Is Evercore the next Bulge Bracket bank?
In honor of Evercore's 25th anniversary, I thought it'd be interesting to talk about their growth and trajectory over the past couple decades.
I am by no means trying to suck up to them, but their growth has been astounding. Evercore consistently competes on the same deals as the top bulge brackets in the industry and ranks extremely high in M&A fees annually. They are able to poach top rainmakers from Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and Citi to bolster their advisory businesses across the US, and win top talent at the analyst level above other bulge brackets.
With now over 1900 employees and counting, a growing capital markets and sales/trading group, and Evercore ISI Research, will Evercore eventually become the next bulge bracket? Is it their intention to grow to that size, as it conflicts with the founder's initial intent? Will Evercore remain as a top elite boutique?
All thoughts are welcome!
Highly doubtful - Evercore's main value prop is their function as an "independent advisory" bank that is free from the conflicts of interest at bulge brackets.
They're competing at the same level as the Goldmans and JPMorgans of the world, yet the size of the company isn't much of a factor - 1900 employees playing with the top dogs. That's what makes Evercore so great.
People do not understand the concept of a BB/Bank - that is putting capital at risk to underwrite transactions and get paid fees for it. Don't see Boutiques taking B/S risk anytime soon so no.
They have private capital advisory or something similar to all EBs which means they place capital without incurring risk like an intermediary (from what I remember when recruiting and all that shit)
So no they are FAR from taking risk themselves. it would be a HUIUUUUUUUUGE change.
One partnership that I found out is really cool is a bank called Pj Solomon, that got bought out by naxitis. Basically naxitis does the risktaking BS work and PJ can still do private placement. I think if a major bank acquired Evercore that would be interesting because the conflict of interest still remains a degree removed but it still would likely be perceived one. With fee sharing agreements conflict of interest is probably there actually.
But no just because they’re growing doesn’t mean they’re taking risk. They’re just broadening their INDEPENDENT advisory services. Independent in caps for emphasis btw
Evercore could be a regional family office and I'd still kill for a job there
Evercore simp detected
No. Evercore's core business will continue to be advisory for a long time to come.
Bulge brackets are inherently diversified within high finance, investing comparable efforts in advisory, underwriting and market-making. The latter two require deploying balance sheet as an integral part of your corporate strategy.
Boutique banks just don't use their balance sheets this way.
It would appear that the OP has conflated "bulge bracket" with "top tier". Basic logic dispels such a notion. Some bulge brackets are not top tier. Some top tier firms are not bulge brackets. There is little reason to conflate them, though this mistake is still common.
From an M&A perspective, GS / MS still currently dominate the landscape and have been doing so for the last 10 years.
Maybe in the distant future, Evercore will be able to make it into top 3 / 4, but they are still too reliant on the US market and it will be difficult to compete with GS / MS without a B/S.
At the moment, GS / MS are still top for M&A. But with the rising momentum from the boutiques, won't be surprised if Evercore starts consistently being in the top 5 in the next few years
Why dilute ROIC with lower margin business lines? Corporates are streamlining to leverage as much operating income growth as possible. With advisory being one of the highest margin units, I can't imagine Evercore building a balance sheet. The BB's use their balance sheets to gain an edge on advisory services -- not the other way around. If Evercore's able to grow the advisory unit without the need for large capital commitments, they have the best of all worlds.