HC Banks

Hi all, I am a sophomore premed student interested in IB in NY. When exploring different banks, what do you consider? how would you compare Jefferies, Centerview, Cowen, SVB Leerink, Piper Sandler and Credit Suisse for HC banking?

36 Comments
 

Depends on the vertical you're talking about (i.e. biotech, pharma, services, devices, etc.).

Just my quick take on the companies you listed:

  • Jefferies: Mix of ECM and ER(?); main focus is biotech/pharma(?)
  • CVP: Killing it in M&A/licensing space right now; main focus is biotech/pharma
  • Cowen: Lot of ECM and ER; main focus is biotech/pharma
  • SVB Leerink: Mix of ECM, ER, and M&A; main focus is biotech/pharma
  • CS: No clue how they're performing
 

Pretty accurate.

CVP is second to none in the Healthcare M&A space, particularly sells-sides. Especially Biopharma. HC services is also extremely strong. With strong deal flow comes a tough work environment / work-life balance. Their market share in meaningful Biotech sell-sides is draw dropping: Like >50%

Jeffries mostly does mid-cap / smaller cap deals (All Biotech deals fall into this category). They are known for biotech IPOs and lead deals but think they do quite a bit of M&A and lending on the services side as well. Overall they have a massive HC team globally by sheer headcount.

CS is doing very well now, but has been streaky. They benefit from being a leader in SPACs. They are fundamentally different from the rest since they are a full service bank. Strong in both Pharma and Services. Fair share of ECM / M&A, but also the rest of the services, e.g. DCM, non-IG, etc. Do more work with large cap names than every else (except for CVP) Think they’ve hired quite a few MDs / seniors recently.

Leerink has always been a good specialty boutique, but think most of their focus is Biotech ECM activity. They are heavily weighted to their Boston office, unsure of the split to NYC. Definitely lead deals in the space here and there. Not really aware of them doing much M&A. Saw they hired two HC tech MDs from Guggenheim recently.

Cowen gets their fair share of ECM activities, but I’m not sure if I ever see them leading deals. Often the 3rd book runner. Still very well respected in the HC space, but a step below the rest. Less familiar with them.

 

Forget about the "ranks". All of these banks do really well in the space, and anyone should be happy to end up at any one of these places. 

But to answer your question, yes, SVB Leerink is comparable to Jefferies. 

However, I would slightly disagree with the guy above regarding his take on CVP. Yes, CVP largely does large-cap M&A deals, but they do participate in some mid-cap deals from time to time (e.g. Rosemont/Inflexion, Ultragenyx/Dimension, etc.)

 

Chiken

Forget about the "ranks". All of these banks do really well in the space, and anyone should be happy to end up at any one of these places. 

But to answer your question, yes, SVB Leerink is comparable to Jefferies. 

However, I would slightly disagree with the guy above regarding his take on CVP. Yes, CVP largely does large-cap M&A deals, but they do participate in some mid-cap deals from time to time (e.g. Rosemont/Inflexion, Ultragenyx/Dimension, etc.)

It seems disingenuous to compare SVBL with Jef. SVB's M&A deals are relatively tiny if they are exclusive or playing the lead advisory role. Jef is doing upper MM and billion dollar deals regularly.

 
Most Helpful

Solid point. But I would shy away from thinking that IB/ranking should be purely based on M&A activity. Don't get me wrong, M&A plays a huge part but there are other aspects in which SVBL certainly shines over Jefferies (i.e. ER and ECM). Plus, as someone said before, they are different firms. SVBL's specialty aren't those UMM/billion dollar deals but that should not discredit the firm from being a top player in the biotech/biopharma space.

Edited: Additionally, if we were to do rankings based off of M&A activity, I would not throw Cowen that high. Cowen, like SVBL, participates in a lot of ECM.

Disclaimer: I do not work at SVBL.

 

Agreed on this. More on CS, sponsors business is also #1 on street and they're #1 in SPACs so good amount of work comes from those two lines of business for the HC side of things. They lost a few MDs to centerview and guggenheim right before covid hit, have hired a ton more MDs since then including one who spent a decade at MS who's been on some pretty high profile stuff. CEO has publicly stated theyre looking to invest more in HC and Tech banking as well

 

Centerview is in a different league than all the other names mentioned and isn’t comparable. They are extremely strong in large cap pharma/biotech M&A and work on similar transactions as GS/MS/JPM. Jeff is also pretty strong in HC and works in a lot of smaller deals and is a bookrunner on a good amount of IPOs. I don’t think Credit Susie is that strong of a BB in HC. The other shops you mentioned are really strong in HC ECM

 

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