Best Groups for IB Long-Term

Hey everyone,

Long-term lurker on this thread and felt that this topic has not been addressed too explicitly beforehand and could use some insight.

Currently an associate at one of the BBs / EBs in NYC and realized that I might want to actually pursue banking long-term. I started out my career in a generalist M&A group and have since moved to industrials coverage. I have since enjoyed the mix of (i) deal execution and (ii) pitching interesting / thoughtful ideas to clients. I wanted to ask whether people had thoughts on which groups have the most positive tailwinds going forward from an investment banking perspective. To me this means sectors with strong M&A / financing activity, which may or may not correlate with being strong sectors for investment.

I would say that I've learned that any sector could be interesting to me personally given what I like most about banking is the variety of situations / bespoke structuring and negotiation / financing aspects and less so the actual companies. With that said, I know that specialization as you become more senior is important (e.g., building relationships with the players in the space, knowing the right buyers, etc.). My initial thoughts on a few sectors are as follows:

• Healthcare in the U.S. is likely to remain active given changes in regulations, innovations in biopharma which attract the interest of large conglomerates
• Large-cap C&R seems rather concentrated but deal flow could be ample enough given the constant portfolio pruning / optimization of the large conglomerates (particularly food and beverage, which has a large number of sizeable divestiture opportunities in-market currently), while small-to-mid cap C&R remains highly fragmented and attractive to all the mid-market sponsors
• Infrastructure and renewables seem to be heavily tailwinded by investment in the space, primarily via sponsors who would seek to exit at some point
• Industrials and technology are just large parts of the economy and likely to continue generating activity by virtue of innovation, portfolio pruning of the larger entities, etc.
• Would love to learn more about media, entertainment, and sports -- seems to be a nascent space but deal flow looks limited and dominated by Raine / Liontree, with these two not missing any of the larger transactions it seems

Note that I have ruled out product groups like ECM / DCM given my interest lies in covering clients and thinking through interesting ideas. In general, it seems there are deals to be had in most groups but would love to hear the thread's thoughts on considerations around building out coverage (e.g., whether a space is fragmented enough to to find a niche and be the go-to banker), while also getting a decent amount of reps in throughout a career.