Houlihan Lokey Is Said in Advanced Talks to Buy Japan’s GCA
Read more at: https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/houlihan-lokey-is-said-in-advanced-talks-to-buy-japan-s-gca
| +267 | Why UBS Is the Worst Place to Start Your IB Career | 40 | 1d |
| +219 | UBS 2nd Year Analyst Q&A (2026) | 41 | 21h |
| +100 | What's your craziest "hardo" story? | 16 | 1d |
| +59 | UBS IB 26Q2 a Disaster! Advisory Revenue Down 23%, Capital MarketsDown 5% | 9 | 18m |
| +53 | Wolf of Wall Street vs. Reality: Anyone else feel scammed by the movies? | 19 | 10h |
| +50 | Suspended for a Year | 21 | 15h |
| +49 | Elite Boutique interview questions | 17 | 2d |
| +36 | so confused about 28 SA timeline | 31 | 6h |
| +32 | Rate my non-target resume | 18 | 20m |
| +27 | [WSO MODS] Please Delete This BS Host Books Spam! | 2 | 4h |
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.
Interesting. I think this does a lot for HL. $600MM is a big acquisition for a pure advisory shop. This gives them like 500 new employees and like 80 new MDs. + a way bigger presence in Asia
This is huge
Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Good luck to them on that deal
Huge
What does this mean for HL Tech? I would expect it's probably still a middle market player - below other SF groups like Barclays / DB / RBC / PWP.
According to their IP, tech is now HL's largest group. GCA was mostly a tech bank and did high quality deals. So this puts HL right up there with any MM tech group in the world. Still a notch below the BBs, but I don't really doubt that they'll grow to compete with the BBs on some deals.
Bump
FIG fellas - how do you value advisory focused nvestment banks?
EV/Revenue? P/E?
Not actually a FIG guy but if they don't lend then you can value them the same way as a normal company. Relevant revenue driver is probably banker count or MD count and then you can adjust for dealmaking environment.
Typically just an EBITDA or Revenue multiple. A lot advisory shop analysis is focused on:
Ratios you’d look at would be:
Since firms like HL doesn’t have assets under management, or a balance sheet with funding coming from investors/deposits, it’s not too complicated, like you mentioned.
Growth mainly comes from 3 places:
So for example, this deal kind of helps with 1 and 3 primarily.
Usually valued on revenue multiples b/c the acquirer will assume their own compensation structure
Depending on size of target, deals can be pretty structured with a material percentage of deferred compensation in the form of retention/earnouts
Will be great for the tech industry
Any update on how they are getting along?
Voluptatum consequatur esse suscipit consectetur veritatis vel dolor dolores. Consectetur qui debitis maxime velit eum velit. Quisquam esse placeat cupiditate enim illum cupiditate. Sit vel voluptatem quis. Amet cumque optio veritatis.
Recusandae quae ex corrupti asperiores deleniti sit pariatur. Sunt eos in eaque placeat iusto maxime vitae. Voluptatibus in voluptate ipsum voluptatem quo est sit. Repudiandae sint excepturi omnis fuga eum architecto.
Sed a itaque omnis sapiente commodi ut commodi dolore. Aut quisquam recusandae aperiam vero dolorum maiores. Voluptates consequatur explicabo nisi expedita. Aliquam rem consequatur est qui voluptatem sint est voluptatum.
Sapiente cupiditate corrupti quis quis non. Cum laborum necessitatibus laudantium et natus consequatur. Excepturi dolores sunt sed porro possimus. Ratione odio distinctio non sit sequi. Sunt adipisci magnam eveniet libero rerum voluptate voluptas.
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...