Can someone break down what the finance industry in Toronto looks like in some detail?
Here's how I see it:
- Big 5 banks and National Bank (all have a small number of front office roles, most prominent banking teams are O&G, real estate, and mining)
- You have a few PE shops (Atlas Partners, Onyx)
- A few small hedge funds
- Brookfield as the main alternative asset manager (infra, renewables, real estate)
- Pension funds with their own PE legs and public equity arms as well
Is my view off? Please can someone help me fill in the gaps? What are the sectors and skills most valuable to pursue a career in Toronto (only have US IB experience)?
Regarding sector coverage - O&G would sit in Calgary. Toronto would still have other regular groups such as M&A, Diversified / Industrials, TMT (maybe called CMT here), Healthcare, Consumer & Retail (have seen this fall under diversified coverage, but not sure about every bank)
Most BBs have offices here. Middle market U.S. banks don’t have offices here (e.g., HL), but Canadian sellers will still use them for their access to U.S. sponsors / sector expertise
In my opinion, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of turnover / lateraling, so this means hiring is heavily driven by the summer analyst cycle. Also MBA summer associates aren’t really a thing here
As for PE - there’s also a few other ones such as Torquest, Birchhill etc., but there are very few of these middle market funds in Canada vs the U.S. Also the middle market here in terms of deal value is just smaller compared to the U.S.
“Also MBA summer associates aren't really a thing here”
care to expand a little on this?
This is pretty accurate. Would also add that many BBs / few EBs have Toronto arms. Also would add that a small-medium % of the BBs/EBs are satellites for cross-border work (so maybe 1-2 big deals a year, good amount of pitching, and good-excellent WLB; therefore deal volume tends to not be super dynamic/high). Your life as a VP at one of those shops is pretty awesome though (~50-55h a week making 400+ a year is pretty stellar).
Sorry if I'm forgetting some names - not meant to be exhaustive -
BBs present in Toronto: GS, MS, JPM, BAML, Barclays, CS, Citi, UBS
EBs present in Toronto: EVR, GHL, Laz, Roth
From a hiring perspective, when I last looked - the Big 5 have a pretty good mix across the country (solid mix of Rotman/Waterloo/Vancouver/Calgary kids), BBs range pretty high Queens/Ivey, and the EBs have a disproportionally high # of Ivey kids (note - Western Ivey, not Ivy-League). This is all the analyst level. VP+ can get quite varied, a lot of Big 5 laterals (VP @ Big 5 -> VP @ EB), etc
Re: the buy-side - DW Health Partners has an office in Toronto. Novacap is a big name but they're out of MTL. Maple Rock is a name I've seen in the HF world w ~$1BN AUM
I would say Westface is the smart money on the street. They have a broad mandate so it’s probably an interesting shop to work. It’s run by Greg Boland who used to work on the RBC prop desk with Roland Keiper. They did so well they ended up getting paid more than the CEO and got waxed … or so the story guys.
Then there’s Catalyst capital which is a loan to own shop. They run a few billion. But they’re run by an absolute lunatic named Newton Glassman. Google him if you’re interested should be some entertaining articles in the globe.
Waratah is run by an ex-Gluskin Sheff guy and an ex-TD sales guy. They run over a billion last I heard. People sht on them a lot but I think they’re jealous of the AUM.
Polar is another big HF. Don’t really have anything to say about them.
Those are the notable HFs that come to mind.
In terms of skills, M&A and sponsors tend to be in demand for PE exits. But I’ve seen people go PE from ECM so don’t give up if that’s what you want to do. I’d try to get into Onex or Brookfield since it sounds like they pay the best in Canada.
If you want to stay sellside I’d go mining. That’s an area where Canada has expertise and with the focus on sustainability the world will need a lot of copper, cobalt and nickel (it’s still cyclical though). In mining you can work for the biggest companies globally like Barrick and biggest assets globally as well. O&G was historically strong but I’d avoid given the move to sustainability. For mining a shop like Canaccord is very strong so look beyond the Canadian banks.
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