Chicago Rankings

Can someone post Chicago rankings? Curious to know the breakdown and power of EBs and BBs there when MM shops like Blair and Baird have such a strong presence there. Do places like Moelis and GS even have a dominant presence in chicago?

Looking for rankings in deal flow, deal size, and exit opps

50 Comments
 

Be more specific. What sort of "power" and rankings are you looking for? PE exits, Dealflow, WSO street cred? Copy/pasted from another thread:

BB

BofA - Automotive, Agriculture, and other midwest general coverage. ~30-40 people (5 MDs).
Barclays - Tech-Enabled Services & Industrial Services. ~20-30 people (2 MDs).
Citi - FIG, Automotive, Metals & Mining & other Industrials. M&A team also sits here. ~40-50 people (4 MDs). 
CS - Business Services & Industrial Services. ~20-30 people (2 MDs). 
JPM - Automotive & other Industrials (building materials, paper & packaging). M&A team also sits here. ~20-30 people in coverage (2 MDs)
GS - Industrial Tech, FIG, Education, and general midwest coverage. (3 MDs)

EB

Evercore - Paper & Packaging. ~10 people (1 MD). 
Moelis - FIG, Paper, general midwest coverage and Food/Bev. ~20 people. (4 MDs)
PWP - Automotive & general midwest coverage. ~20 people (2 MDs)

 

I’m pretty sure lazard m&a executes out of chicago given their staffing structure

even the BBs mostly execute the deals they originate out of CHI

I’m not sure where the rumor that CHI was just for pitch shops originated but it’s misleading—lots of BB cov groups in NY are just pitch shops in the sense that modelling is outsourced to M&A group. Most likely if the nyc counterparts are pitch shop cov groups then CHI will be a pitch shop but if the nyc counterparts execute then the CHI group also executes

having said that, there are some MDs in CHI who don’t have their own analysts in chi and are responsible for sourcing deals, but that won’t affect you at the analyst level since they do their own thing

 

It could be difficult to get an exact ranking. Each year it would often depend on the strength and ability of the candidates themselves.

Likely can categorize by different tiers, however.

 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

I've heard Blair is great place, but they appear to be way down in 2022 rankings (talking transaction value) compared to a place like Gugg (31 bil vs. 13 bil). Does something like this matter? Or does Blair just do a lot of smaller deals, which means Blair bankers get a lot of reps (which can actually be a plus for Blair -- 100 deals for Blair, vs. 35 for Gugg)?  

 
Controversial

More accurate Ranks. Tiers not in order btw.

Tier 1: Blair, Baird, HL, Gugg, Citi

Tier 2: JPM, CS, GS, Solomon, BMO

Tier 3: BofA, Piper, Lazard, Barclays, Macquarie

Tier 4: Ray J, BGL, PWP, Greenhill, Jefferies

Tier 5: dogshit banks (Lincoln, Truist, Stifel, Stout, Oppenheimer, etc) and super small offices (Rothschild, PJT, Moelis, Evercore)

 

wtf is this a joke? how are you ranking bmo above lazard and on par with gs? Laz chi rx exits are very much on par with Laz ny rx exits

 

Is this some satire post? Prospects, do not listen to users like this. Go network and do some research because this is classic blind leading the blind here. Of course it's made by a summer associate. Zero context provided and I can vouch for most of this list being wrong on any metric. For example, Lincoln is literally headquartered in Chicago and churns out a ton of work. 

 

while many say blair and baird in the same sentence, i think they shouldn't be compared. pedigree of the analyst is very different (think non-targets at baird) blair recruits not only from midwest targets but also ivies 

 
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because most people judge the bank on results rather than the inputs. They are virtually identical models of each other. Private. Strong sellside in the UMM with strengths in certain sectors

Nobody gives a shit if an analyst went to a better school that doesn't make the bank better lol

If kid with a 4.0 from wisco is doing the same deals at the same level as some dude from Cornell who tf cares and how does that differentiate the bank? Insane WSO level of thinking

 

Do Chicago EB or BB firms have better hours or is it generally the same?

 

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