M&A for a Specific Sector in Bulge Brackets

Is it possible to work for M&A in a specific industry at Bulge Bracket banks?

I'm aware that at LAZ/EVR their M&A groups are split up by sector and thus they effectively only work on M&A in a specific industry.

Is this possible at Bulge Brackets or are you stuck choosing between working on M&A+Debt Financing+Equity Financing in a coverage team or solely M&A but being industry agnostic?

I've read that at GS and Barclays, the coverage teams do their own M&A. Is it possible to only work on M&A at some point or will you forever have to deal with the occasional debt/equity financing?

How about at firms like MS/BofA/Citi/CS/UBS where there is a dedicated M&A team? Is it possible to laser in on one particular sector within the M&A team or laser in on only working on M&A advisory within the coverage team?

Would love to know.

6 Comments
 

Usually M&A is more specialized (at least in my experience) in terms of deal types. You have people mostly doing Sell-sides - ie with a sponsors focused, or mainly doing complex deals - ie spin-offs combined with a listing of a stand-alone entity. These types of things more than industry coverage. Within industry coverage you have some senior folks that only do M&A yes.

 
Most Helpful

I work in a coverage group at a BB and I guess the industry is a little specialized, but not O&G or FIG. Anyways, I probably spend 80% of my time on M&A and sometimes i'll be staffed with an associate in the M&A group, but the MD will obviously be out in my coverage group. A lot of the times, the M&A ppl have zero clue what's going on and are actively detrimental to the deal at first. They've never worked in the industry, don't know the MDs particular preferences, etc. and so I end up having to undo a lot of work I knew wasn't right to begin with. In other cases, the M&A associate or VP will have experience in my sector and things move a lot more smoothly. All that being said, I think the answer to your question is yes.

 

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