Wells Fargo Best and Worst Groups?
What are the best and worst teams at Wells? Also, more specifically, how is their Bay Area Tech team?
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Houston Energy & Power and REGAL are the only ones brining in fees. These two groups are top tier in their industries the rest are pretty awful. Unless it’s one of these would consider another bank.
Random dipshit question but...
Where is REGAL based?
I've been networking mostly with WF tech in the Bay so I want to see how easy it'd be for someone to pass me over.
Wells regal is only based in DC and NYC office
Would stop networking with TMT. I am in a different coverage group but have close friends there and they are universally miserable.
Wells Fargo houston has always been irrelevant. Lending only with poor M&A deal flow
nowhere close to the other BBs in Houston.
This dude constantly goes out of his way to shit on wells for some reason... Probably got overlooked by them in recruiting… so take it with a grain of salt. Wells Houston ain’t bad.
Might wanna check the league tables my friend. WF is having a record year in energy and the trend will continue.
The tech team is pretty awful in terms of deal flow etc. If you just want to do nothing and learn nothing then sure go for it.
WF TMT is one of the worst groups in the bank. I was in the TMT group (not California) and it’s a pitch sweatshop. Everybody is killed all the time and no deals are getting done. Senior leadership is cracking down as they invested a lot by bringing in a lot of MDs from other shops but still not winning deals and seniors are blaming the juniors by saying they’re lazy, while ripping juniors on endless pitches. Morale was so low while I was there and sounds like it’s gotten even worse in the last few months after I left.
I can’t express enough how much better my life has gotten since moving from the group into a corp dev role
what about SF tech?
Not good. TMT at WF is just not good regardless of office.
Can confirm
For more reasons than can be discussed here, do not join Wells TMT
Can confirm
Before you read anything about Wells, the hours and culture are nowhere near as bad as like half the other shops on the street. Think about BAML/Citi/MS/Evercore/GS/Moelis/Jefferies… I mean you name it; all of them probably have worse culture and hours than WF
NY: bad culture but yes they do get a few M&A deals here and there.
SF: Better culture and more equity (IPOs) and debt
CLT: doesnt do much and dying office
Tech M&A: Avoid. High turnover and no support
Best group at WF is probably REGAL/Industrials/LevFin. The TMT group is getting better but it has come at a cost.
Is having to come in during Thanksgiving week and being late to see your family one of the reasons? No one else in my analyst class in other groups is in during that week.
SPG group is great and actually closes deals, the M&A group is pretty good too. Have heard that the lev fin team sucks (prob due to lack of experience) and that the coverage group is hit or miss depending on team
i think SPG is under markets
also do you have an idea why they place sponsors as a product group instead of cov?
FIG teams (coverage and m&a) are both solid, on a significant number of buyside/sellside mandates.
Wells analyst here. If you are not in M&A product or FIG coverage, don’t come to Wells. Its those 2 vs everything else.
FIG does more M&A than any other coverage group by a mile
what about sponsors? saw alot of the CS sponsors ppl coming over
Lot of potential but still in really early innings. Strong hiring and some of the better jr talent vs across the bank but in terms of M&A deal generation, will take time to continue to build the practice. Agreed really strong seniors.
.
got any insights into the tech m&a team in sf?
Read comments above, avoid anything TMT related
Heard Regal and Biotech are top notch. Biotech team brought over the Head of M&A at JPM.
.
I was in the energy group and besides banking sucking ass and Houston being sweaty in general I had a good experience. Worked on several couple billion $ deals and some other pretty interesting stuff.
Regal is one of the strongest group at Wells and competes with the other BB regal groups (BofA, JPM, etc)
any thoughts on lev fin?
Don’t think it’s terrible, I mainly worked with them on refis but they certainly do a lot of those.
Wells has been on the more conservative side of financing but are pushing for more risky biz
Have never once received a deal from WF Tech or seen any helpful market mapping work from them. Dont know anyone on the tech buyside from that group either
WF Houston has a generally poor reputation with bad culture. Wouldn’t recommend.
How are REGAL and C&R?
REGAL is solid and on par with top banks. C&R is so so
Any insight on the Fund Finance Group? Is it under FIG / SPG / LevFin?
Fund Finance is treated as its own product.
Its providing sub-lines to PE Funds. Revolving credit-facility effectively.
Not traditional 'IB', won't get modelling reps etc. Good team for Wells, but that's because literally nearly every other bank has exited the industry (i.e. Citi recently). Lending out huge capital a big no no for US banks nowadays.
Echo sentiment above.
TMT practice is very dire. League tables say it all, but vouches above add to that sentiment.
FIG/REGAL typically the standout 2 coverage teams, due to few ones actually getting deals / strong talent deciding to go there. Very strong exits for both of these.
Heard Energy doing strong but don't know much about Houston so can't comment.
Avoid
Every day in TMT group has been worse than the last. 80+ hours is the norm. The more senior analysts and associates get hit very hard, have seen 100+ hour weeks. It’s important to mention that these hours are not spent on deals, these are pitches. I was told the culture used to be better but that is hard to believe in the current state. I joined the group excited but there is so much burnout around me that it is hard to be excited for what comes next.
Industrials has been on a tear. If you're not interested in real estate, would say that's by far the best choice
Am at a different bank, but see WF on stuff and know a few people there.
The LevFin and Sponsors teams have also been growing and are on a lot of deals, the question for them really is can they start to win more leads? I would still call them strong groups within the context of WF as they will give you a lot of exposure to a ton of businesses and have good overall deal flow even if you don't lead many of the deals. The ex-CS seniors are really strong as the old CS business model was almost completely reliant on LevFin and Sponsor activity fueling other sections of the bank. I don't think any of the WF groups outside of Energy, RE, and FIG really get on M&A deals outside of purely getting league table credit, not a real player in the large-cap M&A space for the rest of the groups. I think I have heard of Industrials being on some smaller cap stuff and doing actual stuff there, but no large cap deals outside of just getting credit as a tip for lending relationship generally.
I think most bankers at WFS would agree:
Best: REGAL and energy
Worst: RIB and TMT
Based on dealflow, hours, pay and culture. In that order.
I am/was a senior banker for 5-10 years at WFS who worked on multiple teams. Quitting IB right when bonus hits next week. Happy to answer any questions.
Greatly appreciate your input here. How's the quality/deal flows of WFS M&A group in recent years vs. peers' such as RBC, UBS, DB's M&A groups?
thoughts on Sponsors & LevFin?
LevFin, DCM, REGAL, and FIG are the groups that consistently rank the highest in the league tables in their respective fields. Energy also decent. Sponsors is almost exclusively non-lead transactions, so LevFin mostly does corporate, but was #1 in corporate M&A financing in 2024. DCM is boring. REGAL/FIG both do real deals, but then you’ve got niche experience. No clear “best” group, but probably REGAL if you had to choose.
Do you see sponsors winning more left leads in the future? I assume they should at least have a chance due to all the CS guys that came over
any insight on their mid-cap investment banking group?
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