CS LA - Recent deals they were involved in?

nutsaboutWSone of the best LA banks I know that. Heard it's a sweatshop though.

Any idea what they do there? Tech maybe?

• the interview is tomorrow.

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CS LA is generally technical when recruiting at Penn.

ex-DLJ office.

Along w/UBS LA, they're the most technical on the WC.

curious, what college are you currently attending?

They were more technical than most other first-rounds I had, but if you've had prior BB experience (....depending on what you did), you should be just fine. Good luck!

Thanks guys keep it coming.

I attend an Ivy- live in LA and home for the break.

Really nice guys. Spoke to a couple of the senior guys in the M&A group. Be sure to explain why you want to start your career on the Westcoast as opposed to New York.

any comments?

Deal flow at CS LA is outstanding. The only reason it doesn't get the same level of attention/prestige factor as UBS LA is due to the fact that UBS LA houses most of the bank's top management, and that its top management were the top guys at DLJ LA (Moelis and Raich). The ex DLJ guys at CS LA were mostly slightly lower than the guys who left for UBS following the buyout.

That being said, CS LA's Financial Sponsors coverage group is phenomenal and has advised on some of the largest private equity deals of the last couple of years. This leads to some great exit ops with these firms, especially with regards to TPG, as CS LA has advised them on all of their big deals (PETCO, Neiman Marcus, MGM, etc.), but also with KKR, Bain Capital, Ares, LG&P, and Oaktree.

Prescott is definetely right. The other reasons that it gets less attention becuase the office hasn't grown much (in fact contracted) since the DLJ merger whereas UBS LA has grown from like 30-85.

CS LA also places a bit worse outside of LA with only one KKR guy in the past three years. Majority go to LGP and Ares with less going to the other shops. This current years class has 2 LGP 2 Ares 1 Fox Paine 1 Brentwood and 4 or 5 non placed yet / returning.

The office does dominate FSG though and is better than UBS LA in terms of financing (CS is much more liberal with the balance sheet) and therefore get in on a lot of PE deals. For example, they were one of the 5 or so banks representing the buyers in the Harrah's transaction whereas UBS LA was primary advisor to Harrah's. They do some big M&A as well like Disney - Pixar etc.

The rest of the two offices are very similar - culture wise, and even hours wise now that they hvae cut their analyst class due to CS' restructuring. Also, the two very senior guys started CS LA (hookes and lannigan) but they disliked the culture and left to Black Canyon Capital, these guys were 2 of Moelis' most senior lieutenants and there's actually a very interesting story regarding why they didnt go back to UBS and Moelis primarily based on compensation issues.

Hope that helps. CS LA is a sick office - definetely have most doors open to you, primary exit opp difference is the senior guys in the office arent as well leveraged as the UBS guys so its harder to leave west coast PE.

how are the CS LA sponsors group hours compared to CS NY sponsors?

CS LA is mainly generalist with a small FIG group. Sponsors deals are staffed out of the generalist pool.

does anyone know anything about their FIG group?

UBS LA and CS LA guys are insane with the hours. I know several of the CS LA associates and analysts and I can say for sure they work just as hard as the UBS guys. They are animals - operate on 0-1 hours of sleep for 2 days while traveling cross country...

Agree, I know a few guys who were at/are UBS LA. The hours there are worse, but only marginally. The extra hours worked there are more than enough to compensate for the tremendous exit opps they have.

question... say you are able to get an offer with UBS, how does one join the LA group? i've heard you have to apply separately, but i've also heard from posters as well as members of UBS's HR that you do it through other means... but i've never heard any specifics beyond that. can anyone clarify?

perhaps i should make a new topic, due to the fact that this topic is reserved for CS LA.

They hire separately from the rest of the UBS pool. A director named Mike Denbeau heads recruiting there, but generally each target school they take analysts from will have its own head of recruiting that you send your resume to. Don't hold your breath if you're not from Wharton/UMich/Berkeley/Claremont/UWO and maybe a few others.

You guys on the west coast would know better what the day in day out hours are. I only know what the people I know tell me and what I've seen of those guys when travelling.

UWO is Richard Ivey.

bump

Do a search.

search doesn't yield anything

very good

is 2nd best LA BB after UBS. Do you have interview or offer with them yet?

i'm a bit of an idiot. just to be clear, does 'LA' mean los angeles or a specific product group within Credit Suisse?

haha

Their generalist group is excellent. UBS got more of the top DLJ/Drexel guys, but CS LA is still very strong for high yield work and has great PE exit opps.

thanks. that was my first thought, but i was afraid that 'LA' may be some financial acronym i wasn't familiar w/

hours, pay?

They pay their summer analysts exceptionally well (comp is ridiculous) and give them a convertible...not sure about fulltime. Hours are rough.

the same at every bank.....they get salary pro-rated plus overtime for hours in excess of 40 hours.

they have a late resume drop at my school, I guess i'll apply

wait ... summer analysts get overtime for hours in excess of 40?

Its a California thing I think, or maybe even just a CS LA thing. It works out to a lot of money. Its double overtime after a certain point. Just for summer analysts though.

ok, so that doesn't apply to CS NY?

CS last year pro-rated bonuses to their summer interns which is why most people think their comp is ridiculous compared to street. They got rid of that this year so only 60 pro-rated - same with cs ny and cs la. CS LA does comp you for car and apartment though.

Wait, so do any other banks do this? Because if they do, and you're working 100 hrs a week, that's some money to be made...

DB used to do it, but im pretty sure they stopped

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Some info:

I have offers at Savvian (Tech banking boutique), and S------ Capital & M----- Capital (2 private equity funds based out of Bombay doing insane IRR). Also I have a 1st round interview (general) with JPMorgan India & a 2nd round interview with Bear Stearns (general). I just completed a 2nd round with CS LA FIG, and it looks like they might extend an offer. These are all summer offers.

After I graduate, I would like to do any of the following: -work at Blackstone/KKR/Bain Capital/a few other top PE funds -trade options/other derivatives (with a big name hedge fund or a BB) -work at McKinsey/Bain/BCG -do IB at a top BB group

Since my summer is 15 weeks long, and Sandstone & Monsoon don't have programs set in stone, I could ideally do a "formal" internship at a BB for 10 weeks, and work the rest of the 5 weeks at either PE fund. Is this a good idea? Should I just do ~15 weeks at one of the PE funds, and get a lot of experience at one place?

Thanks again for any help.

is this Bear Stearns LA or NY?

Bear Stearns NY

Dude you may want to edit some of the personal details out of your posts, it is ridiculously easy to identify you right now.

Yeah seriously delete your school info and I hope your account name doesn't contain your last name.

Yeah, I know who you are now.

me too

you went to exeter

I'm a moron (for putting too much private information on a public forum). Anybody have any insight into my job situation? I am strongly leaning towards CS LA FIG right now, and am going to push for an offer there.

Honestly I think Bear NY is your best option right now, with CS LA FIG as a close second. If you want to end up in NY you should choose Bear, and if LA then CS is good. I thought CS LA was a generalist program... did they change that?

Since I guess you've interviewed where, was Savvian for LA or NY or SF? What was your impression of the guys there?

-I don't necessarily want to be in NYC when I graduate, I'll go wherever I get a good offer. When I interviewed with them, CS LA made it clear I was interviewing for the FIG group, so they may have changed it from generalist?

-Savvian SF, I think. My dad knows one of the MDs there pretty well, so I didn't interview there, but my dad tells me that this guy really knows his shit, and it would be a great learning experience if you're interested in tech banking.