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MS has nearly the highest megacap deal volume on the street (especially within HC, while operating with similar scale to CVP HC and much less than JPM / GS) and is top priority at every HC PE shop. Added bonus of leading the equity game recently, which earns respect from leaders in the HC space. Don’t overcomplicate it.

 
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I’d take MS unless you really prefer a boutique experience. You’ll get more variety in deal exposure so you can figure out what subvertical interests you, unless you really love MedTech where PWP is undoubtably #1 (medtech kinda sucks though tbh). Also deal flow is most likely higher at MS but please correct me if my info is out of date. PWP deals are big names/deals with a corporate focus (high fees usually). Also MS just has a stronger name which always helps if you end up deciding you hate finance (it happens).

If you’re optimizing for modeling reps/complex deals obv PWP because it’s much leaner and there’s a direct corporate M&A focus which IMO makes things more interesting.

Exits from both are basically identical and it’s useless to compare, you’ll get looks anywhere pretty much. Your individual skill/dog is gonna have way more impact than the group.

If you’re an incoming SA keep in mind MS group placement will focus on M&A, FSG, and M&C, should you demonstrate a passion for HC, it will be more in reach compared to PWP HC where it’s arguably their top M&A group so competition will be higher. Intern quality is obviously higher at a boutique as well (at least that’s how it worked out at my target).

Let me know if any of my info is out of date but I spoke to a lot of people during recruiting for a similar decision (BBvEB) for a specific group and ended up going BB. I slightly regret my decision because I think I would have preferred a boutique environment a lot more & I think being a buyside advisor is quite interesting (my firm just cranks sell sides) but for the average person I feel like a BB is the right decision.

 

A lot of ppl in HC banking these days tend to think Pharma and Biotech is the coolest (massive blockbuster deals, cutting edge research, etc). HCIT similar to tech (SaaS, high growth, etc) so that grabs attention. LSTDx and Medtech are cool but not as interesting as the other two (solid deal volume, slower innovation cycles, etc). Maybe controversial but I think services is the worst by far, and where a lot of the criticism this vertical comes from — hospital consolidation, rising healthcare costs, quality of care going down, etc.

I don’t work in HC banking btw but know some ppl who do and that’s what I’ve gathered

 

Good point regarding HCIT, but I think it’s starting to pick up steam. Existing systems are incredibly out of date almost begging to be replaced, so you have the business facing side (hospitals, providers etc) but also the consumer side which I think makes it an interesting place to be.

I do agree though — existing regulations/poor management make modernizing systems incredibly challenging which is a massive burden on HCIT’s growth. For the immediate future, Medtech/tools will continue to maintain much higher deal flow + size.

The only advantage I’d see for someone in services is that it’s very operationally focused compared to the others which can make it extremely interesting for PE firms (as we’ve seen before) if you’re thinking about exiting there, however controversial it is.

 

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