West Coast IB Rankings
Have been reading a lot of things online about the relative strengths of IB groups on the west coast, but whats the consensus in terms of where they stack up against each other in terms of exit opps, deal flow, how they're seen by the Wall Street community, etc. The groups I'm referring to are namely GS SF, MS SF, MS MP, CS SF, Qatalyst, GS LA, MS LA, Moelis LA, CS LA. Any insight or rough rankings appreciated!
Would strongly disagree with placing Moelis LA above Qatalyst. Top three groups are GS SF TMT, Q, and MS Menlo, with Q and GS having stronger years recently (they were on Fitbit, Salesforce, Looker, Hortonworks, Ultimate Software, CA Technologies, Qualtrics, Imperva, SignalFX, basically every merger of note this year).
Don't know personally, but have heard that Q pays very very very well (around 100% bonus ) which keeps people from jumping ship, but those who have exited have all exited to top shops (NEA, Kleiner Perkins, Accel-KKR, Lightspeed Venture, Corp Dev at top tech companies, etc..), keep in mind with an analyst class of 4-6 analysts per year
What about from a completely industry blind perspective? I have no doubt Qatalyst is better for tech than Moelis LA, but in the overall realm of finance you would still say it's considered better?
Answering your question, it really depends. This is kind of like comparing apples and oranges. If you like tech/want to do tech related stuff after your stint, the Qatalyst name is hard to beat.
If you are looking at more traditional high-finance roles, Moelis LA places lights out. But overall, I would recommend getting an offer before considering first as both of those shops are notoriously difficult to get offers at.
CS SF senior bankers all left to Jefferies 3 years ago... Should’t be included on this list
Can confirm w/ multiple sources in the group. They haven't closed any major M&A deal of notice in 2018 and analysts were all seeking to leave.
If looking at tech/tech PE/VC related exits: GS, Q, MS are top. If looking to go outside of finance, GS or MS. If looking at buyout PE GS, HL RX, Moelis LA.
Q pays significantly more than all banks listed
One should examine this stat with respect to deal flow, specifically in the context of Tech M&A Deal volume and deal count which translate into fee pool and overall activity. The rankings from 2018-2019YTD are as follows:
These deal flows rankings are stupid when comparing analyst experience and exits...
Does anyone know anything about the UBS SF Tech team? Heard it got rebooted a few years ago and they are doing well now with the group growing rapidly.
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JPM SF is not even comparable to the top tech teams in regards to exit opps as discussed many times, and UBS is not even close to JPM. How can you say UBS is comparable to GS TMT/MS Menlo/Q? Clearly a troll post.
GS SF, MS SF, MS MP, CS SF, Qatalyst, GS LA, MS LA, Moelis LA, CS LA.
Tier 1: GS SF, MS SF, GS LA Tier 2: MS LA, CS SF Qatalyst Tier 3 Moelis LA , CS LA
This ranking is nonsense