West Coast Office Rankings

continuation of //www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/help-needed-west-c…

Since that thread was started more than a year ago, I was wondering if the same rankings and information hold true now (for example, I don't see UBS LA as such a big player as it was last year and I'm sure Mo & Co deserves a mention on the board).

I want to enter IB out of college, but I want to stay on the west-coast and get the best experience possible. Any updates about the dealflow, prestige, exit opportunities, and culture of the offices is appreciated.

Specifically, can anyone comment on Tech Buyout's rankings? I thought ML/Lehman Tech and ML Healthcare would rank higher than GS LA or MS LA: 1: GS TMT/MS M&A/UBS LA Generalist 2: MS Tech 3: CS LA / CS Tech 4: UBS SF Restructuring 5: UBS SF/LA Technology / GS LA / MS LA 6: Lehman Menlo / Houlihan ADG (LA) / Merrill Tech M&A 7: JP Morgan / Citi Group / Merill Tech / Merrill Healthcare 8: Bear Stearns TMT / Lazard TMT / Deutsche (FIG in LA could arguably be lower) / Lehman LA / Merrill LA 9: Piper / Wachovia / HLHZ (not FAS) 10: Thomas Weisel Partners / Montgomery & Co. / Savvian

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Best Response

Monkeyingaround, I think your rankings look pretty good. I will just comment on the groups I know.

For tech I would put GS TMT in SF and MS Tech in Menlo at 1 and 2

For SF I would put MS (they have a general West Coast CorpFin team in SF and a Sponsors team) at 2 and Goldman's general corp fin team #2. The MS Sponsors team in SF is also quite good since the Sponsors group at Morgan started on the West Coast before it did in NY and the global head is based in SF. They do a lot of tech sponsor business and are super close to TPG. Exit ops out of SF MS Sponsors or SF GS are really strong with offers to H&F, KKR, TPG, and Blackstone regularly received.

I LA is still has to be UBS and CS with GS and JPM competing strongly. Some of the MS M&A guys in LA are also quite good.

I am a bit perplexed by MS M&A since MS only has a very small M&A execution team on the West Coast and the majority of M&A is done in NY. MS Sponsors in SF, MS corpfin in LA and SF, do a lot of their own M&A advising and execution so maybe this is what you mean.

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Below is based entirely on PE placement from what I have seen/heard. I am probably missing some offices so don't give me shit. It should give you a rough break down of banking in California.

1: GS TMT/MS M&A/MS Tech/Moelis LA 2: CS LA/JPM SF 3: Lazard/Evercore/CS SF 4: Houlihan restructuring/GS LA 5: Rest of BB SF offices 6: Rest of BB LA offices

California offices are generally helped by the disproportionate amount of PE funds to bankers - compared to NY there are very few bankers but still a very large PE community.

GS TMT and MS M&A/Tech are traditionally seen as the powerhouses in California, but Moelis absolutely cleans up in PE recruiting (especially for their small analyst class size).

 
bananawhorewhat about qatalyst, centerview, Greenhill, or GS fig?
I've heard qatalyst does not like guys jumping to buyside, and kind of inferred that from talks I've had with people who work there.

Centerview SF is really small from what I remember. So it might be more of a one-off situation.

 

The list is pretty pointless but i revised a bit

1: GS TMT/MS M&A/MS Tech/Moelis LA/MS Sponsors 2: CS LA/ Houlihan Rest / Barcap LA 3. CS SF 5: Rest of BBs / Other Boutique and MMs

 

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