Rothschild (LDN) M&A or Debt Advisory/Restructuring?

Hi guys,

I've been fortunate enough to get a summer internship at Rothschild and I have to choose between either M&A or Debt Advisory/Restructuring (Rothschild put DCM and restructuring under the same group), but I don't know what to pick!

I'm drawn towards restructuring as I find the debt analysis interesting, and I eventually hope to break into distressed debt investing/PE. But DCM/Restructuring at Rothschild isn't as good as the M&A team, and I wouldn't mind doing M&A either and that too can get me into distressed debt.

  1. Should I choose M&A as it is the stronger group and still has great prospects?

  2. Choose DCM/Restructuring as more geared to what I want and potentially switch to a more prominent firm (PJT, Lazard, HL)?

Most Helpful

Finally, something I can talk about. I am only a prospective monkey, but I've had a lot of interaction/experience with lots of people at Roths.

Firstly, Congratulations, Roths is an incredible place. It has a very good culture and all the people I've spoken to are lovely and super helpful.

With regards to choosing where you want to go, it is important to understand the structure of Roths. If you choose M&A you will be put into a sector coverage (you do get to rank your favourite 3 (but remember everyone picks teams like retail so don't bank on getting one of those (but if you pick metals and mining you would likely get it as its a less popular choice))). When working on an M&A deal only the sector coverage and country coverage teams work on it (there's no M&A product team at Roths).

Whereas Debt Advisory/Restructuring is a product team that works with Coverage and Country teams. They bring specialist knowledge of the situation they are working on. You get to work across sectors and geographies which could be a plus. I know one of the interns in DA/Rx this year and she said it was about 50% DA and 50% Rx (obviously will change based on the types of deals that come through the door). You will hopefully get staffed on both types of deals but it obvs depends. And remember DA=/=DCM, They aren't the same. Also I've not heard great things abt there conversion rate over the past 5 years (so be mindful of that)

Overall I'd pick M&A, but tbh you can't go to far wrong.

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