Fastest growing Investment Banks/Boutiques globally
I was wondering which investment banks are growing the fastest worldwide?
What banks have recently expanded?
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When you say "worldwide" do you mean IBs that are expanding into foreign markets, or IBs that are just expanding in their local market, globally?
Houlihan Lokey has gone through a major expansion the past 5 or so, expanding across global markets via acquisitions. Luminis Partners in Sydney, Australia has grown substantially, but within the Australian market. Centerview Partners has also grown rapidly in the US and UK the past few years, organically too.
Overall, I'd say that EBs and some MM firms are growing while BBs are shrinking. BBs have, for the most part, matured and just expand and contract based on market movements and headcount needs, while EBs and MM firms often grow their business and gain more traction, therefore expanding regardless of some market movements.
Luminis Partners is associated with Evercore, not Houlihan Lokey
I'm very well aware and did not say that they were associated with HL. I listed three separate companies and their growth.
I can speak for expansion in the Australian market.
Not too much movement in the BB scene, apart from Barclays leaving a few years back. EB's/Boutiques seem to be taking more market share (in line with the global trend since the GFC). Moelis has been here for a while and is still expanding having just floated on the ASX, Evercore entered a few years ago through Luminis Partners. Houlihan Lokey also entered a few years ago but isn't here in a big way.
Almost all BBs are here. EBs in Aus are Lazard, Luminis Partners (Evercore), Gresham and Moelis. Also a notable mention: Highbury Partnership (Sydney boutique) who are currently in the top ten of the league tables.
Important to note: Luminis Partners is not Evercore (yet, at least). They are simply affiliated. Evercore has a sub-50% interest in Luminis, and have been building up their stake since January(ish) 2015. Luminis still operates totally independently and will probably continue to do so until the key Partners are ready to get out of the game and begin the handover.
Australia is a small market, with a high saturation of banks, so it'll be interesting to see how some banks adapt. I have a feeling DB is ready to downsize their Sydney presence a fair bit.
There are a few middle-market IB in the States that are growing pretty fast in recent years. Not sure about other parts of the world though.
Which banks do you mean? Lincoln International? William Blair? Baird? Harris Williams?
HL
LEHMAN BROTHERS
Above answers are somewhat in line with the majority consensus - my 2 cents below:
EB - Centerview and Perella are probably the first that come to mind (Perella having bounced back sharply after having senior execs poached/ try to set up own shop) Alantra (but too soon to say whether they are gonna become a EB/ dominant player in the future)
MM - As mentioned above, Houlihan Lokey has been growing internationally Within the US tho, last 5 - 7 years, Stifel has gone from being a lower mm to a major player in the mm space due to a # of acquisitions (Thomas Weisel, Miller Buckfire, KBW to name a few) - just looking at their recent transactions in 2016/2017 vs 2012/2013, see them advising on a lot more 9 figure deals (M&A, IPO, ECM etc) and the occasional $1-2B+; have been leading MM M&A advisory YTD against more "prestigious" banks like Blair, HL
BB - not much growth - just Deutsche getting hammered
HL has definitely gotten stronger in the past few years.
Agreed on Stifel - didn't see them on league tables even 2 years ago but now they are almost always on there. Another one of these that comes to mind is Alantra (pretty sure they used to be CW Downer but they got bought by a spanish bank a year or two ago which has bumped them up quite a bit in league tables.)
Some shops like Duff & Phelps and Alvarez, while not heavy-hitters, do pretty well for themselves given they aren't IB's first and foremost. Even PwC IB has some decent lower MM deals.
Does A&M actually conduct IB activities or only within an Rx setting?
thoughts on Wells Fargo?
Last I heard, they were reducing their focus on their investment banking ambitions and trying to discipline their commercial banking side. Though I think they're eyeing international expansion, but God knows how - they bought out an expensive lease on prime City of London property for a new office, just before Brexit.
I'd throw RBC up there as well, they have been becoming more and more competitive with bigger traction in the US lately
Robey Warshaw (spelling?) has also been doing some huge deals for being a super small shop. Not sure what the story is behind them but very impressive.
Guggenheim is up and coming. I know they've expanded their summer analyst class size from 20 to 50 in the past few years so they must be doing well.
RBC has been killing it the last few years. 8 years ago, they weren't even in the top twenty for IB. Now they're pulling 10 for 2016 (along with Wells which has also risen to 9) and due to rise even further, capitalizing in the past on the financial crisis and currently on the assfucking of European banks, especially Deutsche & UBS. https://markets.ft.com/data/league-tables/tables-and-trends
Read a recent article in Bloomberg about Raymond James making it in a list of top 20 for M&A banks after a deal for Mobileye. With the DOL in June, it will be interesting to see how banks like Wells Fargo, RJ, etc... (where majority of revs come from financial advising) react to the DOL barriers. Wonder if we will see more see more growth/competitiveness out of these companies with deals like the Mobileye/RJ or if these types of firms will be of little value. I personally like the former.
PWP recently acquired TPH which should give them a leg up in the energy sphere. Interested in hearing more about William Blair in Chicago though.
Centerview Partners, Robey Warshaw (in therms of revenue), Harris Williams
Ivy League & Co.
Most of BB's have shrunk their global presence since the crisis.
At the analyst level, there's nothing good about expanding globally. You want to work on deals that are US only. Believe me, there's nothing cool or fun about working on anything cross-border.
Disagree. I've worked on a few Cross Border deals and it allows you to see how business is conducted in various geographies, tax issues, foreign regulators, etc. I think working on Cross Border M&A is interesting and may even be a plus when recruiting for PE.
Agreed with StrategyJunkie. There are several considerations which need to be taken into account in the overall deal process which you may never see in domestic US deals.
Also as above, PE's and bschools love the whole "international" experience of helping navigate multiple cultures / jurisdictions etc
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