Interested in M&A, questions.

To expand on the title, I'm interested in trying to break in a product M&A group - buy-side or sell-side. I'm not going to be picky and say I want MM or BB - I just want to get in.

With that said, when I'm reading literature on the IB world, can I just focus on the M&A side of things in order to prepare myself for interviews (research as much as I can about the technical stuff, etc.), or will that hurt me in interviews/my hopeful future career?

In other words, do I also need to stay current and perform research on ECM, DCM, LevFin, and Restructuring, etc. just so I can try and answer any question that will come my way? Would knowing more about other groups that I'm not interested in working for help me in a M&A career? Or would I worry about that once I get the gig?

Thanks in advance.

Highest regards,

ChicagoCT

4 Comments
 
Best Response

It really depends on how you plan on going about your search. If you're only targeting firms that focus on M&A that would be a good idea. But most bigger firms if you're starting as a first year or intern, unless you're lucky will be a generalist and then placed from there.

Knowing about restructuring won't really be necessary no matter what because that is usually done specifically by restructuring groups/firms. ECM and DCM and LevFin would be good to just have a little bit of knowledge on though at the minimum.

make it hard to spot the general by working like a soldier
 

M&A is not some siloed off group that has nothing to do with anything but M&A. Yes, their work obviously revolves around that product, but in thinking about how to finance an acquisition with stock (ECM) or cash (DCM/Lev Fin), you defintely need to understand all of the products and how they relate.

Also, most banks don't have dedicated sell-side/buy-side teams. They just have an M&A group that handles all types of M&A activity (although its not uncommon for a MD to specialize in a sub-product - e.g. sell-sides, tax inversions, etc.)

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