HSBC Reputation Today
What's the reputation of HSBC today, specifically in New York, and what kind of exits they have to MM PE, if any.
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What would you consider average MM? Places like HL/Jefferies/Baird (top MM) you should take no question but if we're considering "average" I would think that HSBC would be better than Piper/Stifel/ Raymond James. Granted I have no idea what the deal flow is but I'd assume HSBC might be better than those shops just due to global branding.
But to OP if you want to know exit go search up on Linkedin, should give you a pretty good picture.
I actually visited HSBC for my school's finance trek and it was the only bank on the trek where my classmates and I actively decided against applying after seeing them. So yeah imo I would rather take Piper/Stifel/ Raymond James etc. over HSBC. I wouldn't be surprised if their whole m&a division is just 2 80 year old dudes chilling in rocking chairs in the basement.
In the US I'd go to RayJay, Stifel or Piper (certainly Piper's healthcare group) before HSBC. No question. HSBC has random pockets of IB presence (presence =/= strength) in parts of LatAm and AsiaPac, but it is nowhere in the US and nowhere in Europe.
The bank starves the IB of resources because the IB isn't profitable, and the IB says it needs resources to grow and be profitable. Result is a a management shakeup that happens every ~18 months without fail. Has been going on for years.
stellar money laundering shop
Would avoid HSBC unless you absolutely have no choice. If this is your only choice, would target their leveraged finance group and try to lateral. Their US business is basically starved of resources and rightfully so given they are at a competitive disadvantage to both US and other European institutions and therefore do not generate adequate returns
With that said, I do want to note that I think HSBC gets a bit too much looked down on in WSO because the audience in WSO is mostly US-based but note that in Europe and Asia, they are a powerhouse in debt products (DCM, Leveraged Finance) as well as corporate banking products (Treasury services, cash management).
They have the best-looking (design) debit/credit cards in the UK for what it's worth hah
Thanks for the info, DB, HSBC and BNP seem to be the trio of "big" IBs that one should avoid.
US only - in europe, those 3 dominate in lev fin - BNP topped the charts in acquisition financing when i checked the bbg terminal and db is probably the best eu lev fin house
Just to be clear - BNP does indeed have a very large leveraged finance franchise in Europe and will likely be in the top 5 in terms of sheer deal flow at any given time, but note that a lot of their deal flow in LevFin is from the corporate side, moreso than the acquisition financing (LBO) side. This is similar to JPM's LevFin franchise in the US, wherein they are constantly top 1-2 in terms of sheer LevFin deal flow but the vast majority of their deals are from corporates (i.e. refinancings, best efforts deals) than acquisition/LBO related. Nothing wrong with that but if you join the LevFin team there and expect to work on LBOs all day, you'll be very disappointed when 80% of your deal exp is for refinancings/GCP use of proceeds for Altice / Liberty Global and other large corporates (good steady fees for MDs but horrible from an analyst learning exp standpoint). That's not to say BNP is not present in acq financing - they still are but they will rarely be lead-left / GloCos, and usually are brought on for balance sheet (i.e. RCF hold)
In Europe when it comes to acquisition/LBO financing deal flow, the shops you'll see consistently coming to market with lead-left M&A/LBO financings are CS, GS, DB, BARC - typically in that order.