EVR vs JEF [Houston]
Hi all,
Currently deciding between Evercore and Jefferies' energy practices down in Houston.
Know they have both been extremely strong in the space and energy is amongst the top groups for both banks. Can anyone shed any light on the differences between the two banks in terms of the usual metrics (deal flow, exits, comp, etc.)?
Don't really give a fuck about culture I obviously know what to expect given it's Houston.
Also know pre-covid both groups were absolutely clearing 200k+ out of college, but I know the landscape is changing quickly and don't know too much about the updated scene if any (I suspect it's not as good anymore, but tax and col adjusted i'm not gonna bitch about it).
Don't really care about NYC exits (trust me, I know NYC is the financial capital of the world and all but I'm fine sweating my ass off down in Houston since I'm interested in the sector)
Also pretty interested in touching a variety of deals (reps are important), and maybe renewables related stuff as well.
Let me know your thoughts
I’ll just say MOE HOU analyst exited to Apollo flagship pe NYC. I think this example pretty much sums it up considering MOE HOU is a notch below (maybe two notches below lol) the two shops in Houston. Jeff brand is simply just to weak imo.
agree on moe/evr brand being stronger than jeff, but in this scenario with houston he mentioned he doesn't care about nyc exits. also jeff is more likely to be filled with energy hardos that dream about type curves and NAVs, so probably some selection bias there
Although OP is not considering PE exits, I think it’s something to consider. What company/firm would appreciate JEFF HOU’s dominance in O&G industry over Evercore’s marginally weaker practice?
Ik this is irrelevant to this comment but did you transfer out of UT?
This isn’t true, I know the analyst they’re going to Apollo Infra.
The person I am talking about is already at Apollo. Regardless, I was just giving an example about the brand value, and my point doesn’t change even if it was Apollo infra.
had a few chats with JEF analysts about a year ago, they really seemed miserable and extremely stressed (had my chats rescheduled last minute)
given the recent light on JEF and hearing that the houston office is ran like an absolute sweatshop, i would focus on moelis. haven’t heard of JEF on any major deals after the endeavor deal
This might be one of the most ignorant takes on the entire thread, and highlight why folks were rescheduling coffee chats with you (the audacity to put work over a prospect). A) please enlighten us on transactions Moelis has announced post- FANG / Endeavor and b) provided below are a handful of $1Bn+ upstream announcements Jefferies made over the same time period:
CRC / Aera, Crescent / Silverbow, EQT Non-Op / Equinor, XCL to SM / NOG, Grayson Mill / DVN, Point to Vital / NOG, Caerus, Maverick / DEC, Olympus / EQT
This guy oil and gases. Also OVV/FourPoint which was $2.0 Bn and FME/Coterra for $2.55 Bn.
If you’re looking for reps / great deal flow, Jefferies is probably the place to go. They have been on everything the past few years from smaller A&D to large, public M&A deals. Evercore is good, but you don’t see them on near as many deals.
Don’t know if 100% true, but heard analysts got hosed on bonuses this past year. Especially relative to how well the group did.
correct answer, but i wouldn't work for jef houston making anything less than 200k out of college. that place is an absolute grindhouse. at least AN2s back in the day were making 270k... now the group just dominates league tables for average comp something needs to change
Would go to Evercore right now. Jefferies smoke about them screwing analysts on comp means it’s not worth the sweat anymore.
Evercore probably has higher floor and higher ceiling for AN / AS bonuses - and no silly clawback like Jefferies
JEF had a blowout year last year and comp was subpar. This year they have lost almost 1 employee per week and have no technical group left. The group is imploding from within and would avoid at all costs.
Still doing well enough to put them in the top tier, but comp not lining up with the group's performance and insane hours is definitely grounds for leaving. I know OP said he doesn't care about culture, but in this case it seems like he needs to decide between better deal flow/group strength in JEF or better pay in EVR. Maybe JEF bonuses will resurface a couple years from now but who knows honestly, hard to tell
This is true
If you’re interested in touching a variety of deals/verticals, EVR is probably the move
Isn’t evercore more midstream/rx dominated and jefferies upstream/a&d? also heard jef added a few mds on the renewables side so maybe some deal flow there?
What you said is pretty accurate
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If you don't care about NYC then Jefferies would be the way to go. The first two years shouldn't be about comp since your total career comp will greatly outweigh what you will make in the first two years and ~$50k of marginal incremental comp doesn't make a difference. (Side note on the comp: And even then, those that are in the know, will know that the top folks at Jefferies have the opp. to be the highest paid analysts with certain provisions.).
Looking at the most recent class that is leaving Jefferies this summer, the placements are as below (7 exiting to buyside, 1 staying on as A2A):
Two of the placements above weren't from open processes and only happened because folks at those buyside shops knew the analysts at Jefferies and when they expressed interest the buyside shops opened seats (which is to say these weren't seats that were open in general to folks at other banks).
Yes you will work a lot, but you will truly work on live deals where you get to hold the pen on everything, go to in-person meetings, lead diligence calls and generally be the go-to guy for your seniors.
Yes there's been attrition on the technical side but the engineers lost have both gone to companies that no one would have thought twice before considering (top portfolio companies backed by the best sponsor in energy and ones that Jefferies helped sell over the past 2 years for great outcomes). That isn't a sign of hey let us get out of this shop but more so the respect that the sponsor / portco had for the group.
Evercore is also a lot more bloated than Jefferies so your experience will be more diluted. Jefferies has 3 associates which means as an analyst you have a much better experience. Only reason you should go to EVR is if you want to go to NYC
Would expect exits to be better considering Jefferies is supposed to be the top shop in Houston
Please describe better exits than above for energy focused shops?
- Carnelian: Probably the best returns within the energy space with every fund being in the 1st quartile (has hired 1 JEF analyst every year for the past few years)
- Quantum: Just raised over $10Bn and extremely well rounded experience (has hired 1 JEF analyst every year for the past few years)
- Sixth Street: one of the most active energy investors (has hired only two juniors past couple of years and both have been JEF analysts)
- Stonepeak: One of the largest if not the largest energy infra investors out there that continues to grow aggressively
This is not to mention other shops like NGP, EnCap, KKR that recruit just much later and as a result haven’t been able to hire from JEF since all the analysts already have offers by then.
Evercore has objectively better exits.
Class that most recently exited had:
1 Blackstone Energy
1 Blackstone Credit
2 KKR Energy
1 Stonepeak
1 Citadel
2 MM PE
Current 2nd year class is predominantly infrastructure MF weighted with 1 exit to non-energy MF (so just as a counter point, Houston to MF/UMM is possible).
Add to this the fact that multiple Jeff analysts are lateraling to other Houston energy groups is a sign the analysts there themselves don’t think they’re the top group. Jeff has a reputation of being the used car salesman of A&D and has the largest team within Houston. Headhunters will treat an Evercore analyst a lot better purely off of brand. From a dealflow perspective you will see a lot of it at Evercore, shouldn’t be a concern. Evercore focuses on corporate M&A and RX predominantly but still has a strong A&D practice relative to Jefferies. The group has a lot more dealflow than you’d be able to easily recognize given a decent amount of transactions (even by publics) didn’t disclose advisors which Evercore was the sole advisor.
Jefferies analysts are laterling because it's a sweatshop and they're not getting paid – first-person source. Jefferies is still the top group in Houston in regard to dealflow, they've been on 10+ billion $ deals LTM
You clearly don't recognize what MF is in Energy:
Convenient to call Jefferies the used car salesman but league tables don't lie. Also, your whole argument of EVR's deals aren't disclosed doesn't make sense because you proceed to say you work more on corporate M&A and restructurings (which energy hasn't seen many if any in the past 4 years) both of which will require disclosures either as part of court filings or the definitive statements. If anything, many of the A&D deals that Jefferies will work on won't be disclosed since those would be smaller. Evercore's A&D practice is also extremely weak - can't name a single deal they have worked on that announced YTD.
Jefferies might have the largest team in Houston but ask any analyst and they'll say they are still getting smoked and most of the team will state they have never worked on a pitch (given almost everything Jefferies does live). So that's a mute point too.
Could you shed light on the “provisions” which allow Jeff analysts / deal team members to outearn other banks please?how is comp set up there?
Jefferies has 3 associates rn?
Yeah that’s not something to brag about. Huge red flag
Right now yes because they promoted 4 associates to VP so just how the cycle worked. Associate ranks will be refilled by the end of the summer through A2As and full time hires.
Does anyone have any insights in the snacks / food offered at each spot? Deciding between two offers and I think it’s coming down to this.
del
Jefferies is a better group with better dealflow generally but Evercore is a good group and would make it on any list of "top energy banks".
But you should also factor in national brand name and what you want to do after. Unless you are deadset on upstream I would probably do Evercore. Jefferies only really has a reputation as a top-tier group within energy. If you wanted to leave and stay in Houston it's a wash, but if you wanted to do anything else anywhere else in the U.S., you're better off going to Evercore. Evercore has that in many groups, and almost all of them are at least B+ tier. Comp at Evercore will also be better.
National brand name is generally an understated point in all of these Houston conversations. The dealflow and tiering in Houston has always been wildly different than national perception and historically it's been relatively easy to sneak your way to NY with a good national brand name but a meh energy group.
Your entire premise is based on EVR being better for NYC (hence better to go with EVR’s B-tier energy practice)
Think the OP made it pretty clear that he’s not interested in leaving Houston / Energy and as such with that it’s pretty obvious Jefferies is the way to go. Evercore used to be good in energy 5 years ago but they have only sparingly announced deals in the past year or so, meanwhile Jefferies has continued to be on almost every M&A deal(whether it was the $26 Bn FANG deal or the $9 Bn Brookfield transaction).
My premise is more based on people in their early 20s not actually having a clue what they really want to do when they're 30+. Optionality matters. Tons of people who didn't have any desire to move anywhere else realize they changed their mind down the road and want to move to San Francisco or Chicago or New York or whatever, so brand portability is a factor. There was a point when you could make identical arguments about picking Citi over GS in Houston, and not a single person who picked Citi is looking at their resume thrilled that they ended up with three more MLP-rollups to talk about.
If you're absolutely committed to never leaving Houston then sure, go Jefferies. But the difference in firm reputations outside of the Houston metro area is meaningful.
As someone who worked at SF and NY, Jefferies is at the most DB/UBS/RBC tier from the perspective of most bankers. Do you think anyone would choose Jefferies or DB LevFin over Goldman LevFin just because they are ‘stronger’? This is like arguing that someone should choose Michigan Ross over Dartmouth because they place better.
Any details about Energy at Societe? Ranking, trouble exiting to other areas/sectors?
Is Jefferies still as strong relative to other banks in energy transition/renewables as it is in traditional energy? Heard they recently opened a team in houston
Have heard Jefferies ET is on many bake-offs with Nomura Greentech, so I’d say they’re near top of the league tables for ET.
Now comparing traditional energy to ET is a completely different thing. Definitely just as sweaty, but nowhere near as prestigious/impressive. If you’re choosing between the two, traditional energy is the way to go.
apologies for the question potentially seeming stupid, but doesn't energy transition/renewables have some overlap with pu&i? and is there any benefit at all of joining a transition group over traditional energy given you mentioned it's not as impressive? thanks
Head of ET at Jeff was basically one of the founders of greentech back in the day.
Wondering how Moelis and Citi clean energy teams compare. Any insight?
Neither. Oil price is going to crash and layoffs are around the corner. Renewables are doing even worse with the new clean energy policy.
Know the reversal of ITC with the policy is a huge blow, but is there any bull case at all for transition given the attempted resurrection of nuclear by the administration?
More capital going into nuclear but construction timelines too long. Natural gas is the true transition fuel given it’s more reliable compared to renewables and lower emissions than other natural resources.
Not sure why this guy got monkey shit - layoffs never pleasant but objectively he isn't wrong. Future of energy IMO is nat gas + solar/storage and then maybe nuclear SMR as a wild card but a lot to be worked out still. If anyone says hydrogen or offshore wind is the future, just politely nod and excuse yourself to the bar.
Edit: this isn't just an energy or Houston specific comment on layoffs. I just moved down from NYC and my old group had layoffs and wouldn't be surprised to see more. People over-hired during the SPAC bubble. We've all seen the Dealogic numbers versus where they were a few years ago. I don't say any of that joyfully since it affects my career also.
Your premise on the future of energy is largely wrong. SMRs are perhaps the least economic source of energy – can spend an hour researching them to find this out. All public pure-play SMR developers are scams or frauds (Oklo, NuScale, NNE). And the private ones outside of Kairos have terrible designs. GE/Rolls-Royce will likely be the only winners in this space, but that will be in ~20 years.
renewables in a bad spot now with senate draft of the bill in my opinion. we'll see if anything changes though
Long-term, renewables are doing great. Still a ton of growth. Also people emphasize the US for some reason, when most opportunities are coming in Asia (China & India). My US bank focuses on a lot of those companies internationally because it’s where dealflow is
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