Heard there was a ton of fragmentation going on with CS office switching to Santander, Barclays sponsors getting emptied out, Lazard kind of disappearing too, etc. Is LA IB dead outside of Moelis and HL RX? Would exits in NY for top groups on average be better?
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Also following, interested in west coast exits and trying to see if BB in LA/SF would position me better
Former LA banker here. Boutiques run LA, with the "Big 3" being Moelis, PWP, and HL, and Lazard is effectively dead for the meantime. BB scene for IB juniors is much smaller - Citi has a metals and mining group, BofA and JPM have small regional coverage groups, last I recall GS has small healthcare and C&R groups, and UBS also has a presence.
People do place into NY, but I'd say that all else held equal, LA disadvantages you to NY PE recruiting vs. NY because of logistics and the "Why NY" interview story. That being said, the vast majority of LA bankers have ties to SoCal, thus exits tend to be oriented towards the West Coast as well, and LA banks place very well across LA and SF PE. However, caveat is that LA PE recruiting in particular is much more competitive than NY recruiting as there's relatively few seats and LA bankers have to compete against NY bankers with ties to SoCal who want to come back home.
Former LA banker and second this. Will also add that having some sort of tie to the LA/Socal area is important as well, as most interviewers will ask "why LA?"
MOE (mix, M&E) , PWP (A&D), and HL (mix) are the most dominant, but will add a few more:
Rothschild (~20 people, tech)
Lincoln (~50 People, industrials, tech)
Blair (~15 people, tech)
JPM (~5 people, consumer)
GS (~40 people, mix idk)
Santander (~15-20, LevFin, REGAL, Sponsors)
Probably a few more I'm forgetting
Why’s JPM only 5 people?
WF - FS, Regal, Healthcare
Macquarie - Gaming
PJT - Rx and M&A (no analysts)
Gugg - I think there’s some ppl in LA
Mufg/Intrepid - Multiple groups
JPM - Mid Market Sponsors
There are some other banks but no one at Ass/An level
Delete
Nope
Gugg poached the global head of A&D from Lazard in LA, now they are running an A&D office out of LA, from what I can tell only 5-10 or so ppl in the office
Saw openings for this one too, no idea where the interview process went lol
Good group hit them up.
MS still has a small group (no juniors), some coverage including consumer.
Bumping again looking for more answers
- Santander does industrials in addition to REGAL and Sponsors
- I believe Stifel has a public finance office(?) in LA too
Comments here are all accurate. Only update - Wells Fargo has been actively poaching the remaining UBS bankers to build out the FSG practice. Writing on the wall says UBS will likely shut down its office following Barclays’ footsteps in the exodus
Rothschild and MS have not hired any juniors in 2-3 years and per my LA network, don’t believe they intend to change that
MS LA is pretty much shut down, juniors moved to NY
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