Hey everyone, feel like we haven't had a good ol' argument/friendly discussion in a while. What would you say is the current tier list of investment banks in 2016 based on overall brand strength? If you have real balls, rank them with no ties (1a, 1b).
Ranking the Bulge Bracket and Elite Boutique Banks
Before looking at any rankings, it is important to note that these are subjective and can change at any point based on the deal flow at a given bank. These can also vary by group. Below are rankings contributed by our users.
- Tier 1a: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley
- Tier 1b: JP Morgan
- Tier 2a: Citi, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Barclays
- Tier 2b: Deutsche Bank
- Tier 3: UBS, Wells Fargo, Nomura, RBC, HSBC
Elite Boutique Investment Banking Rankings
- Tier 1a: PJT, Centerview, Evercore, Qatalyst
- Tier 1b: Lazard, Moelis, Perella Weinberg Partners
- Tier 2: Greenhill, Rothschild, Houlihan Lokey, Guggenheim, Macquarie, Harris Williams, Jefferies
- Tier 3: William Blair, Lincoln International, LionTree, Stifel, Oppenheimer, Peter J. Solomon, Robert Baird, Piper Jaffray
Bulge Bracket Banks Characterized by Sorority Sisters
User @LongIslandBound" shared a humorous post:
"LongIslandBound"
Top:
- GS: Catty, rich girls. Lot of coke, hard pledge process. Only mix with Apollo/KKR
- MS: Smaller sisterhood feeding mostly from HYP. Rivals with GS and always try to outdo them in philanthropy
- JPM: Stuck up girls who think they're top but really just spread debt comps all day
Mid:
- BAML: Super diverse, fun sisterhood. Merged with ML girls after they got kicked off campus but everyone still thinks they're just a retail sisterhood.
- Citi: Strong national organization but kind of weak at USA
- Barclays: Sceney international girls who used to party hard but got in trouble with their national organization
- CS: More international girls in trouble with nationals
Bottom:
- Deutsche: Nice girls but got in big trouble for their off balance sheet derivatives philanthropy. Currently on probation with the SEC board
- UBS: Considered the sisters who didn't get bids at any other BB houses. More of a wealth management sisterhood now.
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Learn more about our users thoughts on the quality of the investment banks in the 2018 Wall Street Oasis Industry Report.
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edit: forget it
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I'd say for tech Qatalyst is Number 1 w/o a doubt. Look at the size and breadth of deals they've been on across internet, software, semis.
PJT below Guggenheim makes me question your whole list
I agree with the BB list, although I would add Soc Gen above BMO. Here is m version of the EB
Note: I am a little biased towards the energy space, although if I was 100% talking about energy I would raise Jefferies and Piper Jaffray to to after HL before Moelis, and drop Qatalyst to last.
EB/MM/Boutique: 1. Lazard 2. Evercore 3. HL 4. Moelis 5. Jefferies 6. Centerview 7. PJT 8. Perella Weinberg 9. Qatalyst 10. Piper Jaffray 11. Guggenheim 12. Macquarie
Lol the EB ranking is so bad in general. Another note: Guggenheim, Jefferies, Piper, Macquarie aren't even EBs... Just MM/boutiques for now
This is asked every now and then but what about Energy focused IBs or those that are strong in Energy?
I would imagine Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs have to be high on the list given the OFS deals they have been involved in this and last year. Any thoughts?
Energy I would rank as follows This is CURRENT, not Historical, banks which are not strong market leaders can go in and out of vouge in this space very quickly and there is a TON of MD poaching which happens regularly.
EDIT: below list reordered from original content due to information below
EB/Specialist:
the rest do not have a noteworthy energy presence to my knowledge.
No Guggenheim? They did Great Plains - Westar, among other things, and I believe the entire former BX / PJT team went there after the spin off
I made an amended list based on what you guys really want: Top: GS: Catty, rich girls. Lot of coke, hard pledge process. Only mix with Apollo/KKR MS: Smaller sisterhood feeding mostly from HYP. Rivals with GS and always try to outdo them in philanthropy JPM: Stuck up girls who think they're top but really just spread debt comps all day Mid: BAML: Super diverse, fun sisterhood. Merged with ML girls after they got kicked off campus but everyone still thinks they're just a retail sisterhood. Citi: Strong national organization but kind of weak at USA Barclays: Sceney international girls who used to party hard but got in trouble with their national organization CS: More international girls in trouble with nationals Bottom: Deutsche: Nice girls but got in big trouble for their off balance sheet derivatives philanthropy. Currently on probation with the SEC board UBS: Considered the sisters who didn't get bids at any other BB houses. More of a wealth management sisterhood now.
This is my favorite. post. ever. dot. period. ever.
As someone who is an energy banker, Lazard is no where near the top. Probably one of the last places I'd want to work if my goal was to have a career in energy. The brand name helps when recruiting outside the state, but people in energy circles know it's not relevant in the space. They may have done a few decent deals recently, but there are a number of banks consistently doing better and paying much way better. At least two banks come to mind here that have solid deal flow and pay well above NYC street.
If I were looking now, I'd preference CS, Jefferies, Evercore, Barclays, and TPH in no particular order based on a combination of deal flow, compensation, and exit opportunities.
This list is VERY different from general investment banking rankings, as Houston has a very different hierarchy. NYC is a lot more group dependent, so I feel it's not really worth ranking. For what I'm interested in, if I ever switched out of energy, I'd preference PJT, Centerview, Goldman, Evercore, MS, but there's are plenty of top notch groups across other banks in the city as well.
What about Greenhill? I heard they were one of the top elite boutiques?
They've been trending down since Greenhill stepped down in 2007. Do a few large transactions every year, but have been losing MDs left and right. Still a great place in terms of hours / pay / exits, but they definitely don't have the momentum that some other boutiques have.
PJT definitely hasn't changed much since its Blackstone days and I think they still punch above Evercore / Moelis / Lazard in terms of exits. Evercore has increased its analyst class size quite a bit, believe it's above 30 now, and not sure how that has impacted placement. Moelis and Lazard are keeping class sizes in low 20s and placement was great this past cycle. Lazard placement actually varies quite a bit depending on group. Moelis NY was arguably the top placing bank on the street for MF PE this past cycle but that can and does change since they were pretty bad the previous cycle. LA didn't do too well this past cycle and had a few analysts actually lateral to different firms.
In terms of deal experience, it definitely varies quite a bit for the boutiques. Greenhill pretty much focuses on large cap transactions so you might not close anything as an analyst but you'll get great deals on your resume if you do. Centerview and Perella are also like this. Evercore and Lazard have less of a focus on large cap and churn MM deals frequently so you'll have chances to get both deal experience from MM stuff and to get thorough corporate advisory experience. Moelis is kind of an oddball in that they do anything they can get their hands on resulting in many MM deals and sponsor deals. Also unlike other boutiques, they specialize in sell-sides from both corporates and sponsors while others do mainly buy-side stuff. Pros and cons to both the models but think Evercore and Lazard have a good balance.
Compensation wise, Evercore and Moelis are tied for total comp. Lazard is lower by a significant margin - their top bucket bonus for the first years was lower than the bottom bucket bonus for Moelis and Evercore first years.
Cuz I spit hot fire