Full time offers London: JPM vs Moelis vs Lazard

Hey! I am deciding between three full time offers in London. Which one would you pick between Moelis and Lazard (both mixture of restructuring and M&A) and JP Morgan M&A. I am very interested in distressed and restructuring but not 100% sure yet. Does JPM have a significant brand name advantage over Moelis and Lazard. How does Lazard stack up to Moelis in London. Which bank has the best exit opps among those three. I am 100% sure I want to stay in finance but outside of IB, just do not know if I want to join a HF or a PE firm. I am not interested in corporate development or any other type of exit opp. To me the biggest unknown seems to be Moelis London, when speaking to fellow classmates it seems clear that JP>Lazard, however when mentioning Moelis some people claim it is the best among the three while others rank it as the worst. What is the truth? How are the exit opps there?

9 Comments
 

Laz has a better brand name, works on bigger deal, is more established. On the M&A side Moelis is quite/very weak. And moelis is below Laz in Rx too although closer compared to M&A.

I am assuming you are using two accounts but there are some good responses: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/moelis-co-london-0

Someone listed the market share of the 100 top IBs in EMEA - not that moelis is just above GHL with 1% market share at the 30th place. With Laz being top 8 with 10% - should be quite self explanatory for M&A. https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/investment-banking-in-london-eme…

Laz class size is 40 and moelis ~8-12. Basically Laz 2.5x more market share per analyst in the class - not so relevant metric but you mentioned it.

 
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the RX team at Moelis in London is pretty good. I have no idea how they are doing on the M&A side.

Most people I know that worked in IBD at JP Morgan in London hated it.

Honestly from all three you can create the same exit opportunities for you with a clear gear towards distressed if you do RX at Laz / Moelis.

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Because most of this website is US-based, you will see a more positive account of Moelis' rankings as they do better in the US. In Europe, elite boutiques do not occupy the same position as they do in the US apart from a few. Lazard is one of these and is certainly ahead of Moelis.

If you do really enjoy a much smaller analyst class then take that into account, but in terms of prestige, Moelis falls behind the other two.

Also, be warned I have had people from Moelis tell me before that it is a sweatshop even in London. Lazard can also be very long hours too.

 

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