Am I missing something or is Piper Sandler severely underrated on this site?
They’ve done more deals in the MM space than anyone in the past year, but I rarely see them compared with WB/Baird.
and no I do not work for them.
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It's right up there with those you name, totally group dependent as always. Blair & Baird for some reason have a fuckload of employees on WSO. I'm not sure what it is about those two midwest based banks, but they reallllllly like to try and differentiate themselves from other MM banks. Never head anyone else use the term "Upper" middle-market for IB, lol.
So yeah, Piper Sandler, Harris Williams, Houlihan, Cowen, JEF, Macquarie, RBC, RayJay etc. are all just as good. It's all the same shit. They're reputable MM focused banks. They all have certain groups that punch above their weight class, compete with BBs and win lots of large engagements while also having some middling so-so groups. That's middle-market IB for you, there's nothing special about Blair or Baird. Piper's Healthcare & FIG groups are their standouts. For Baird it's Industrials, Blair is Tech-Enabled (I think), Houlihan is RX, Harris Williams is sell-side M&A, so on so forth.
If you're comparing MM IB opportunities (or any IB opportunities) you really ought to do it through the lens of specific groups versus other groups instead of specific banks versus other banks. Everything is way more group / senior banker specific than it is bank specific.
Piper Sandler is stronger than both WB/Baird nowadays. Their recent inorganic growth has been insane I.e. DBO/Valence Group/TRS for tech/chemicals/RX. Like the first comment says, this site is filled with Blair and Baird bankers that are living in the 2000s. Would put Piper, houlihan, Jeff, RBC, Harris Williams, over both Blair and Baird.
Surprised to see RBC and JEF being lumped in here. Is this really the right comp set for them? Are they still similar to Piper/Houlihan/Baird/Blair/Harris Williams these days? Genuinely curious, don’t work at any of the firms above.
Nah, they don't belong in the same bucket. RBC probably never, JEF maybe a decade ago. Mentally segregate HL too really given their elite RX practice.
Completely different business models, broader product offerings, larger average transaction sizes. They're both more like pseudo-bulges with RBC leading with their lending ability and jefferies leading with levfin. They will win/lose mandates to bulges and EBs more than the traditional MM players
What defines the other guys is extreme focus on cranking out LMM to MM sellsides.