I have SA offers from a non-BB bank for their M&A team in NYC, and the Private Capital Advisory group of an EB in NYC as well. I'm torn between the great learning experience of M&A in regards to transferable skills/exits if I decide to leave banking, and the name brand of the EB albeit in a more niche role. The PCA group was only founded recently, but from the people I've spoken with it's been absolutely killing it. Does anybody have any insight on the day to day of Private Capital/Private Funds guys and where they end up if they leave IB?
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PCA guys (I'm gonna assume you mean Evercore or Lazard since they seem to fit your description) work on two different types of transactions: either secondary (LP led) transactions, or primary fundraising (GP-led) transactions. On the secondary side, you're helping buy or sell existing stakes in funds. Your primary responsibility is going to be to intrinsically value the underlying assets, figure a market haircut or premium, and ultimate derive a value for an illiquid stake in a fund. You don't work much directly with funds in this role. On the fundraising side you're essentially connecting investors with funds that you're representing. You make marketing materials, you pitch investors, etc. You work closely with the GPs and client funds.
PCA guys exit rather oddly. I know a few who have made it to good funds via the connections they've made, but few do since they don't have the modeling reps, and it's a less "prestigious" part of the firm in question. Headhunters aren't dumb, they know that Lazard PCA is not Lazard M&A or RX. You can occasionally lateral to the same firm's investment banking teams if they have an opening, or you could try to use the name to quickly move over to a slightly less prestigious bank in IB. Really all depends on how good you are at using the connections you'll make.
If you take a non-BB big-bank M&A team (I'm going to assume you mean a big bank like HSBC or BNP or something that doesn't do any meaningful M&A work but has a big balance sheet) then your primary goal should be to lateral to a better firm. Which can be done. That will be your best option to get good exits. I think you can probably get decent CorpDev exits from there anyway though, if that's what you're looking for.
Thank you for your response, that’s really helpful information. Do you think it would be easier to lateral to a better firm from the EB PCA group, or the non-BB M&A team?
I wanted to clarify TrackBack's comments for anyone reading in 2022 since this was bumped. GP-led are not primary fundraisings (at least any more). GP-led are single or multi-asset deals that are being driven by the GP (the sponsor) to generate liquidity for the fund. Instead of an LP selling a stake and generating liquidity for themselves, the GP sells the remaining company to itself in a new fund and returns that capital to the original LPs.
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