BMO Capital Markets vs Lincoln International (London)

Hi,

I'm due to complete my Master's in London next summer and have 2 offers on the table from BMO Capital Markets / Lincoln International for an M&A Analyst role in London.

Since there isn't much on here about the London offices of these 2 companies, I was wondering if people could provide info on work hours / lifestyle / prestige / exit opps etc. (the usual). My initial thoughts are as follows:

Lincoln - nice, smart people, but working on smaller size deals & less well known than in US / Chicago BMO - large international brand name, but again smaller operation in London & unsure of exit opps / quality of deals

Any info at all from the community would be greatly appreciated

7 Comments
 

As someone working in London i have never even heard of BMO, whilst I’ve come across Lincoln on some MM deals. On that basis i assume BMO don’t have a significant presence and would therefore opt for Lincoln.

Maybe check mergermarket or something in case i am off the mark.

 
Most Helpful

BMO are decent in NatRes (especially M&M) in London but not much else. I think they're on the Centamin defence with BAML. You'll probably do a bit of everything in terms of product though (e.g. M&A, capital markets / levfin, broking etc.).

Lincoln will presumably be smaller, more EBITDA-driven (e.g. consumer, industrials etc.) M&A deals.

So ultimately the choice comes down to whether you want to do NatRes or not, imo.

 

Thought I did post but it visibly didn’t. Anyways: don’t know anyone at BMO so wont comment on that. I know few people at Lincoln. They mostly do Sell-side advisory mandates in the LMM market (50-200mm EV). Some teams have solid dealflow (HC, TMT) - you would be usually closing 3/4 deals per year at least. People seemed happy both about pay and culture - very nice people quite laid back but very brit. Hours seem good too, people didn’t look crushed although busy on deals. Exits should be doable to EBs/other MM players after a year or so. Especially for firms doing sub 1Bn deals (Moelis, GHL, Jefferies, Blair, Bair). UK LMM PE is possible.

 

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