Minneapolis/St. Paul Investment Banking
Hello,
I am curious about Investment Banking in the Minneapolis area. I am in High school and am looking at this as a career but I would like to stay in this area. Is Minneapolis good for IB or do they lack enough banks to make it possible. Wells Fargo is the only major bank I know of in the area. Also are target schools extremely important? Thinking of attending Carlson-UMN. Any info would be appreciated.
Thank you.
I’m also in High school looking into IB. I don’t know much about location exactly but I’m betting Minneapolis isn’t the hot spot for it. I could be wrong. There are smaller firms and stuff but I think a move out and you would have more opportunities at bulge brackets. It also depends on where you go for undergraduate. This is my guess. Look it up for better advice
Thanks for the info. I don’t t believe many if any BB banks in Minneapolis. Some MM. if you don’t mind me asking where are you looking at getting into IB (city).
Not to be a dick but considering you're in HS you should not be commenting trying to give advice like this. Sit back, ask questions, and observe.
High School or not, hold this monkey shit for wasting everyone's time.
Houlihan (rx and industrials practice), Lazard MM (a couple groups i think), Piper Sandler (hq), Harris Williams (food and beverage) are the four top banks. Aside from those theres bmo and craig hallum, among others. Enough banks to have a career imo if that's what you want to do.
Awesome thanks for that list yes I was wondering if a career would be successful in the city. Do you know how hours and pay compare in Minneapolis say with NYC?
Pay is the same and hours are just as long for those four firms from my interactions with them. Will be joining one for full time next year.
LMM Minny was a prior HQ and is still one of the bigger offices; there's at least five groups including Sponsors
Pretty sure Baird has an office in the twin cities, not sure if they have banking. I know they have a banking office in Milwaukee fwiw.
Baird only has wealth management, no IB in Minny
why is this getting ms lol. It's not an exhaustive list but it is representative
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/ibs-in-minneapolis
To refresh this OP...
Top groups:
HL, Piper, Laz MM, HW (Consumer only, but decent sized team)
Tier 2:
Duff & Phelps (small office), Cowen (small office), Truist (new, small office), Triple Tree (HC only), BMO (would avoid)
Small shops:
Hennepin, Prestwick, Cherry Tree
Crappy Capital Markets shops:
Craig Hallum, Lake Street, Dougherty, Oak Ridge
As someone at Truist I'm pretty sure we don't have any IB groups in MSP, but with all the changes who knows at this point lol
In all honesty, Mpls has very few opportunities for someone interested in a career in finance let alone banking or PE. If I were approaching college at the U of M I would focus on building a network of people on NY and SF and try to recruit for positions in those cities. Focus on giving yourself the biggest opportunities from the start, you can always move back to MN down the road!
While i don't disagree with you that the optionality is severely higher outside mpls, I know more than a few vps and directors who have been in ib in the twin cities for their entire careers, and if someone wants to build a career in this city, there are options, both in IB, as well as mezz and lmm pe.
It has plenty of FP&A positions given the amount of corporate offices around.
Compared to what? Des Monies?
Something I think a lot of people on WSO forget is that many of us are not BB/MF or die kind of bankers. Building a nice relatively quiet life in a smaller city like Mpls at a solid firm like Piper is a fairly attractive prospect for many people.
It's nothing like New York but you can certainly make it work. I went to one of the following Blake/Breck/SPA/Edina/Orono and had friends at the others and know people whose parents work at almost every single bank listed or classmates who now work there. They all have good lives. Point being you can make it work. Also know people at the U who are interning in banking/PE at some of the smaller shops. I plan on going back to Minneapolis in 5-10 years. Only thing to note is it's a tight circle.
My guess is the hornets. I got a fiver on it
It's true - framing it that way is such an Edina thing to do
Wanna throw out CarVal Investors as well (Cargill's investment management group)
Also, I grew up and went to school in the area and have friends who did IB at some of the groups mentioned here. One of my buddies did his two and headed out to NY to do MM PE after so exit opps are definitely available.
CarVal was fully spun out from Cargill in 2019, it is management owned now but Cargill still is an LP in their fund(s)
Piper Sandler (formerly Piper Jaffray) has a massive presence in Minny. Recruited for them for a while with people in MN office and NYC office. NY analysts and MN analysts equally respected
Piper Sandler is the largest bank based in Minneapolis. US Bank is probably the largest financial institution in the city, but their capital markets work is limited to fixed income trading I believe.
Minneapolis is a hub for corporate development jobs at big food & beverage firms (General Mills, etc.).
Minneapolis was once a replication of Scandinavia in America (clean, cold, quiet, and efficient). Now you couldn't pay me to live there. It'll be the next Baltimore soon enough.
If you want to investment banking in the Midwest, Chicago is really where you need to be. Even Milwaukee and Cleveland see more deal activity.
Thanks for the info.
You make a good point on CD jobs there. I know a couple people who exited to CD roles in Minneapolis - both name brand companies. I'm sure being at a semi-decent IB shop in Minneapolis would allow someone to pretty easily land a corp dev role in the city after the analyst years.
If the goal is PE, agree it would make sense to at least consider the other cities you mentioned.
Are you taking about F300 roles or including mid-size firms? Curious about how tough it is to get Corp Dev at a major firm.
So Baird sees more deal flow than a combined Piper/HL/LMM/HW/BMO?
doesn't baird actually get more deal flow than BMO or am i misinformed?
Corporate development jobs at big corporations like General Mills......Target? Best Buy? wait for it.... oh yeah that’s about it.
Also the city has gone to absolute shit since Floyd was murdered
You forgot tons of F500s... UHG, 3M, us bank, thrivent financial, Polaris, hormel, xcel, CHS, and there’s at least 5 more. State does pretty well on a per-capita basis. Corporate jobs are a dime a dozen.
Milwaukee and Cleveland see more deal activity...?
Baird, KeyBanc, and BGL (Milwaukee and Cleveland), plus the fact the big shops in Minneapolis run their deals out of other offices (usually Chicago).
3M, Cargill, Medtronic, Ecolab, Vista Outdoors and a handful of others that weren't readily available in my head.
I’ll add UHG to that list as well; absolute M&A machine
I’m surprised Minneapolis is still standing after this summer. Personally I wouldn’t want to be a banker in a city where I might get hunted down by pack of wild ANTIFA.
Downtown Minny is becoming a dump, but it isn't Portland or Seattle.
I live in one of the downtown neighborhoods - it's still great.
I live here and am a moderate republican. Can confirm that this is stupid as hell
Minne will never be a NYC, San Fran, or others, so you can't even compare it to them. It is however a place that has good MM shops like Piper, HL, LMM, HW, and a few more regional boutiques. You'll get good sell side experience here. First year pay is 85k, with all in ~120k depending on how you finish in the buckets. UMN Carlson has a good pipeline to place kids in these shops, but other schools are just as able (Carleton, St Thomas, etc.). There's good exit opps in Minne to LMM PE firms (Norwest, Varde, Castle Lake, etc), along with corp dev in F300 companies (UHG, 3M, Target, Ecolab, etc.). People always forget that the cost of living is far cheaper here than in bigger towns with roughly the same pay, so you're really getting a bang for your buck. Hours are still respectable at these shops, usually at 80 or 90 with some 100+ weeks in there as well. Night life is definitely sleepier than bigger cities, but there are a good amount of bars to hang at absent covid. Very cold in the winter but everything is skyway connected and you really don't have to step outside if you don't want to. Summers are fun with all the lakes around here. Almost all these banks have a great midwestern culture. Definitely a place to have a family and still work in IB.
You'll see a lot of people on here that would "never move to a tier 2 or 3 city like Minne," but it's not all that bad. If you have an ego problem, and have to do "big deals" go work at a BB in NYC, because Minne will never be that. Personally, I've never had the fantasy of working on these big deals at BB shops, but I won't get into that. But for someone that wants a better work / life balance, lower cost of living and decent earning potential, nice summers, and decent exit opps, Minne is a good spot.
I would disagree with your classification of LMM PE firms, the ones you mentioned I would say are larger than LMM. Otherwise everything else is pretty much spot on.
Everything is right except comp. if you’re talking Piper, HL, LMM and HW $120k is abysmal for first year, no ones getting paid that on average. I worked at one of these and made $170k all in first year and I wasn’t even the highest paid in my class.
Jesus seriously? I heard only hl RX pays that high in minny and the rest were 85 base 35-55 bonus and 10-20k signing. Is that accurate or would you say it’s higher (non covid)
People who have never been in Minneapolis opining on it with such certainty lol. The city has been, is, and will be fine.
There are a handful of decent banks in Minneapolis as a couple other (actually informed) poster opined. PE is limited - NEP doesn’t recruit from the Minneapolis banks so it’s just a small handful of places that are legit and obtainable. However, there are a ton of F500 companies HQ’d in the Twin Cities area (relative to the size of the area) that many bankers wind up at (3M, UnitedHealthcare, General Mills, Ecolab, Target, Best Buy and numerous more).
Laughing very loudly at the guy who suggest Milwaukee or Cleveland offer more opportunities. Minneapolis isn’t close to NYC or even Chicago but it blows those Milwaukee and Cleveland out of the water, unless KeyBank is just doing 10x more deals than I last checked.
No to mention Keybank's best group (Cain) has zero presence in Cleveland!
NEP doesn't recruit from piper, lmm, hl, or hw? Why not? Looking at their associates in the MPLS office i see Raymond James, Piper, Wells, 2x blair, MHT partners, and guggenheim. Aside from Guggenheim those are all very much mm banks?
Idk why. I should say it’s not impossible from Piper, but they definitely like people from NY/Chicago/SF with Midwest ties, so you’re competing with some huge talent pools.
What's Next is wrong. NEP definitely recruits from Piper and other Minneapolis banks.
NEP definitely recruits from Minneapolis banks, what are you talking about. Know multiple Piper analysts currently there or who used to be there.
Sorry I will clarify for you: they recruit from one bank in Minneapolis and that one bank makes up all of one of of their eight current Associate seats. Not exactly great penetration so I don’t think anyone looking at MSP banking broadly should count on an opportunity to join NEP as an exit opportunity.
Coming from someone who lives in the North Loop and grew up going to a Lake Conference school, I’ll chime in. The city itself is most definitely devolving. Gone are the days where I could safely walk to meet friends or grab a drink at night, car jackings are off the charts, our mayor has the mental capacity of a 9 year old boy, and our Christmases are no longer white. Admittedly, the ~3 months of summer are nice but nothing to write home about unless you have access to a lake or cabin. People also tend to forget that living in Minneapolis is one of the more expensive cities in our country with relatively high property tax and state income tax with access to a very limited amount of activists compared to other cities in the same range.
Personally, I regret going to the UMN, UST, Carleton and staying here for the last 4 years of my career; I have countless IB/PE friends that left after undergrad to head to NY SF or CHI and are absolutely killing it doing the same shit I’m doing only getting paid more, living in more fun places, and have the opportunities to join larger firms or corporates that seem to have no ceiling.
Bottom line, Mpls isn’t the worst but it sure isn’t the best. If you’re young and ambitious I would highly recommend pursuing opportunities in other cities for IB / PE / Corp Dev. If not, you’ll still live a good life, trust me I wouldn’t trade my childhood here for the world.
is north loop safer than downtown? going to be a ft analyst at one of the mm banks and trying to find the ideal location (assuming in person)
North loop is one of the better areas
The North Loop is great. I'm much more terrified for my wallet than my safety.
Interesting you think it’s an unsafe city now when the crime rate in the 90s (when your good childhood occurred) was much higher than it is now.
not saying things aren’t worse this year (they are) but it’s not WW2 out here. It’s just the fact that we had so many years of basically no crime
How comparable is the cost of living between here and larger cities? I feel like NYC, San Fran, Chicago, etc. have a much higher cost of living, so comp would be relatively similar at the junior level
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