Top UBS Groups
Looking to hear about best groups at UBS in terms of deal experience / comp / exit opps. Have heard a lot about GIG and LevFin but looking for more perspectives. Any thoughts?
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Do u have an offer to the FT 2025 program? Same case here know nothing about placement
1. Sponsors/LevFin
2. GIG/FIG
3. Tech/C&R
4. M&A
bump
Sponsors, LevFin, GIG in NY. LA office (legacy CS sponsors) and new Menlo office (recent Barclays tech hires) are very very strong
I thought a lot of the CSLA office went to Santander LA
Correct, Davidov and Decker (now head of sponsors and REGAL at Santander) left, as well as some VPs and senior ASOs. UBS LA is now led by Colin Grady and has a very strong supporting cast of EDs and Ds in sponsors, levfin, consumer and M&A. From what I’ve heard, the office is killing it and is a key component of Marco’s strategy.
A couple of legacy-CS MDs in NY staff out of the LA office
I know that the LA office is well-regarded, but what about the Menlo Park office? Do you know anything about junior headcount and recruiting given they just opened the office? I want to stay west coast (current ASO in MM IB) which leaves me with UBS SF, Menlo, and LA as options.
Menlo Park reserved for Barclays juniors to be recruited
The LA office is so exclusive, even deals need a VIP pass to get in—and apparently, none have qualified yet
Jon Levin from CS is one of the best consumer bankers on the street. Should be a big boost to UBS C&R
Any idea on how the rest of UBS C&R is? Heard the bank was weak in the group previously, but how is it now and has it seen a lot of new hiring?
Don’t know how they’re doing now, but also heard that the group isn’t UBS’ strongest
Good banker but the group is very subscale and has poor flow. Good culture though if you want to be a career banker with good WLB.
They've mastered the art of window shopping—looking at big deals but not actually closing them
Expect to see some RIFs in historically weaker groups (ie. M&A, HC) as Marco Valla continues to poach seniors from other banks to replace weaker UBS MDs
What are your thoughts on FIG? Saw a couple of their MDs left
Lots of politics involved between UBS/CS/Barc teams and how fintech MDs were placed into FIG or tech. Don’t know much about culture/deal flow/exit opps
They lose 3 MDs recently, all of which were good. Bad trajectory for the group in the short to medium term as a result
Lost arguably one of the best insurance bankers in the americas.
not good culture, probably 1 or 2 great people but would steer clear
Yeah long term goal is to wind down M&A team and push everyone to coverage like Barclays
Bump. Applying soon and wondering how to rank groups
Approximate tiers:
Sponsors, Lev Fin
GIG
ECM, M&A
C&R, Fig, PFM
Tech, M&T
ECM is like a weather forecast—always predicting a 'strong market' ahead, even in a storm
accurate
Any idea on strongest non LevFin/Sponsors groups? It seems like GIG and Tech are the strongest outside of those 2 for a 2025 start date, but would love some more insight.
LevFin and Sponsors: by far the best group(s), to maximize exits to UMM+ its almost this group or bust GIG: Solid group that has been kept fairly cohesive with legacy UBS folks. Does MM and UMM sellsides and financings FIG: Still OK but has lost 3 MDs in the last month. Would try to avoid unless passionate about being a FIGer for life
That not-so-senior LA MD brings in >$100M in annual fees. Why doesn’t UBS shut down the LA office if it’s so bad?
Plan is to re-build obviously but LF bankers dont bring in $100mm on their own lmao, most of that is existing firm credits on refis and relationships won by previous MDs years / decades ago. This MD is a junior MD who is “the head” of the office because he is the only MD left…
LF credits are based on bank relationships, very different comp scheme than a coverage MD bringing in (actually winning) a Sell Side mandate. As a proof point…Thats why Santander has no traction despite bringing over some good LF bankers…The platform just isnt it
The LA office is so busy it has to staff out of NY, not the other way around. Ex: recent $2.2B DirecTV refi staffed NY ASO and ANL
Dont post about public financings that havent closed…
Bro it's so obvious you have burner accounts. Always post the most egregious things and then immediately get 4+ silver bananas within minutes
Ok!
Who keeps liking my post…oh yeah I created 9 burners
Curious to hear reputation for Chicago GIG office, does it cross staff with NY/have similar strength?
No
all the juniors trying to leave there
Tech places just fine into solid MM/UMM names(albeit mostly MM) even with the lesser deal flow compared to the peaks in 2020/1, and M&A also places mostly into solid MM's with the rare UMM. Yes, you don't see many solid exits from HC/CR, but like all the analysts seemingly stay in those groups anyway. Agree that the other groups are pretty bad, but would also contest M&T as that group JUST split, so it's hard to ascertain exits there.
Also, think it's important to note that Tech was historically the strongest group in the firm with multiple MF PE exits pre-2021. That reputation has been lowered due to the weakened team the past 2-3 years, but if these MD hires actually pay off or at least make that group respectable I can see Tech rising back up significantly in terms of exits within UBS. LevFin/Sponsors used to be one of a group of 3 top groups alongside TMT & GIG it being the best group is a relatively new thing, and a bit stemmed from a weakening of the GIG and Tech franchises (which both have seen some rebounds).
Agree on these points, good post
M&A is embracing innovation—they've managed to merge their workload with their leisure time!
They say content is king, but UBS M&T seems to have lost the remote
Tech's Idea of a winning strategy is convincing management and other teams they are relevant, hoping no one notices that they've contributed incrementally nothing new
Worse teams are M&T, Consumer, and Tech. Massive guarantees for seniors which then means all the juniors get really low bonuses below street
Add m&a to that list as well. Basically Barclay's m&a now.
They have been known to historically zero out many juniors bonuses, don't count on any bonus
M&T is great at streaming—streaming excuses for why deals aren't closing
Joining UBS Tech is like buying a ticket to a mystery movie—you have no idea what's going to happen, but you're hopeful it'll be good!
Heard GIG is great at heavy lifting—especially when it comes to carrying the rest of the bank's deal flow!
From my experience as a coverage banker: think LevFin is the strongest group, followed up by GIG/FIG with Tech being the wild card (tons of hiring in both NYC and SF, but mostly SF, that could either see this group rise all the way to the top or keep it's current status). The most likely spot for Tech is right below GIG for generalist exits and 3rd behind GIG/FIG in terms of overall coverage groups.
I want to note I am ranking LevFin above sponsors as I have seen LevFin handling more modeling than Sponsors, and Sponsors seem like too small of a group to really be super technical whilst LevFin simply has more junior power. GIG is the "safest" group if you don't like credit work or want coverage work. M&A is supposed to be improving with all the senior hires in the coverage group which was supposed to bring in more M&A deals, but that has yet to be reflected. M&A is still fine for MM exits with rare UMM exits, but GIG remains slightly better (more UMM exits there vs M&A, but not a huge difference).
In terms of FIG, it's the best group if you are interested at all in FIG PE, MF exits in the space are something you get looks in. However, it's no secret that FIG places worse for generalist PE, and so it's hard to truly rank but the group has a very strong Fin Tech and AM franchise and a pretty good Insurance and Banks one.
Edit: I think Tech has a chance to be the best group in the bank by next year but also has a chance to be like the 3rd or 4th best coverage group. It's very hard to judge, but think the other groups are roughly gonna stay where they are currently.
Only things I would add is FIG’s near-medium term trajectory is probably negative since theyve had 3 MDs leave in the last month, who were all good MDs
I hope the Tech team succeeds but they havent done any significant M&A yet which is what success will be judged by in 2025. Doing JBR refinancings isnt success, thats just recurring revenue to pay bank overhead, not to give outsized comp to coverage folks
Its striking that no one on the current team has any deal experience or deal toys, team will struggle once there are deal opportunities
Agree on most of your points, probably GIG has more upside. "Tech has a chance to be the best group" way off, they hired a whole bunch of non-tech sr bankers who now cover tech...
I am not in the tech group so can't say I am super familiar with the hires, but from my understanding: they were hires group head brought over from Barclays and a consortium of other firms (think there are MD's from Gugg, BoFA, and Lazard from top of my head from the bank emails). I don't see why group head or any other senior worth their salt would bring over as many MD's as they did or basically build out a whole new tech team if everyone they hired is weak. Again, I am not in the group but think it has to be impossible everyone is weak just given how much was invested into the group and how clearly the bank wants to regrow that area.
Future will see where the group is overall. The bank still does fine in Tech LevFin, but obviously, these guys are not being brought into a coverage role for LevFin deals. I think it's reasonable to give the hires 6-12 months to ramp up so we can better judge as most have been in the firm less than 6 months, and M&A mandates take a while to see.
Why do you say GIG has the most upside? I don't recall saying any news about that group being strengthened a lot with new MDs, it seems like TMT, HR, and CR had the most hires in that order. Happy to be corrected here, but that seems to be what I recall from the emails and firmwide meetings.
Any comments on London? Incoming AN.
Thoughts on M&T??
M&T tried to make a big call in the industry, but it went straight to voicemail
Sponsors and Lev Fin carry the platform as well as GIG. Tech and M&T are jokes hired many of group head friends who were not even tech bankers to moonlight as tech bankers and have 0 deal flow. Echo lots of politics, heard from client that one senior internet banker is even sleeping with a junior on the team
Tech Deal flow is so low they set up a lottery for who gets on deals, via a volunteer method. Its first come first serve setting up for a toxic culture. Most of the team is on bench.
Any insight on Menlo Park office and how the Barclays guys are doing there? Curious about headcount and recruiting.
Sounds pretty bad, but I thought they were hirings dozens of MDs. Obviously a major problem if they never produce, but for now idk…
Until they get rid of non serious bankers, the team will have a bad culture and no deals
The analysts all leave at 6pm and leave all work to the associates since they all have their exits secured. Most junior technicals very bad.
If looking at this group ask each banker waht their favorite closed M&A deal is and the silence will be deafening
Easy answer, none of the above. They’re known better for their elite WM presence. Also, the CS acquisition may have in fact been an IQ decrease on the IB side of things. All in all, we’ve seen some dawgs make it out of UBS.
Wow!
Says the LF banker that is still at UBS because no PE firms wanted him. CS always had better placement into the buy side so what does that say about the quality of employees
Which is exactly why UBS needs to poach Kaye from possible CVP. They need that spark and hungry dawg mentality. He won’t take no for an answer in a bake off. Congrats on your VC offer.
Banging idea Kendall! Really hit the spot, I am sure he would pack a punch on the desk.
MV has made good hires and the bank has a lot of momentum
Noticed that all the grumbling is from incompetent legacy UBS bots who don't like the "bad culture" these new MDs brought in -- actual deal flow, cutting underperformers, staying in front of clients, fighting for deals like every other competitive BB/EB instead of relying on levfin/sponsors to carry the bank -- which requires working past *gasp* 9pm
👍👍
Nepo hires bring in the most fees, that’s a win in my books.
Haha where is that momentum? My team is not seeing it somehow. The new bacrlays management will be relieved of power when their guarantees end
Get into a better group bum
No they get longer until group head is fired circa 2027, and then they can take the traveling band of misfits to the next mid bank
You sound like you are selling momentum because you cant sell any UBS deals
One of the SF tech MDs committed treason during the Gulf War
What’d he do?
Wow, how the world has changed. LevFin used to be like barely considered IB, and there was no "Sponsors."
Ancient history, mind you.
I came out of syndicated finance, which is "LevFin" light, and I loved it. Really interesting, fun, great companies and clients, you cover every industry group so it's a broad skill set being developed. Has helped me long term with my own investments, as I know better how to analyze so many different industries.
Interesting shift.
is it true there was an emergency MD meeting with MV because the TMT team pipeline is complete BS and theres basically no fees right now?
If you dont have a credible tech platform you cannot be a top BB (which is what the leadership thinks we are). Sorry, but thats a HUGE chunk of the fees you are giving up.
Thats gonna trickle down to the product groups too...
???
lmao, two tech groups merged together(technically 3 w/barclay) and have 0 revenue to show for it
Can confirm it is $0 and they have 2 Tech M&A MDs and 2 Tech M&A 3rd year EDs that will be promoted in 6 months. Effectively 4 Tech M&A MDs will likely finish year with $0 M&A revenue...
Heard the Tech team faked an impressive pipeline and group head looked at Advisory fees of literally $0 and threw a fit…
Heard you’re just spreading fake news and use burner accounts to make yourself look more credible to anyone that is still gullible enough to believe you. Anyone can literally look up recently closed tech M&A deals that UBS advised and find multiple examples.
Either you actually got fired and now have nothing better to do than vent your frustration on WSO or you don’t even notice the deal emails that literally get sent to the whole IB. Hoping it’s the former btw
when you have a legacy UBS internet banker with 0 deals in the last 5 years, buring out juniors, flying around the world to steal partial cred on international UBS deals, well what do you expect...
Dear lord times have changed. Used to be on the CS HC team, how is it doing now? Barely see any mention in this thread, assuming the worst lol
Heard the NYC office uses sandpaper to wipe their butts
The team has so low deal flow and begs the sponsors for so much credit, that they should start carrying around a cup and a cardboard sign that reads "Please, sir, can I have some more?"
More like using their own marketing materials to wipe their butts... at least they would get used for something
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