Infra IB - Agentis Capital?
Hi all - I wonder if anybody has an opinion/knowledge about Agentis Capital Infra team in Toronto?
I heard about them during a coffee chat but it's been tough to find much info. Thanks!
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They focus on infrastructure advisory with offices in Vancouver and Toronto. From what I've heard, they really work their analysts and are extremely thorough in their modelling, but they are also a well respected shop and pretty active in terms of deals. Their senior leadership seems interesting... there are three partners but I think one of them leads the IBD practice and the others aren't really too involved in IB. Not too sure about comp and exit opps, if someone else could provide some color I'd be interested in knowing as well.
I know two people who work/have worked at Agentis. Comment above on juniors getting worked is accurate - from what I've heard their work life balance / culture isn't great. I have heard top bucket comp is well above street however. A few of their analysts have lateralled to Big 5, but I'm not sure how well they place into buyside roles as their analyst program is relatively new. They lost one of their senior guys last year to one of the pension funds - not sure what impact this had.
Awful shop would avoid. Terrible work life balance, majority of deals are shitty p3 advisory that larger banks don't want to touch because fees are so small.
So if fees are crap am I right to assume comp is crap too?
Comp is solid/above street if you're truly a top bucket. That much is true. They can afford decent comp because they don't have the overhead of a large org and they churn out deals like a machine with clients that have like 1/3rd chance of winning a deal
Great business model actually, hire bunch of analysts who are effective just model monkeys and run thousands of scenarios for clients on each deal. They get hired by experienced clients on cookie cutter deals where they don't need strategic thinking involved and the clients consortium just needs someone independent for mgmt reasons. Or get hired by clients on p3 deals where the financial advice is meaningless as construction price ultimately wins deal so even if you f up a bit of doesn't matter.
From what I hear it is not peoples first choice of where they want to work.
Pros:
Average player in small infrastructure deals, pay is same as a large Canadian financial institution. Exposure to modeling at jr stage.
Cons:
Hours are brutal, culture is 0/5, absolutely no brand name.
If you have an option to go elsewhere, take it.
From what I have heard on the street...
The Good:
- Top compensation (the best, if not, then one of the best on Bay Street)
- Extremely thorough modelling work and get massive exposure early on
- Small lean shop that is beginning to gain traction in the infra space
The Bad:
- Brutal hours (probably the worst on the street)
- Zero culture, zero emotions, and extremely cut-throat
- Exit opps are still unknown (Toronto office only two years old)
- Too niche?
It sucks
I only know one person there who joined as a junior, and what I have heard is that the comp is fantastic but the hours are absolutely brutal.
They basically do the low fee infra work that the Canadian Banks/Globals don't pursue due to the work to fee return. The junior experience is pretty bad as you are basically just a modelling monkey all day every day. There's very little strategic/market insight involved that a traditional investment bank would give you exposure to. The culture I've heard is also quite bad - you get worked a lot on mindless stuff, the juniors are weird/nerdy, but the upside is that you get paid relatively well.
Their business model is quite different from traditional Ibanking because they basically act as an outsourced modelling workshop for clients that just need some scenarios they want run to show to their management teams.
Absolutely terrible workplace. Be prepared to be scolded at all times.
Comments on comp being top of street are very true. As is model monkey work (less applicable to interns) and weird juniors. Culture is indeed sweaty but is gradually becoming less so. Deal flow is PPP heavy but certainly not the only thing you’ll work on. Interesting thing no one has mentioned is the firm’s growing principal investment business. Advisory team supports most of these activities, with many juniors getting seconded to portfolio companies, which are generally tech VC-type businesses. Pretty unique experience there.