MS Top Groups
I searched around and was able to find a few posts on this but nothing very recently, and group culture/dynamic is ever changing. I was fortunate enough to receive and accept an offer to join Morgan Stanley for the summer and was hoping people in the industry might be able to offer their thoughts on which groups in MS are the best. The 3 things that are most important to me are culture (hours, type of people), deal-flow, and exit opportunities. Any help is appreciated.
The groups are as follows
M&A
Financial Sponsors
FIG
Real Estate
Power/Utilities
Transportation
Healthcare
Consumer/Retail
Industrials
Natural Resources
Technology
Media/Telecom (might be with Tech?)
Services
Thanks for the help.
M&A is the top group at MS for exit opps, no question. One of the top groups in all of banking for exits. Heard this straight from a partner at a megafund.
if you're into RE, MS RE as an analyst will give you exposure to both PE investing and traditional RE IBD, and is a regular feeder into top REPE shops such as blackstone, TPG, starwood, etc.
Top group far and away is M&A. Sponsors and Media/Comm are also highly regarded and place very well.
Is media/comm a separate group from tech? I know with GS/JP you have a TMT group that captures all 3 of the sectors but wasn't sure if it is different for MS. As someone else mentioned, I'd heard that Tech is mainly based out west and the NY office isn't a great spot for it, but are media/comm strong in NY?
They're separate. West coast Tech group is strong, NY isn't. NY Tech analyst PE/HF placement pales in comparison to top groups at MS.
I'm surprised no one mentioned their tech group
At MS, the strongest groups are: - M&A (literally one of the top groups on the street, the firm's golden goose egg is M&A; Morgan Stanley is M&A, and M&A is Morgan Stanley, so to speak) - Sponsors - Media & Comm - Nat Res / Industrials / GPUG (Global Power & Utilities is one of three industry groups to handle M&A in-house rather than farming it out to the dedicated team, they have fairly consistent and solid PE placement) - Real Estate (avoid if you don't want to be pigeon-holed, because they do excellent work and get great exposure and therefore their exits are exclusively RE-focused; premier group if you like RE, if you don't, then stay away)
Should be noted that the "Morgan Stanley is M&A" thing is just the perception or just within IBD. In reality, it's more like Matt Levine described: "Morgan Stanley: basically a mutual fund!"
http://dealbreaker.com/2012/09/morgan-stanley-heeding-frenemies-advice-…-trading-less-better/
Thanks! That is quite helpful.
Besides the obvious M&A/Sponsors, I am pretty interested in GPUG, Transpo, Healthcare, and Consumer/Retail- do you know anything more about these in terms of placement or anything else (I know you mentioned the in-house M&A in GPUG which is definitely helpful to know)
Any information regarding MS's healthcare and consumer retail groups?
bump
Best Departments at Morgan Stanley (Originally Posted: 11/08/2014)
Thank you in advance to those who can offer insight. Definitely looking for quality over quantity.
I recently networked with an individual at Morgan Stanley about Associate roles, and he asked me which department I wanted to have my resume forwarded to. I'm looking for as much of a financial opportunity as possible over the next 3 years. I'm ready to grind, and just want to make as much money as possible.
Which Associate roles at Morgan Stanley offer the higher base pay/ bonus? I'll have my MBA in finance from a top-ten school in about a year and half (I'm going part time,) but this is for an IMMEDIATE role, so non-MBA. Thank you!
I would say their M&A team. They're top notch.
Yes, consensus is that M&A is the best IB group there.
Thanks. Is it easier to come in as an Analyst, or will they hire non-MBAs as associates?
Also, any thoughts on FAA or other divisions?
I think he meant Financial Advisor, which is basically a PWM job.
Top divisions you should want to be in - IBD, GCM, IED, FID, ER and IM (investment mgmt)
Being an FA is like being in sales. While you can make a lot of money if you are good at building relationship, it's not really a finance job.
Just out of ignorant curiosity; MS doesn't have a Lev Fin group (or something to that extent)?
LevFin at MS is part of their GCM division (with ECM and DCM) I've heard it is less modeling intensive, though still a good group to be a part of.
Bump!
Media/Comm is separate. Tech, as I said, is run mainly out of the Menlo Park office with a small group in New York. Michael Grimes is an absolute rainmaker, the experience on the West Coast in that group at all levels dominates that on the East Coast. MS is one of the only BB banks to split tech off from media/comm. The latter is one of the strongest, "sexier" groups in the NYC office with solid placement as well.
The firm has LAF, Leveraged and Acquisition Finance, but it is based out of GCM. The division as a whole takes far fewer interns than IBD, and getting a placement into LAF is fairly tough.
Show the love with SBs.
How does tech m&a in Menlo compare to groups in nyc? Excluding location preferences, would it be the second strongest group after m&a? If one wanted to do tech banking, would it be worth taking over m&a?
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