LevFin hours? Do you like the work?

Question

Are hours in the LevFin group better than in M&A?
I would be interested to hear ppl's opinion who are in LevFin, whether they like their job or not?
How are the exit opps to PE?

Cries · Accepted Answer

Anyone out there in Lev Fin? (Originally Posted: 07/24/2011)

Im in an industry-specific corp banking group at WFC.  We offer products like bridges, revolvers, and term loans for a variety of client needs.  If loans are needed for acquisitions, for example, we spread comps, DCFs, etc for the target, acquirer, and combined.

We work with a a variety of clients that are both leveraged and investment grade.  My group has been consistently poaching leveraged deals from our capital markets groups.

ibleedexcel · Answer

Generally yes. Slightly. It depends on deal flow (relates to #2 below) In the current market, for sure yes (this is an assumption since I don't work in LevFin anymore but not a hard one to make).
I really liked levfin. Generally speaking, everything you work on is a real transaction. Your sponsor client may not win the deal or your bank may not win the financing mandate, but you're not spending your time putting together reams of pitch books for "potential" deals or "ideas".

I also like that levfin has the partial feeling of being on the buyside.

DontMakeMeShortYou · Answer

Yeah it depends on the bank. I think a great example is the old ML. It had a separate group for lev fin banking (ie LBO/M&A/etc) and another for capital markets activities. ML clearly believed that it would be best to split people up and have them focus on a specialty. When they were acquired by BAML, that structure was scrapped. BAML lev fin is largely capital markets-like due to the large balance sheet. If you go to a smaller BB, you'd see more of the M&A/LBO stuff (although BAML and JPM would probably get lead left due to their financing advantage in many cases...).

IBWannaB · Answer

Appreciate the info!

Another couple of Qs:
1. What is the difference between Financial Sponsors Group and LevFin?
2. Where do you currently work? PE?
3. How many LevFin jobs are out there, comapred to M&A? What is the ratio? 10:? =M&A:LevFin
4. If exit opps are solid, why isn't it more popular than M&A? After all, what comes down from this forum, is that everyone (or nearly), who starts in M&A, has the intention to move to PE.
5. Are analysts encouraged (forced) to go to MBA after 2-3 years just as much as in M&A?
6. How common is it to return to LevFin after MBA?

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LevFin hours? Do you like the work?

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