What are some of the underrated banks that don't get talked about?
WSO obsesses about the BBs and same boutiques like Lazard and Moelis over and over again. For the students that miss out on the top well-known banks, what are some strong MM or boutique shops which pay close to street and have solid exit opps that don't get mentioned much?
Stifel, Stephens, BMO, tons of opportunities out there.
I hope this is you trolling otherwise you really don’t know what you’re talking about
What are you talking about. Your telling me those are bad banks?
Yes
MM banks like Jefferies that have insane deal flow should not be put in the same category as those 3 you mentioned You might as well add Raymond James to the list of 3 extinguished banks out there
Hey get your head out of your butt. All I am saying is they don’t get enough recognition against Lazard, Evercore, ETC.
Not sure which of those 3 banks you work at, but we all appreciate your "valuable" insights. Why don't you worry about your 2020 FT recruiting first kid
You are a junior with no 2019 IB summer internship at this point of the cycle And you're talking shit here as if you were in the industry How inane are you
While I agree Stifel/Stephens/RJ don't do too much, I think BMO has some pretty solid groups. I wouldn't group them with the previous 3. I would put Stifel above Stephens/RJ in terms of potential for further growth. They've bought some small players recently which I imagine has helped.
All these people throwing shit at me are probably the summer interns from Stifel, Stephens, BMO. There’s a reason these banks aren’t highly regarded on WSO, it’s because they don’t have a track record of winning M&A mandates. Truth is the bulge brackets are all actually chasing business in the middle market (they’re all establishing middle market groups) and have a dominant share in middle market M&A , specifically deals over $150mm. This makes it incredibly difficult for boutiques to compete. A firm like BMO will never win an M&A bake-off against GS, JPM and BAML, but will take on the small shitty deals that no other bank wants to handle. The only middle market firms that are winning big mandates (even from a middle market perspective) are the ones with very highly regarded industry bankers (e.g. Piper Jaffray restaurants). These banks you listed only survive by co-managing financing deals and given a small portion of the economics.
literally all MM and a significant portion of boutique pay street
Japanese banks (MUFG, SMBC)
I would disagree. All Japanese banks are struggling and are laying off i.e. Nomura, Mizuho
That's why I left those two out. MUFG and SMBC have been fairly strong and growing in the US
Yike
In the U.S. yes, but that is not the main focus https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-10/mufg-considers-job-c…
Stand corrected, however it would still not be a bad place to end up if you missed the boat on BB and EB recruiting
Sawaya Partners, Ducera (competes with top shops for restructuring), Sandler O'Neill, SVB Leerink (strongest player in MM healthcare), and in the west maybe FT Partners or Union Square Advisors
Ardea partners is a solid shop in Europe. Could throw Zaoui & Co and Robey Warshaw too.
Leerink is nowhere near the strongest player in MM healthcare
I would agree on leerink if we're talking about biotech. Otherwise no
Leerink isn't the strongest MM for healthcare, but they do clean up in Biotech. I saw them on some solid IPO's this year. Definitely a good player in that market.
See this list, or do a handy-dandy google search for more names!
http://equity-research.com/list-of-top-200-investment-banks-and-boutiqu…
imo william blair is easily one of the most underrated shops simply because their CHI and to some extent SF group are their main ones, and they focus primarily on the MM space. Their analysts constantly place in solid MM PE shops and I've heard of a few UMM exits as well. I'd rather take them over some of the lower BBs (UBS/DB and RBC if u consider them close to a BB).
Agreed, strong recruiting presence at my school and while you probably wont get MF, and UMM is rare, they are killing it. I think they get knocked on here because they're pretty much unknown in NYC and the east coast. Their SF team is killing it (heard from alumni at other banks in the SF area)
Agreed, I've heard their SF practice is solid. I personally know of a few kids (not from my school) who turned down mid-tier BBs to join WB SF.
Can second this comment on WB, from what my buddy says who works their culture is solid.
Leerink on the pharma side
Really rate TD Securities (investment banking division of Canada's largest bank by total assets, second largest by market cap, and 26th largest bank globally) for their commodities trading division.
Macquarie Group also doesn't seem to get a lot of attention on this site - hoovering up a lot of the talent from Deutsche's old commodities and FX regime, very good at financing as well as S&T.
As a side note, I interviewed once at Mitsubishi UFJ in London - was sorely disappointed. For such a sizeable firm (world's second largest bank holding company), their London presence was paltry: seemingly no firm client links whatsoever, with most of their market flow originating from cold calling (at least that was the impression I got). Am sure they're a lot more sophisticated in APAC, but think their foreign offices are very provincial.
PJ Solomon are some of the nicest and smartest people I got the chance to meet during MBA recruiting. They pay street, are growing fast, and actually seem to care about their Analyst/Associate work-life balance.
I had to turn them down for my dream firm, but I would encourage anyone - especially if you aren't as concerned with PE - to give them a real look.
Plus their office is probably the nicest of any shop (55 and 6th with views of the entire park) - IMO better view than 200 Water or even 388 Greenwich (those Hudson views are hard to top).
Where does Duff & Phelps M&A stand?
Anecdotal but have a friend who worked there and said it was a nightmare. Complete sweatshop that payed significantly below street. He lateraled to a top MM and is much happier
There is one bank I think is underrated:
And then a couple awesome banks that you won't see mentioned often on this website
Dyal & Co: 16 person shop started by former Goldman global M&A head. Worked on Bristol Myers Squibb-Celgene, as well as Novartis-Avexis, where they were Novartis' sole advisor. Also pretty active on some huge chemicals and industrials deals that I can't remember off the top of my head.
Robey Warshaw: Tiny London-based bank started by MS M&A head, UBS investment banking head, and MS Sponsors MD. Those three are the only partners, and they've hired a couple more people. 13 employees total taking up 20% of UK M&A market share means insane pay, but also an insane learning experience. Involved on Comcast-Sky, BT defense, etc.
Agree on HW. I think in general a lot of the MM banks are underrated. HW, Blair as mentioned above, Baird, Houlihan, etc. are solid shops. I worked at a competitor of some of the ones mentioned above, and the people I worked with are just as capable as the people I've worked with on the Corp Dev side at BBs and EBs.
Since you're an MMBanker, do you mind listing more of the strong MM banks? There is limited information online once you get past the top tier MM banks like Blair, Baird, and Houlihan.
Plus that IB salary in Richmond aint bad. (If youre at HW)
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Indeed
MTS Health Partners in NY is a solid shop
I'm going to nominate Blackarch Partners out of Charlotte. Very formidable pitch opponent in the MM with surprisingly strong PE relationships and sponsor-backed deal flow.
Stifel is extremely underrated in my opinion. Their investment banking practice has grown so much with the aggressive acquisition strategy they have. Acquiring KBW, Miller Buckfire, Thomas Wiesel Partners, recently acquiring Mooreland Partners.
Not to mention that they also took over a majority of Lehman's wealth management practice and have been growing in AUM significantly in the past two years.
I would say they are the leader in the middle market.
Stifel is a solid Tier 2 bank that competes well in specific industries (logistics, FIG), but it's not on the same level as the Tier 1 MMs. It recently lost some of its DCM team to Cowen, but overall has a pretty good capital markets presence in ECM and DCM. M&A is choppy and very sector-reliant.
Recently came across a Stifel book for a ~$5mm EBITDA business that would trade for 9-10x. That deal wouldn't have been taken on by any of the Tier 1 players, but likely would be possible for Tier 2s.
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