MTS Health Partners: more information on firm?

Have intimate knowledge of the firm for a variety of reasons. Bottom line: well-respected healthcare (primarily M&A) advisory shop. If you are genuinely interested in healthcare, this firm is a good place to be. If not, probably not for you. Firm is 70/80 individuals, with the majority in New York, with a handful in San Francisco and Tokyo. The firm is focused on two core businesses: (1) life sciences advisory, and (2) healthcare services advisory. MTS is no longer affiliated with its (former) private equity affiliate, WindRose Health Investors.

The life sciences group provides sell- and buy-side M&A, royalty monetizations (and other structured finance products), reverse mergers, and equity financing (think private placements). The coverage universe for this group includes any and all biopharmaceutical companies (i.e., early stage, pre-revenue biotech, to multi-hundred billion dollar pharma). Currently, this group is definitely more active than the services business. Very intensive coverage model (read: pitch books with profiles), which has generated significant deal flow across the product lines. Strong class of partners, with some up-and-coming VP's/directors.

The healthcare services business provides sell- and buy-side M&A, restructurings, recapitalizations and general capital structure advisory. Coverage universe is largely publicly-traded and sponsor-owned provider/payor/outsourced services/facilities business. Also have an up-and-coming HCIT business. Sell-side business is not as strong as comparables (I think of Jefferies and the Blair's/HW's of the world), but they are upmarket with respect to the clients and deals they are around (albeit, can be a bit confined to their spaces of expertise). Have some very respectable clients. Again, the partner/MD class is strong.

The profile of analyst/associate is heavily skewed towards people who are demonstrably interested in healthcare (think people coming from UPenn's Vagelos program, people with healthcare/pharma/medicine academic/work experience backgrounds, etc.). Primarily recruit out of Penn, Cornell, Columbia and a handful of other schools. Analysts/associates typically begin to specialize or migrate to one group or another after a year or so. Which group will heavily influence exit opp's and experience. As mentioned above, the life sciences group is very "science-y", while the services group is pure-play corporate finance/sponsor coverage. Both groups heavy on M&A, however. As a result of the aforementioned experience biases, life sciences exits are typically to corporate development roles at biopharma companies. Have also been several exits in recent years to royalty principal investment shops (i.e., Healthcare Royalty Partners) and hedge funds (Citadel, Point72). The services exits are primarily private equity (as mentioned above, they are well represented at the respectable mid-market healthcare PE funds). No exits to mega-funds that come to mind. There have also been several exits to competing investment banks in recent years. They promote A-to-A and A-to-VP, as well.