensus is. I see lots of Citi M&A people at great shops....haven't come across anyone from Sponsors.
Credit Suisse: This one bugs me. Everyone says that their Sponsors group is amazing...and I think that it is very good. However, I don't think it places nearly as well as the top GS/MS groups or the EBs. M&A is also up there and does well.
Barclays Natural Resources has some legendary Lehman alums. The CEO of Barclays Americas is Skip McGee who was former head of Investment Banking at Lehman and worked on the Exxon/XTO Deal.
Haha, Skip McGee! What a name.
P.s., this thread is fatuous
Any thoughts on CS M&A? Any insight is greatly appreciated.
I want to know about CS M&A in NYC to clarify any confusion. Thanks in advance.
BX Restructuring/M&A, GS TMT/FIG, MS M&A----historically the best placing groups on Wall Street
UBS GIG and public finance.
Here's a question - how exactly do we examine whether groups are "in decline" or "rising"?
For example, there have been a people who've said that GS TMT is no longer the powerhouse it once was. APAE, in another post, points out that over the past two MF recruiting cycles (because let's face it, a lot of people here place credence in that sort of thing), CRG has arguably outdone TMT. Now, is that why people have said TMT is in decline? If so, doesn't really make sense to me, since MF placement is a function of your skill, not just whether you've made it into the "top" group or not. So by extension, the fact that CRG has placed a few more into MF's isn't necessarily an indictment of TMT, but more so normal, random fluctuation.
Or is it because TMT has not been able to retain its summer talent? I know that in the past couple of years, it hasn't had anything close to a 90+ acceptance or retention rate with regards to summers/new analysts.
Just curious on everyone's thoughts.
I could be very wrong about this but I believe it has nothing to do with retention rates of quality people. New people are lining up to replace them at all levels that require churn. The quality of a group has primarily to do with the MDs at the top who bring in a lot of deals, and high profile ones at that, or the group's reputation suffers.
The head of your Sponsors group either has a house in the Hamptons next to the heads of KKR, Apollo, and Carlyle, or he doesn't and then your group picks up scraps based on favorable deal terms. I could be wrong but I don't think people below VP have any effect on whether or not a group is considered prestigious.
Add Jefferies FIG - they closed the biggest bank deal this year. Also include JPM Consumer group.
Wells Fargo anyone?!
Best BB Groups (Originally Posted: 05/01/2008)
What are the best BB groups to be in now, for later moving into PE. Here is my impression:
1) GS TMT 2) MS M&A 3) GS FIG 4) Top boutique M&A 5) Mer M&A 6) Other IB groups at GS
Does this ranking look correct?
You've got it all wrong... if you want to move into PE, you need to aim for the following groups:
1) JT Marlin - Equity Capital Markets 2) Barings Bank - IBD Derivatives 3) Duke and Duke - Their Comodities and Energy related groups 4) Mitch & Murray - Real Estate IBD/Real Estate Financing 5) Garfinkle, Garfield and Co. - M&A Advisory
There's your top 5!
All the banks you named were boutiques...his question was for BB. And GS SSG would probably be up there somewhere,
So what do you do? -I work for an investment banking firm. Oh okay; you are like my brother, he works for Edward Jones. -No, a college degree is required in my profession
Funniest thing I've read all day.
wow
WOW indeed. MMBinNC, these banks are fictional, with the exception of Barings which was taken down by Neeson.
I think he knew that they were fictional and was probably just joking....or at least I hope he was joking. If not, wow.
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