UK IB outside of London - doomed or a hidden gem?
Curious to hear perspectives on the UK’s investment banking scene outside of London. Off the top of my head, I know that Rothschild have offices in Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, with Manchester having a particularly good 2025. I know Houlihan Lokey have an office in Manchester where they do some solid RX / Tech M&A stuff.
Conversely, Alantra have shut down in Birmingham and Investec’s M&A team in Leeds was made redundant.
With VC and PE investment (slowly but surely) increasing outside of London and the golden triangle, do you think these teams have a bright future? Or will they slowly fade away.
Don't they do like LMM deals max 10mm
Like Mr Patel's corner shop in leeds rolling up a platform of halal butchers
Heard Rothschilds is good in this area
Don’t Roths have arrow point which is the dedicated LMM / MM team? Think they established a team in Manchester this year. The actual Rothschild Manchester team have worked on at least two 10-figure deals in 2025. Not sure how the others do
DC Advisory has Manchester office. Big 4 and Clearwater also big regionally.
Deal sizes a lot smaller and that tracks to comp - I think Clearwater AN1 salary is c.£35k outside of London for example (can't speak to others in fairness, could be higher for them?)
Great platforms to work in if you're from those cities and don't want to move for reasons of family/friends, but not if you want to maximise comp/high-quality deal experience
Yeah big 4 and other accounting firms seem to have pretty solid M&A presence. Can confirm Clearwater an1 is £35k in Manchester and Leeds.
Any idea about exits? Assume it doesn’t compare to working in the same firm but in London. Given the tiny teams the exposure must be pretty excellent though?
I do think the exposure is good experience, although I'd temper that for the Big 4 given the necessity of studying for the ACA and the relatively thick hierarchy vs other firms
I've seen exits to other M&A shops in the area (DC -> Cowgills, Big 4 -> Clearwater, Clearwater -> Roths as well I think) and internal moves to London
I'd imagine (although personally haven't looked, so take with a pinch of salt) that exits are to LMM shops (incl. regional offices of MM PE) or to GE, eg Inflexion or BGF or something
Rothschild regional office pay matches London office pay
Are bonuses similar? What about hours etc? Assume it’s less
Ignore title, just accepted an offer at one of the below firms in Manchester.
Potentially repeating whats been detailed on this thread but for clarity, the below is a list of M&A firms whose typical mandate isn't sub £20m... :
Rothschild through to GP Bullhound typically recruit from the Big Four at Manager grade into Analyst / Associate.
Rothschild regional offices work on big deals.
Manchester office ran Spectris alongside the London Industrials Team since the head of Manchester of heads up subset of business services.
Manchester is very good from what I’ve heard, as they work on large deals, even bigger than those of the London teams on a per head basis.
Not sure about their other offices but assume it’s similar
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