Stay at Weak Dealflow Team or Lateral?
Ignore title, currently ASO3 at a well regarded MM (WF type). Have a very good life, work 50-60 hours a week for the most part, paid street comp. Been with the group for a few years now and am on track to get VP promotion.
However, my coverage group is very weak in M&A. Most of our fees come from balance sheet products or buyside financing. When we get M&A mandates the deals are typically much smaller than deals other coverage teams work on at my bank (typically $200-$500M EV, with a few in the $1B+ range). When we talk internally about fee opportunities with sponsors we basically almost always write off sell-side M&A b/c we know the sponsor won't give us the mandate.
If I'm interested in a long-term career in banking but the lack of M&A experience is starting to worry me. I started at a much more M&A focused MM (Blair, Baird, etc.) so I know what it looks like when a team has a lot of M&A flow.
I do appreciate getting access to the balance sheet products b/c it just makes banker development much easier, but I don't want to just do that forever and feel that is not conducive to a long-term career in IB.
I could relatively easily lateral back to M&A MM world or to a mid-tier BB. But I like my team, have a strong reputation internally, and feel we have a great culture / WLB compared to some of my peers at BB/EB. Seniors are very supportive and I've started building out my own sub-coverage.
Any perspectives here would be very helpful.
“My steak is too buttery”
Stay there
Think I am at the same place as you. Tough dilemma but ultimately want to look at long term career prospects. Can either lateral to M&A shop now or rise the ranks and look to lateral to another platform when more senior.
Curious to hear others thoughts.
Stay and bring deal volume to the space
Bump
"When we talk internally about fee opportunities with sponsors we basically almost always write off sell-side M&A b/c we know the sponsor won't give us the mandate."
I feel like there is a very good book where part of the storyline was the benefits of being the King of Shitty Little Companies. If you want sell-side M&A mandates...
Unfortunately our fee minimums won’t let us go for smaller sell sides lol
Nothing I can do about your company having a bad business plan I guess
which book? accidental investment banker?
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