Citi Tech IB - Most Underrated Group in SF?
I am a first year analyst (target school grad) at a small MM East Coast shop trying to lateral to the tech IB in SF. Talked to a family friend about the realm recently, he recruited for west coast tech Summer Associate roles and just finished up an internship at Top 3. Citi came up because he almost signed there, and I think the mid-tier names would give me a realistic shot. He spoke very highly of the group— pointed out recent exits such as softbank, TCV, JMI, vector capital, said new key MD hires in the last 6 months, and said high profile deals did come their way (advising Adevinta on its purchase of eBay assets). However, on here, I see quite the opposite, sounds like the group has a bad rep? Is that dated at this point? Speculative? Has anyone actually worked there, and could provide some color here? Seems like I'm getting some mixed inputs.
bump
heard from a friend working in growth that the team changed significantly in the past year, but also heard bad things on WSO and not sure what to think
“New key MD hires in the past 6 months” = pitching galore
Sweatshop that mostly pitches to semi companies. They lost a handful of top performing MDs to other groups in the area like EVR a few years back. It sounds like they’re in a rebuild, meaning they’re struggling to get mandates but everything I’v heard from my friend there points to a very solid group of people that he enjoys working with.
Most of the tech banking attention goes to Qatalyst and Goldman, with MS and JPM behind.
After those 4 it’s usually BofA, then CS, then Citi. This is based off of seeing fees generated by tech groups as well as knowing a lot of people at all of these places.
With that said, I wouldn’t say Citi is underrated, but probably around where it should be. I’d also say that pretty much all the banks above have hired a lot of seniors (and juniors) and that when I was recruiting for banking, the message the Citi guys were telling me was that they are up and coming and will pass up CS and BofA soon. Three years later and not much has changed.
I’d say Centerview’s Palo Alto office is the most underrated group. They’ve been killing it and they’re on the other side of the table on a lot of M&A transactions my bank gets mandated on.
Really appreciate the insights man. Quick follow up— don't JPM/BofA have like separate M&A & coverage groups for tech? I believe Citi tech does all M&A in house. Doesn't that lend a better learning experience? Or is the brand more important here?
Good deal flow>in house m&a
what about barclays menlo?
I was actually just speaking with a buddy of mine this afternoon who used to do audit but made the switch to banking. He's at a "mid-tier" tech BB coverage group and actually had much of the same to say about Citi. WSO has been shitting on Citi tech for the last couple years after they got poached but he said that the group has made a solid turn around and has been doing well this past year with some decent exits and big deals (ex: recent sofi deal and the one OP mentioned). Tis hearsay though
Agree with the above^. As of more recent, Citi tech has definitely been on the rise, gaining a lot of momentum with deal flow and senior hires. They also do in-house M&A modeling for deals and run very lean deal teams with only 1 analyst on each transaction, which gives you great exposure to develop key skills needed for PE. This is unlike the tech coverage groups at firms like JPM and BofA that outsource the M&A work to a dedicated M&A product team. They are also currently the leader in SPACs advisory, followed by Goldman. Some of the recent exits from Citi Tech include Vector Capital, Marlin Equity Partners, Permira, H.I.G., GI Partners, JMI Equity, TA, Summit, Charlesbank, and Softbank. However, do note that the team is known for crazy hours at the analyst level and an "intense" culture for the most part.
CITI TECH IS NOT ON THE RISE
CITI TECH IS MEDIOCRE
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more overrated than underrated tbh - carries the Citi name but do mainly pitching
What do you mean by mainly pitching? As in they don't do a lot of the work post sign-on? Does that mean they function more as market researchers than modelers?
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