BofA/BAML Global Industrials Group
Recently received an offer for Bank of America's 2025 Summer Analyst Program in New York and have a particular interest in Industrials. Was wondering if anyone had insight into the group (WLB, Culture, Biggest Recent Deals, Best Verticals/MDs) or information on exits from GIG. Would the exits be primarily MM/UMM PE or is MF possible? What about private credit/special sits/distressed debt/equity HF? Any information would be greatly appreciated!
Bump, incoming SA in this group
Congrats! Let's start with exits. These will primarily be MM/UMM. At BofA, to break into MF, it's M&A and FSG that give you the best chances. If all you care about is exits, stick to these two groups. In regards to culture, pretty solid. GIG can be a bit sweaty but I think the culture makes up for it. Deal flow is solid. They announced Textainer/Stonepeak ($7.4bn deal) in October '23 and Brookfield/Triton ($13.3bn deal) in April '23. Those are the two biggest deals I can remember and they've been a couple other billion dollar deals in between. So, very solid deal flow.
Thank you!
Bump
I work in a product group that interacts with this team regularly. Overall very solid.
Pros
- Solid deal flow. We work across all coverage groups, and industrials deals are consistently a huge part of the pipeline. You absolutely will get a couple deals on the resume in your 2 years there, which may not be the case for some of the other groups. Industrials has been carrying the past couple years. It’s solid across the board, there isn’t one vertical in particular that brings in all the $$$.
- Culture. There are some dickhead MDs but that’s probably true for every bank/industry group. The culture from VP downwards is pretty good from what I’ve seen. People are relatively normal, personable, and willing to help.
- Exit opps are OK, a transition to MM/UMM is very feasible, as is private credit. You might not get the same looks as someone at Goldman or PJT, but if you put in the work you’ll get something decent.
Cons
- Can be very sweaty. Good deal flow comes at a cost, my peers in industrials work a lot more than most of the other coverage groups. I think the culture makes up for it, though
- BofA pays like shit across the board, and industrials is no different. Some people in the group have expressed frustration that they’re busy bringing in deals, working 80-90 hours/week consistently… while other groups receive very similar pay and do some light bitch work from 9-7 and get the dinner and Uber home. It depends on what you want, but for your career growth it’s probably better to be on a team where you get deal reps. If you want to coast though, there are better places to be (cough EGRC).
If you’re an analyst coming in for 2 years and out, you could do much worse. Not sure I’d recommend staying longer though, I’m not a huge fan of how BofA’s IB arm operates (ie paying poorly, not firing underperformers and allowing them to collect checks, EGRC falling flat on its face, etc).
I would be cautious with EGRC. A lot of the juniors really have no clue what is going on so the few that do get worked unfortunately. This is also the case with a lot of groups in BofA. It’s amazing how many A2A’s at the bank can not even walk though a sell side process at a high level.
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Bumping
Biggest deal in recent years that they’ve done is the Union Pacific/Norfolk Southern merger.
The group head brought in that deal and he focuses on transportation. The group is also pretty good within building products (super sweaty MDs though) and services.
The majority of associates - directors in that group are either brain dead or have visa issues and cannot leave their jobs. They have been grossly underpaid for the past 2 years (probably will get screwed on this next bonus cycle in February too, but who knows). All of the good ones left to other banks in the past two years.
If you are only concerned about exit opps, go to the M&A group and you will for sure get deal reps. There’s tons of A&As in industrials who have never done a deal and the group usually outsources modeling to the m&a team.
Do you know any recent deals in building products?
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Their services guy just left to JPM. Top 3 M&A banker on the team.
Still one of the more profitable groups at the bank but everyone gets paid like shit to subsidize the bloated groups and science projects across GCIB. Hence why the good bankers have trickled out the past 2-3 years.
Deal flow is decent but the group has too many juniors… 75% of analysts don’t do a M&A deal during their 2 year stint. This is not hyperbole.
Some good MDs but a lot of toxic and inefficient ones who don’t know how to think critically and/or push back on clients.
My two cents… not a terrible place to be an analyst for two years due to the brand and experience. But if your goal is making money and/or maximizing comp to hours, go to literally any other shop.
If the analysts can't get a deal in their belt under 2 years, has that impact their exits/learning experience/lateral opportunities?
Is it true that if people don't place into the supposed "good" groups at BofA (M&A/FSG), the chances that they're going to have deal experience is going to be relatively low given the headcount
did not start as an analyst, so take this advice with a grain of salt.
If you want to stay in IB longer than your two year analyst stint, deal experience absolutely matters. If your goal is two years and out, for the most part having no M&A experience is fine. It helps for applying to b school, credentializing yourself etc but you can probably spin whatever experience you get into something that sounds legit. Being at a good branded bank like BofA helps too
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