Top groups at BOFA London

M&A at BofAML is just a process support team. If you want to do a lot of admin work, choose them.

Totally forgot Sponsors. BAML obviously has very strong sponsor deal flow and the amount of execution being done by the team is getting higher. Nonetheless, not on the same level as in NY as a lot of time is spent on non-deal related administrative work. The team is also one of if not the smallest team at the firm.

Agree with this. Industrials and UK had some pretty heroic exits recently

"whatever123" Just left, so have quite good knowledge. Generally, there is not one group such as Sponsors at CS or PUI at Barclays (in NY) that will be significantly better than the overall bank reputation. Nonetheless, there are a few teams that are better than others.

• Generally, M&A is the best team if you don't have a specific preference for a niche like O&G or credit right from the outset. In the last few years, exits have included Apollo, TPG, Providence, Advent, Apax etc. They are increasingly doing most to all of the (more technical) modelling on their deals, specifically for deals in more general industries and almost always on mergers
• The NRG is also very strong in its space but be aware that many funds run specific processes for NRG people/teams. Therefore, you will be very boxed in. To my knowledge usually, top 3 in EMEA NRG M&A though and exits to quite strong NRG funds/teams. Global Head sits in NY.
• The LevFin is also very good although note that it does not have the same standing as in NY where they run the market with JPM. In London, CS, JPM, and also DB have better deal flow, but given BAML's global leadership in the area, it is a strong team with excellent exits in the credit space (CVC last year) and occasional strong exits for normal PE (e.g. Warburg a few years ago)
• Industrials (or Multis) is also quite good and has strong client relationships across the board. Good exits in the past (not always MF/UMM level) due to high deal flow overall (BC last year). One of the top-earners in the bank. From senior associate onwards, people are already quite specialised so make sure you figure that out since they cover everything from Chemicals and Materials, to Business Services, Infrastructure, Building Materials and much more.
• FIG is suprisingly one of the top teams. Very strong deal flow and second-biggest FIG revenue for a team in London (only second to JPM, but #1 if you adjust for team size). Get strong looks by headhunters if you have a beneficial language (German, French, Nordics). Generally, people often specialise quite early on, and after a few banks/insurance deals you will focus on this field. Strong Fintech and Payments franchise.
• UK is also very good although, admittedly, I don't know too much about the team. Sent people to quite a few MFs in the past. Very strong deal flow, especially in the P2P sphere. Geoff Iles is probably one if not the best UK banker based on his takeover code expertise.
• HC is a bit of a mixed bag. They are quite small in comparison to other banks (notably JPM/MS). While they have very strong relationships with some corporates like Novartis, their volume mainly comes from mega deals (often in the Germanic region) and less continuous deal flow. Might be poised for strong growth though as they are working on a lot of Biotech IPOs atm. Probably best culture of any team at the bank. Team head is the loveliest woman in banking.

C&R actually has a strong franchise globally but team has a very intense and bs heavy culture, also quite fun though. But has had some good exits in the past. TMT is historically only a Media & Telco team but has been getting a lot better recently.

For incoming SAs that will be working remotely, how do you recommend getting to know the groups and asking for more work from the UK team, for example?

according to this comment BAML is the best bank on the street

could you tell us a bit more about the loveliest woman? am interested

BofA London internship is generalist, so no placement will happen. You’ll get exposure to the teams of the deals/pitches your staffer puts you on

And surely Financial Sponsors too?

"Analyst 1 in IB-M&A" very important:** headcount in most of the teams is below other US peers** (this is changing though - well, before the current unprecedented times).

firstly solid post and from people I know who also work there, this seems to be general consensus.

Could you explain your point on headcount btw; i didn't really understand what you meant by lower headcount compared to US peers - do you mean lower than teams in BAML US office or other US banks in london?

Very insightful and sounds similar to what I have heard from people who have interned at BAML before!

Interesting to hear how the work on an M&A deal can be split between teams, but I am curious to know how it is split when say, there is an M&A deal for a UK company? What role does the UK team play in this?

As an incoming summer intern at BofA London, this is super helpful. Thank you.

I have a couple of teams in mind that I think I would like to work with. Obviously, I'm keeping a pretty open mind going into this, but how do recommend I position myself to do more work for X team? Also, is headcount by team known already? That would be useful to know when scouting out teams.

Many thanks.

Can you also please talk about REGL, NatRes and other groups not mentioned?