While knowing that the majority of IB jobs in Houston are Energy related, I was curious as to which Banks have strong non-energy related groups based in Houston? And of those additional groups, how would you assess their strength compared to competing groups in the top tier markets?
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Um none
probably LAZ least energy focused
Only one I know of is Gulfstar group.
Is Houston the strongest city in TX for IB? Compared to Dallas or Austin
95 percent of IB is in houston, some decent buyside shops in dallas/austin tho
Is it all energy focused at at the banks Texas?
Houston is almost all energy. I think Lazard (maybe?) and Gulfstar do a small amount of non-energy work. It probably won’t be particularly high quality though (why would a firm execute out of Houston if they’re not focused on energy?) There are a handful of non energy PE firms in Houston too (Sterling is probably the best but have heard sketchy things about culture—all second hand so ymmv).
Dallas is mostly non-energy. Houlihan, MHT, Goldman, and JPM have decent IBD groups here and there are a lot of MM PE funds too.
Austin’s investment banking scene is practically non existent outside of a few sketchy shops that prey on unsuspecting McCombs hardos. Buyside is growing but still the smallest of the three. Incidentally, I’ve heard some Austin funds pay meaningfully below market because so many UT kids want to come back there but can’t speak to specifics.
Just curious but what have you heard about Sterling's culture? Have heard their name thrown around a good amount this recruiting cycle but not much info here about them.
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