Opinion on Greentech Capital Advisors after recent merger with Nomura
Hi Monkeys,
Nomura recently acquired Greentech Capital Advisors and will rename the firm Nomura Greentech.
Was wondering if you guys had insights on how this will affect the dynamics at Greentech in the future in terms of exit opps, office locations, employee culture,etc..
Any info would be appreciated!
I had one of my worst Superday experiences there. Completely unorganized (forgot to pay for hotel, took 8 months to reimburse for expenses) and they also started the slate of interviews late (was waiting in the office for >1hr). This was also coming off of my second round interview where the interviewer told me directly he didn’t like my answers to the behavioral questions and cut the interview short (got the Superday invite a week later). Would not recommend this firm at all, maybe Nomura will help make it a bit more professional, but who knows
former/current GT banker here. Have definitely seen kids waiting for an absurd amount of time before interviews (bankers too staffed to step away for 30 mins obviously not a good look for the firm). Pretty wild if someone actually said your answers weren't good in an interview... can't believe that one, but who knows. Only thing I'd say is read the Glassdoor reviews. pretty much all recent stuff is true over there. huge pros and cons to coming here. highs are high, lows are low. insane exit ops.
Took a quick look on LinkedIn - pretty strong, but all power-related. Their analyst classes seem pretty small (4-5 people?) but in the last 2 years:
Warburg Pincus Goldman Special Situations Carlyle Macquarie Real Assets & Infrastructure DE Shaw CPPIB
And 2 that lateralled to Centerivew SF
Hours are bad... Analysts typically log off ~3-4 AM. Logging off at midnight is considered a slow day. The firm had a bad year in terms of revenue. Turnover this year is also high despite imposing 100% bonus clawback to the VPs/Associates. 15 or so VPs/Associates have left the firm in the past 2 months. Some of them have good exits and others are just pissed about the bonus clawback. Associates who remained at the firm are new and have only been with the firm for less than 1 year.
To tack onto this, was talking to an MD in the renewables space and he said the Nomura acquisition absolutely destroyed Greentech, and nobody wanted to stay after that.
Imagine working for Greentech, a really cool renewables boutique with its own cultue/pay/prestige (prestige is a weird thing, and the feeling of working for a slightly under the radar but top-tier industry boutique is its own form of prestige) etc. and then waking up one day and you work for fucking Nomura lmao. Everybody without vested interest in staying jumped ship, and the culture took a nose-dive.
Agree with the point about waking up one day and you work for a lower-tier bank... The pay in absolute $ amount was good but not anymore after the merger. However, the culture has always been toxic. Protected weekends were non-existence. It was also known to us that they would fire at least one analyst a couple of months before the bonus pay. "Protected Weekends" were introduced after the merger because employee retention was probably one of their performance metrics. However, protected weekends are limited to major holidays (e.g., July 4). The firm is failing because the MDs lost focus on what they are good at (aka, renewables) and tried to do all sorts of other things that don't generate revenue.
Greentech has been known to have among the worst hours in the energy/renewables/infra space since it was founded like 15 years ago. Have yet to meet someone that came through there who felt happy and respected.
For context, I completed one year at GT and 1 year at NGT. Clearly, the last year was different from the first 9 months because of COVID, going remote, and no one closing deals for half of 2020. Going remote took place right around the merger.
If you can sidestep the important work of figuring out what bank is more prestigious (and how the combination of banks with different prestige levels affect the overall prestige level of the combined bank) than I can tell you without a doubt that NGT is still the best sell side advisor in the renewable energy space. I'm biased but it's true.
A lot of established buy side firms are creating renewable energy groups and NGT is naturally a top place for them to recruit from. GT/NGT alumns have recently exited to GS, Carlyle, Ares, Warburg, Quantum, Global Infrastructure Partners, DE Shaw, etc. on the financial side and Google, stem, sunrun, Tesla, etc. on the corp dev side. Do your own Linkedin DD to confirm.
If anything exit opps have improved (but the job market is hot right now so that helps). This is all in regards to renewable energy. If you want a generalist program then than there are obviously better banks.
P.S. You're still going to get worked just as hard post-merger