Morgan Stanley Healthcare
Does anyone have any insight on this group?
JPM is the undisputed leader in healthcare banking. Goldman isn't that strong in the space, from what I understand, nor are many of the other BB's. And then you have middle market firms like Jefferies, Cowen, Leerink that have good deal flow but don't have the BB brand name pulling for them.
Where does Morgan Stanley fit in - can anyone familiar with the group offer some insight? Thanks.
Above ranking being based on deal size skews it. You can be a print advisor on a Pfizer deal and be sitting at $100bn+ league table cred.
Total fee (including Lev Fin and Equity) would put JPM on top. But they have lost some footing over last couple of years compared to say 2014. GS probably equally strong in M&A and equity. GS does very well with public company sell sides. Among BBs BAML and Barclays come next. MS does some big deals but is smaller / less volume. CS lost most of their guys but still shows up now and then. UBS rarely but sometimes. DB/(RBC/WF) non factors.
Among boutiques Lazard and Centerview gets most. Centerview got some GS/CS people recently and also have ex-ML people. Evercore, Guggenheim probably after that. You’ll find all these guys do deals based on their sub vertical focus / power MDs.
And if you want to pump out sponsor sell sides CIMs, can’t go wrong with Jefferies and Moelis. Would argue Jefferies does more deal than any of the above even. Harris Williams, William Blair, Houlihan Lokey does lot for the smaller sponsor sell sides.
Depends on how you cut the league table (a great analyst skill). Typical ways are - Announced deals total value (Allergan would count here) - Closed deals total value (won’t count) - Closed deals fees earned (won’t count)
If you asked me 3rd one probably gives best picture since you actually got paid based on your level of involvement vs in first one you might get credit for providing financing. None of them are really accurate though given it’s self reported in many cases and lot of private transactions don’t show up (eg smaller PE deals). Then again, not really peoples fault that Allergan fell through but EOD no one gets paid. Similarly right now both Comcast and disney advisors are getting credited for Fox under #1, but only one will be winner. The only truly reported fees are in merger proxy for sell side advisors.
Then there is the massaging. Some would count fees, some deal size, some number of deals. Some would throw a filter in like deals above or below certain amount or excludes some industry or region or whatever time period.
That’s why any corporate presentation or bake off deck has the respective bank as #1 or #2 and league tables are a pretty useless way to judge strength.