US vs International M&A

Ignore job title.

Have worked on deals (M&A and investing) in the USA (East and West Coast), across Europe, a couple of ones in Africa and a few Middle Eastern. I’d say that London and New York are basically on par, the only difference between London and European cities is that the European cities are much more opaque (or even sometimes leaky), but they still work hard for much less money. Middle Eastern counterparties are generally very unsophisticated and governance standards are much less strict. African deals can be really hairy, worked on one asset deal that had 200 armed guards on site to deter robbers/militias. So in Africa you have different issues, maybe you aren’t doing as much funky financing structures but you’re also solving for the problem of how to avoid as much of your property being stolen as possible.

I don’t do the EM stuff any more but I think it was great training as all the seniors were extremely sharp, if you can make money there you can make money anywhere. Also in any of these jurisdictions except maybe New York it’s tough to make money without being a local. A lot of regional Brits will look down on you for having an accent.