Best healthcare groups?
Which banks have the best healthcare groups?
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JPM, MS, EVR, JEF
Personally a big fan of industry specific boutiques/MMs that have strong cultures and are not toxic sweatshops. Ton of $1 billion HC deal flow to go around.
Agreed, HL and Jefferies seem to have done really well these past years doing a crazy amount of volume with deals well above 600M mark.
If you happen to enjoy JEF HC's culture, I'd argue there is no better place to be in the MM.
JPM / GS are top BBs with MS a bit below them. CVP and EVR are top boutiques.
Centerview runs large cap pharma. Anyone that says anything else is clueless.
Agreed, CVP is crazy in pharma
Yup they recently worked on Merck/Acceleron which was an insane deal
And it's basically just one partner at CVP who does it. Rather than best group, best dude is more accurate.
EVR does one big deal a year or so and that’s it.
Does some decent sponsor HC deals too. We used them in the past as a buy-side advisor at my company (we're middle market, UMM/MF PE-backed).
Would disagree they advised on Translates sale to Sanofi, Arena to Pfizer, and Jazz on its acquisition of GW. I'd say they've done pretty well the past couple of years especially this year given biopharma M&A has been slow.
CVP has been on practically every single biotech deal over the past 2 years I believe
JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Jefferies
HL’s healthcare group did the most M&A deals in the US for 2020. Not sure where they stand for 2021 but I’d imagine they’re at the top again or close to it.
I think you're talking about $1B MM deals. I believe HL/JEF were tied for #1 and Cain Brothers wasn't far behind. Granted average deal size may vary per firm.
Yea you’re right. Both tied at 22 transactions. I can’t remember where I saw this, but I believe HL healthcare group’s median M&A deal was $450MM. Not sure what Jefferies was.
Centerview, GS, MS in that order
Haha, you clearly you're at MS...
Centerview has consistently been at the top especially in big pharma and biotech, it's honestly very impressive and not much of a debate
Is Jefferies HC team just based out of NYC?
Centerview, JPM/GS, MS, EVR, BAML, JEF
As others have mentioned, CVP is the qatalyst of healthcare deals/ independent advisor that is the gold standard for large deals in the vertical. Such a large industry however, there can be many winners at different size of deals. I’m sure one of WB, HL, Laz, or Jeff have a pretty dominant healthcare practice/ own deals in a smaller range are alternate vertical.
Worth keeping in mind, some banks might have an exceptional biotech MD, but a poor med-tech practice, so likely numerous winners given how large the space is.
One name that hasn’t been mentioned above is Guggenheim. In the LTM they did Arena/Pfizer, GW/Jazz, Myocardia/BMS. All pretty blockbuster transactions. The MedTech franchise is also really solid albeit with higher junior turnover. Heard the services team is starting to rebuild after a few top guys went to Leerink.
Have also noticed a large amount of MedTech turnover at the An-Aso level too.
Any insight into group culture or hours of the Biopharma group for ans/asos?
Great WLB. By far the best of the HC verticals.
I know it isn't the best but how is WF Healthcare group?
sat on a pitch with them before - they strike me as a rather blasé and lackadaisical bunch but are nice guys though
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Fair enough, but analysts and associates remain generalists. Even MDs are technically cross vertical although they clearly specialize as well. So at a junior level more so depends on your staffings.
So i understand, CVP does not have a dedicated healthcare group?
MTS health partners, SVP
SVP is a distressed credit firm
MTS Health's recent BehaVR/Sumitomo deal is one of the most interesting deals I've seen in healthcare recently.
MTS' deals are way smaller in size compared to other firms. Mostly small-mid cap biotechs and pharma companies
True but they do quite unique deal structures and have had some solid exits to PE (few Veritas exits in recent year and a Bain Cap) and healthcare corp exits (Roivant exits were very interesting, far from vanilla corp exits IMO - seems like everyone who exited had a lot of say/wore multiple hats).
I believe they pay street or slightly above (one of the WSO datapoints state an ASO1 made 350K in 2019 but that may be an exception since they were on 4 billion dollar deals that year which is definitely not the norm for them).
pwp?
They kill it in HC
Jefferies for healthcare services and biotech /lifesciences ECM. Cain brothers for MM/ ~200-600m+ healthcare services.
How're TripleTree and Cain Brothers?
TT: great place to be for HCIT. Unsure about solid exits/laterals honestly.
Cain: decent MM/LMM placement in HC PE. Strong laterals. For associates and above: I've seen Citi, William Blair. One of the VP/Directors moved over to McK as an associate partner. For analysts: JPM, PWP, Dyal & Co. Cain Bros seems to have had a turnover issue since they got acquired by KeyBanc but are just a slight notch below Jeff/HL who were tied for #1 this year for MM healthcare deals under $1B (Cain is at 20 vs. Jeff/HL - 22).
TT just sold themselves to Capital One. Not sure how that will impact senior banker turnover.
WB cowen?
One group that hasn't been mentioned: MOE Healthcare Services. Only 2 MDs with 10+ $1 billion+ deals in 2021.
Del.
Should go along w super high churn at mid level + someone in that team jumped off a roof several years back unfortunately. They do very well in PPM, but approach w caution
Oh wow, this group caused that? Have heard def sweaty, but didn’t know about the churn.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned SVB Leerink yet… top tier healthcare boutique
From what I understand mostly equity financing focused group although definitely making a push towards more strategic work too
Any word on Dyal?
Does anyone have color on how MS healthcare differs from GS healthcare in terms of dealflow, exit options and culture?
GS HC is by far a superior franchise in terms of volume, top of the M&A and ECM league tables consistently. MS usually playing for 4th to 5th place.
On the flip side, they share similar cultures honestly, as a junior you can’t go wrong with either.
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