Deal Flow

First year analyst in a coverage group at a BB. My group is historically either the strongest or second strongest in the industry, and I’d always heard this was a group with great deal flow. Generally 100% of analysts leave with PE offers... not to say this is like GS TMT or MS M&A, but it’s a very solid group.

I’ve been on 3 total M&A deals and all of them have fallen apart almost immediately when both sides realized the numbers didn’t make sense. I’ve been pretty busy and worked on a handful of financings, but just sort of wondering if this is normal or if this is bad deal flow. I’m concerned that PE recruiting will start and I won’t have gotten deep enough in an M&A process to talk about it in depth. Especially as I’ve heard from people to expect greater emphasis on that this year, given that it’ll kick off later than normal. My bank’s analyst class hit the desk the first week of October, so about 3 months ago. Is this a pretty normal level of activity for that time period, or would you guys expect more deal flow for a top group? Can any other first years share what deal flow has been like in your group, particularly M&A?