Houlihan Lokey Deal Size
Is the average deal size at Houlihan Lokey going to increase heading into the future? Seeing the 2021 league tables for the US where they has the third highest deal count at 290 (GS had 399 and JPM had 385), despite this they landed at number 22 in total value transacted. I have heard great things about the firm, but the very low average deal size seems a bit off-putting. Thoughts on if they will scale their deal sizes overtime or will they be forever stuck in the LMM space forever?
Analyst at HL here so I can provide some insight. The answer is both yes and no.
As with many other MM banks, the deal size will naturally increase due to sponsor relationships. Often what happens is an investment bank was the sell-side advisor for a company when it was sold to a PE firm, and often gets the role of acting as sell-side advisor again when the PE firm exits the portco years down the line. Naturally, the portco that the MM is advising has usually grown, and thus deal sizes grow as well.
League tables don't show the values of deals that don't disclose transaction values, so most MM firms are undercounted in league tables. That being said, HL's deal size may not grow that much as you'd like to think. Over the past few years, HL management started to care much more about revenue/MD in judging firm performance. As a result, under pressure to boost their stats, MDs have increasingly taken on transactions for the minimum fee value ($1.5M) which obviously tend to be smaller transactions, so as an analyst I've been increasingly staffed on transactions on the LMM side. I remember during early 2021, I was staffed on five different sell-sides with a cumulative value of around $250M or so. Great deal reps, but not so sexy to put on the resume. Anecdotally, over my time at HL, the vast majority of most of my transactions have been under $500M, with an average size of maybe $300-$350M, but I've also worked on a transaction over $1B.
I’ve heard the culture is very nice. The people I’ve met there have been very intelligent and kind. They know how to work hard, so when you go to a volume shop you get what you get. Good place
How's the HL HC NY team? I know that most of the HC team and Mark Francis sits in Dallas.
Good culture. New York HC team is actually larger by headcount in New York vs Dallas or Chicago. Message me with any specific questions.
Super helpful - thank you for your response! How do I PM you through anon? Feel free to message me.
How is total compensation at HL compared to street?
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