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Same or more as M&A
Competitive process. Pay is similar or more than m&a
competitive process in terms of recruiting? Where do you see most analysts / associates at PFGs coming from?
EVR PFG is not secondaries -- pay is miles below m&a. At Lazard the groups are combined, and PCA banking at EVR does pay more than m&a.
Made an edit, I was referring only to the group doing primaries fundraises and not secondary advisory, any insight on comp there?
Yeah, comp progression is absolutely terrible. Had a friend lateral to traditional banking because of how shite the bonuses were at the associate level. People who stay past the analyst level are basically pigeonholed.
I was in a PFG (primaries) at CS/EVR/PJT/LAZ. PFG is in no way miles below M&A in pay. A partner openly said that our group had the highest paid associate and highest paid VP in the entire bank that year. The VP was the paid bc they closed a shitload that year, but the associate was largely in line with other associates in the group
if you dont mind me asking, what are you doing now? I've seen very little about exits after leaving PFG
bump
bump
I work at a PFG so can shed some light here. I have found there's a dearth of information about private funds groups on this website and much of what is available is outdated and / or inaccurate.
Private funds groups typically do fundraising for primary investments (private equity, hedge funds / private credit) and secondary investments. Secondaries groups, however, are more akin to traditional IB from an hours, compensation and required technical / quantiative analysis perspective so most of the below pertains to working on the primary side.
Many of the top private funds groups are part of larger investment banks (e.g. Evercore, PJT Park Hill, UBS, Lazard, formerly Credit Suisse) while some are more boutique (e.g. Eaton, Mercury, Campbell Lutyens, Aviditi).
Most private funds groups are typically split into two verticals: Project Management and Distribution. Project Management manages the fundraise from the GP side — puts together materials, coordinates with GPs etc. while Distribution is the group’s “sales” function — they go out to LPs (endowments, foundations, family offices etc.) and try to sell the various products on the group's platform.
Compensation depends on the firm but base salaries are typically in line with the group’s affiliate investment bank (where that is the case) while bonus is more variable. On the Project Management side, juniors (analyst and associate) receive anywhere from 50-100% of base salary in bonus depending on firm / firm performance. Most firms do not have juniors on the Distribution side but those that do pay equivalent with their peers in Project Management. It’s worth noting that a junior distribution person is also less likely to be expected to generate significant, if any, revenue for the firm and is probably more in a support role.
Senior Project Management professionals (VP - MD / Partner) earn $400k to $1 million+. A successful senior-level distribution professional (VP - MD / Partner) can see more variable and outsized compensation as you are paid directly commensurate to the amount of revenue you have generated for the firm. In the hay day of capital raising, when fees were better and large-scale allocators were ramping up their private markets programs, a top performing distribution professional could have cleared eight figures (the number is now likely half that). Anecdotally, it's rumored an Associate at Evercore made $2 million one year shortly after the GFC when the above applied. That said, if you DON'T raise capital (i.e. no revenue), you don't get paid and could lose your job. So senior-level distribution could be described as higher-risk, higher-reward.
Note: my understanding is bonuses used to be larger but a lot of individual TC has been pulled forward into base salaries.
how does recruiting take place for PM roles in the firms you mentioned? Is investment experience in primaries any good?
can I PM you?
Broadly agree with all of the above but that Evercore $2m associate comp is an absolute joke. The Evercore PFG business wasn't even established until shortly before the GFC (2007) and their secondaries business started even later in 2013 when they poached Nigel Dawn from UBS. Evercore's PFG and PCA were nonentities in the initial years after GFC, let alone year after. That's such a random rumor to start. That said, Evercore has been top 3 if not top 1-2 from 2016-present day in my opinion. The two sides have different balance sheets and the PCA side has continued to crush it. Primaries side (PFG) has really struggled the last couple years in particular though and is definitely a shell of its former self--but that's most placement agents these days anyway.
It might have been CS not Evercore
Any insight into hours at the ASO level?
How does a PFG group require the same technical skills. I have seen FSG teams dabble in this and it looks more like a cold call environment to raise funds.
That was referring to secondaries -- on the GP-led side you'll effectively doing multiple, short-form LBOs on the portfolio companies in a fund. You then have to layer in assumptions on fees, carry, future projected returns on unfunded commitments. However, you have less information available, and because you're looking at a diversified portfolio you can go into less depth on any given company. Most of your energy will be focused on the assets expected to drive the majority of returns.
What do you think the exits / skillset for the buyside will be like for that? Do you think it'll be transferable?
At my EB the pool is combined between the PFG and IBD (I.e same base and bonus)
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