Rank M&A Groups in Charlotte 2022
Curious on any details for groups/IBs in Charlotte?
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Wells
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Piper
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Lazard (mm?)
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Truist
Culture, industry/product groups, growing/cutting, etc.
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Fifth Third is up there. Good deal flow, work life balance and culture
Makes sense that hours are nice, but question deal experience and pay
I don’t think anybody know who Fidus is unless you’re a LMM bodega looking to sell so you can move back to Swahili
Haha swahili is a language
Makes no difference to Fidus
If you're talking strictly M&A, then here is how I would rank them.
1. Jefferies
2. Lazard (believe both large cap and mm are housed out of this office)
3. Piper
4. BoA
5. Fifth Third (seem to be more active lately)
6. Truist
7. Fidus (small deals, but volume shop with a decent regional rep)
8. Wells
And before a bunch of WF bankers jump in here, M&A is not your sweet spot. If you are talking LevFin or PCA then that changes things, but M&A a massive weakness (and has been for awhile).
I know OP didn't mention Blair, but would definitely slide WB in at #2. Pretty large group with ~50 bankers now and very solid in M&A.
Lazard CLT used to be Lazard MM. While they dropped the MM branding, the seniors are all Lazard MM guys and deal flow is almost all MM-focused.
Piper C&R down in Charlotte is quite strong, and Piper Industrials is solid. Would probably move Piper to above Lazard in the list.
Thanks for the color on Lazard (didn't realize they had dropped the LMM moniker).
Fair point on Piper (just haven't run into them as often this year so assumed deal volume was down) and good add on Blair.
Blackarch is another good addition and on my list, probably sits just above Fidus in terms of M&A.
Thank you. Very helpful. Was unaware Blair was in Charlotte - any idea what industry groups?
Former WF and can agree that M&A isn’t the bank’s sweet spot but this is a little much. Wells is #12 in M&A tables this year, number 8 in buy side, 1 behind CS. For reference, Jefferies is #10 overall in M&A YTD.
Where is this fifth third deal flow that you are referring to?
I think of a Fifth Third like a Citizens. Seems like they are doing more M&A deals now, but probably all LMM deals that won't sum to an amount that would appear on league tables. So probably good volume of experience, but no deals that are ever going to be newsworthy. They acquired Coker that I would probably bucket in the same tier as a BlackArch - lots of LMM/MM PE exits.
Truist over wells. Interesting given that BB&T had zero investment banking and STRH is still out of Atlanta
Im former WF and will leave bias aside even though I had a good experience there but Truist over WF is laughable. Truist is nowhere to be found on M&A tables whereas WF is #12 YTD and #8 buy side. Starting to move toward the left on higher quality transactions as well.
Yeah I work at Truist and have a hard time believing that
BofA’s Charlotte M&A group is pretty new. It was created a few years back and focuses on regional coverage in general. BofA Charlotte’s primary focus is LevFin
Had a couple of friends there. The junior culture seems really nice but I heard some of the seniors were a bit intense.
My understanding is that the “group” stemmed from a very small number of MD hires that didn't want to move to NYC so they (and some of their junior staff) just stayed in CLT as part of their employment agreement. I would venture to guess that BofA is hesitant to expand it unless the few CLT based MDs want to hire additional staff (since BofA's actual M&A group is based out of NYC). The bank does, however, have regional/MM coverage a lot of places.
I thought wells was good in REGAL and FIG m&a?
They’re top notch for REGAL and fig maybe. Just not good in M&A
Full of shit lol. You probably work at Fifth third. No one ever take fifth third seriously lol. Doesn’t even belong on the list.
Can provide some color on some offices:
Jefferies
REGL: Pretty small group down in Charlotte. Decent deal flow but awful culture.
C&R: Pretty large group. Solid deal flow, although things have been dead in office this past year with very little deal activity. Solid culture with quite a few women in the group for IB standards.
TES: Strongest group in Charlotte. Split and cross-staffed with the TES team out in NYC. Solid M&A deal flow, and pretty sweaty but good culture.
ADG: Solid group, although deal flow this year has been quite slow compared to some other ADG groups on the street. Culture is...interesting to say the least. You'll either fit in or hate the culture there.
Blair
Primarily ADG-focused, with some industrials, tech, and HC seniors as well. ADG group has solid deal flow, although the group is very heavy on ex-military and has a pretty cliquey culture where you may not vibe with if you're not a veteran. Non-ADG bankers are pretty much the generic Charlotte banker type.
Piper
C&R and Industrials are both quite sweaty. C&R deal flow is very good but the group isn't super close. Industrials deal flow is solid and the group is very laid back.
Can add more about Jefferies groups. REGL has really tough culture driven by the seniors and mid levels, and also has a really small junior class so analysts get crushed. TES has solid culture and deal flow, but it should be noted most of the TES analysts sit in NY so it can be a bit isolating down in CLT at the junior level. C&R is decent, but has had basically no deal flow this year given market conditions, and they were only able to offer 1/3 interns the return offer because of their lack of deal flow. They are pretty flexible with wfh though. ADG is solid, but the group head brings in most of the headliner deals while the newer MDs are fully in relationship-building mode (meaning a lot of pitchwork and small, low-quality deals for the analysts). Also, I don't know the cause, but the ADG group has had a lot of recent turnover at the associate level. Heard they also only offered 1 return for 4 interns this past year.
What about piper’s HC group ?
Could you elaborate on Jeff’s ADG culture?
Interesting group of people. Some are very down to earth and chill, some are hardos, and some in between.
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The amount of PE exits they do definitely speaks to their credibility. They're legit. Seems like they are taking the H&W approach. Don't even bother leveraging the commercial banking client list (Regions) and only do PE deals. Good intel on the exit ops.
Noticed that most MMPE guys came from boutiques. Wonder why they rarely look to recruit from larger firms
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