I'm starting work soon at a firm, which you can think of like GE Capital in the early 2000's, which just has a ton of extra capital and instead of doing share buy-backs or providing dividends, is just buying up companies and real estate in North America.
I'm going to be on the deal team, helping to acquire these companies. Originally I thought this was private equity, but it's not really, it is however a "buy-side" role where we're thinking more strategically than execution bankers. Doing due-diligence and putting our money at stake as opposed to a client's.
In the dichotomy between PE and banking I'm not really sure where this falls. As an "investment analyst" I'm probably doing the same financial modelling that PE analyst/associate would be doing, but I don't think we're focusing on improving the operations as much as just wanting to diversify this F500's assets.
If someone is interested in kind of helping me define my position/job functions in the context of banking/PE, I can provide more details via PM.
corporate development?
Exactly.
OP, you described corp dev to a tee.
Ahhh ok -- gotcha that makes sense. I see you're in somewhat of a similar role as well
So (throwing up in my mouth here) what are the exit options normally like? Is it similar to banking except you probably have less deal exposure with the trade-off of better lifestyle? Is it common/possible to go from corp Dev --> PE?
Usually corporate development is the exit op. It certainly is possible to exit to PE, but you might find yourself at a disadvantage given your lack of transactional "width".
Corp dev is unlike IB in the sense that corp dev is a mile deep and an inch wide, while IB is a mile wide and an inch deep. In IB, you really never move past the surface of a company and its background, but you will gain experience across a number of companies. To be successful in corp dev, you need to truly understand the company, its strategy, its market, etc. Because of this focus on depth instead of width, in corp dev, you tend to lack the exposure to different type of modeling or transactional scenarios that your IB counterparts have. That being said, in corp dev, you do gain a unique vision into strategy and can really understand the inner workings of a company, which your counterparts in IB never really see.
I hope that helps. I spent two years in IB and never considered PE. I enjoy corp dev so far.
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