FDD vs Portfolio Valuation - asking for a friend
My friend has internship offers from Big 4 FDD and Houlihan Lokey Portfolio Valuation. His ultimate goal is IB at a top MM, so which one would help him lateral more easily?
| +139 | UBS Catastrophic Q1-Q3 26, M&A -17%, Outside Top 10 in Americas, EMEA & APAC | 42 | 22m |
| +64 | PWP acquisition by Piper cancelled | 23 | 22h |
| +44 | No return offer - UPDATE. | 12 | 20h |
| +31 | Evercore poaches Baird DC Defense Team | 24 | 9h |
| +24 | Is my MD a grifter? 16 years, 8 firms | 13 | 7h |
| +22 | Best Houston Banks for Culture in 2026 | 17 | 4h |
| +21 | Lack of talent in IB! | 19 | 1d |
| +18 | Article: UBS Wall Street Rebuild Is a Study in Management Failure | 4 | 16h |
| +17 | Internal lateral from coverage to M&A (focused on coverage) | 4 | 1d |
| +16 | How standard is weekend work in IBD? | 13 | 53m |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
Bump
Personally, I’d say the FDD skillset is more valuable in IB. Valuation isn’t very complicated
Idk about FDD but I have a friend at HL PV
HL will get you more interviews but will be harder to convert given lack of transactional experience. They will also work you like bankers so WLB will be worse than B4. Kinda a toss up imo
FDD is more under accounting scope and viewed as such compared to PV, seen much more moves from PV to IB especially within secondaries teams.
I work at a reputable valuation firm in PV and we see a few peers every year move to IB. Can't speak on FDD though.
Hey what’s this look like in a long term perspective staying in valuation
Portfolio valuation and it’s not even close. You learn how to value businesses and work with HF and PE firms to report their marks. Way easier to leverage how that got you interested in IB / marketing of businesses.
Yes the hours are rough at quarter end but if you don’t want that. Don’t do IB.
I and numerous other PV colleagues secured competitive IB seats using that experience. Just need to spin it correctly (while remaining honest).
I feel the PV path would be much easier than FDD, which is just accounting. In PV your clients will be PE funds and HFs and you’ll become a master at valuation methods and analytics, which are a slightly larger piece of the overall deal-making process than accounting.
How did you spin the lack of transnational exp in a interview
There is no need to spin, multiple colleagues had not been asked as IB firms know what PV is. PV brings a valuation skill set and as long as you don’t fuck up technicals and behaviorals you have a shot. I have not seen one FDD colleague go to IB while 10+ in the span on 2 years to IB on the PV side.
Minima dolore quisquam molestiae impedit rerum minima. Voluptate dolorem id facilis nisi voluptatem ipsum ut.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...