How is COVID affecting deal flow & working hours for IB analysts?

I am interested in hearing how the COVID crisis is affecting working hours in IB, especially for junior level staff.

I am an analyst at a regional M&A boutique, working on lower middle market deals. Pretty much every deal I am on has been put in a wait & see mode, with timelines being pushed back. Enough things to keep me busy, but very few urgent & high priority items. Over the past month, I have been working closer to 60 hour weeks, vs the 80-100 hours that are typical in normal times. Bonus will take a hit for sure.

However, I have heard stories of some analysts actually having a heavier work load. Rx will become understandably more busy. But for M&A & Capital Markets, I am trying to understand why this might be - are analysts at larger banks having to build COVID related scenarios into models? Any other reasons?

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Overall deal flow (all types) has slowed somewhat, but far more noticeably has shifted from M&A towards 1) Rx, 2) liability management, 3) capital raises and 4) prospecting / pitching for 1-3. Total hours have been pretty similar, though working from home makes the downtime a lot more enjoyable (e.g. reading a book on the couch in PJs instead of reading the WSJ in your chair in a tie).

 

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