Kroll Transaction Opinions Analyst?
Anyone know anything anything about transaction opinions at kroll? Comp, bonus, exits?
Also sorry to be a dweeb but is this still investment banking?
Here is an excerpt from the listing “RESPONSIBILITIES: Analysts will act as Investment Banking generalists, working as a part of our market-leading global Transaction Opinions team on a variety of in-depth valuation engagements. Individuals will be assigned a range of projects and given as much responsibility as their experience and capabilities permit. • Work directly with client senior management teams, board members and stakeholders throughout all phases of transaction advisory and execution, in both healthy and distressed situations • Prepare financial models and analytical support for transaction opinion deal teams • Present financial models and detailed analysis to support fairness and solvency opinions to senior professionals at Kroll during technical review meetings • Perform company, industry, market and competitor research and due diligence • Contribute to the development and communication of proposals and advice to current and prospective clients • Ensure quality of client deliverables by having strong attention to detail”
Also noted analysts must have series 7, 63, 79
yes
These guys mostly give ‘fairness opinions’. This usually has to do with situations which are a bit sticky and the sponsor needs an ‘independent’ validation of what they’re doing valuation wise. For example, the sponsor sells Investment X from Fund 5 to its own Fund 6. They don’t go out to the market but do need to value the company somehow. To shield themselves from being sued by Fund 5 investors down the line for selling too cheaply they ask for a second opinion on the valuation where someone else says without being incentivised that they’re being treated fairly
Sounds niche lol. Any idea I’d this is a good role to take? Goal is to be in IB, would this be a good move then lateral?
Also any idea on comp?
I’m not too sure about any of that. Kroll is a very respectable company but it’s not an investment bank. Perhaps try LinkedIn and see what you can find alumni wise
Depends on who you ask. Imo it's not technically investment banking since TO guys don't actually run a sellside advisory process. They're the 3rd party valuation provider that comes in and opines on the value of the deal on behalf of the buyer or seller (depends on who hires you), mostly for fiduciary duty. You can find sample transaction opinions in SEC filings from public companies' deals. Here's one just for a sample that Qatalyst did for LinkedIn:
https://media.wallstreetprep.com/uploads/2018/02/06172556/MSFT-LNKDN-Me…
It's important to note the distinction however that Qatalyst (a true IB) did render the opinion performed by bankers. However, i've only ever seen it at places like Kroll, HL, etc. that have a dedicated TO practice solely due to the sheer volume of opinions they render. At a place like Qatalyst or Moelis, the IB bankers work on opinions but they render far fewer since they're more focused on sellside advisory so they don't have a dedicated practice.
With that said, it's literally the closest thing you can come to investment banking in terms of working on live deals without actually being a sellside investment banker. I say take it if it's the best thing you have. Great valuation experience too, although much more technical than actual IB tbh. IB is much more sales-y but TO advisory is much more technical valuation work.
You could probably spin it as IB-esque experience in an interview. Probably wouldn't be able to exit to any sizable MM PE or MF PE funds but would probably get some looks from boutique PE funds (think $1bn AUM). Otherwise could probably spin it to move into a better IB role.
Bear in mind hours are very sweaty in TO (regardless of where you go), especially considering you're still not getting the sellside advisory experience that you'd get doing sellside IB.
tl;dr, I say take it unless you have an offer from a decent sellside IB.
Can I PM you to talk about my other offers?
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It's not that niche of a role. Kroll acquired Duff and Phelps which did a lot of that work. Houilan Lokey also has a dedicated group that does this work. Fund transfers aren't the only use case. A lot of publicly traded managers (such as BDCs) will hire a firm like this to value their portfolio every quarter. Comp will be below IB but you could probably exit to IB pretty easily in good markets.
Thank you for the insight! I saw that Lincoln and HL also have an opinions practice. Seems that Kroll ranks highly amongst others in this space
Portfolio valuations are a different team at HL Lincoln and kroll
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