Which will help me break into corp dev?
Should I do corporate banking at a BB or m&a consulting at a big 4? The M&A consulting consists of looking at post merger deals and seeing how to integrate the two companies.
pls help
Corp Banking at BB.
Integration is a back or maybe mid office function with limited transferable skill set. I personally wouldn’t hire anyone at Big 4 into a CD team.
Corporate Banking will be tough to transition to Corp Dev, but I’ve seen guys do it.
To be clear, I would try to go from corp banking to IB before jumping to corp dev.
My other option is to do big 4 integration for 1 year and try to switch into the valuations group before ultimately jumping to corp dev
CB -> IBD - CD is the right idea
i would choose M&A consulting.
depending on the group, corporate banking tends not to be modeling-intensive and you'll be exclusively focused on the debt side.
in corporate development there is a lot of discussion with integrating IT and customer systems, product platforms, operational synergies etc which i presume will be the focus of the consutling role...is this at a well-known consulting group?
to your point, neither are ideal since you won't be working on deals. however, i think the integrations role will give you strong experience to leverage either into a valuations group and/or direct into corporate development if you spin it appropriately, get lucky, study technicals/modeling, etc.
It's a Big 4 company, so I think its somewhat well known?
go M&A consulting. while not directly applicable, integration planning can be a significant part of corp dev workstream as others have said.
much easier to spin that rather than corporate banking from what I've seen...
makes sense, but was thinking if i stick with corporate banking, I would try to jump into IB within the same firm
You're overthinking what it takes to get into Corp Dev, especially at the more junior level.
Is IB the best possible preparation for this type of role? Yes, especially at the most acquisitive companies where you are doing a lot of the work internally, rather than outsourcing it to advisors. Is it the only way to get in to Corp Dev? Absolutely not. I don't have an IB background (and neither does most of my team to be honest), yet we are a highly acquisitive company, actively consolidating the industry and rarely use outside advisors, except on the biggest of deals.
The point I am trying to make is that Corp Dev recruiting, especially at the more junior levels is not nearly as structured as IB / PE. They tend to hire people from IB because they don't need training, but M&A consulting will likely not close any doors for you in terms of corp dev. People make the switch from less applicable fields (e.g., FP&A) to Corp Dev all the time.
bump
need to make a decision soon, bump
Following along because I'm interested in other peoples opinions, but here's my $.02
Usually. there are two groups. The first being Corp Dev M&A strat, the other being Corp Dev M&A finance. The big four role sounds like a good opportunity, for some reason I assume it's PwC??? Either way, I'd consider reaching out to people and seeing their day to day and figuring out if it's worth it to you. From my perspective, Corp Dev Strat is more figuring out markets your corp should penetrate whereas Fin is more of the modeling and execution. To me, strat is cooler, but to each their own. Either way you'll get experience in modeling, valuations and I'd say you'd have a great shot at buyside from tech/aerospace/etc. Cisco, intel, ibm, oracle, dropbox, etc. --> all are going to need some serious M&A to win the enterprise area. We'll see _(0_o)_/
a lot of the work I will be doing is post merger integration. So for example, looking at different departments and cutting people I think. I think if I chose big 4, I would need to jump into valuations before moving to corp dev.
If I stick with corp banking, I will try to jump to IB before moving to corp dev
OOO yeah I was wrong then, Ask someone else haha
Corporate banking, then maybe to IB, though that’s a tough road. Still plenty of modeling, valuing and evaluating companies on the debt side of things, which are all relevant. Bonus points if you’re at a place that agents a lot of deals.
A dedicated CD team doesn’t really need to know the ins and outs of post acquisition integration - that falls on the acquiring team’s operations and leadership. All you have to do is help teams evaluate deals, value businesses, advise on building the models and run the transaction execution. Once it’s closes your job is done.
Wouldn't knowing the ins and outs a post merger integration help me better understand syngeries, which will help when making financial models?
No will you actually listen to the people who work in the industry?
Integration has nothing to do with synergies. It’s all back office systems for accounting and IT.
There is minimal value in this for CD / CS and it’s a completely different group that handles integration.
We consider it a project manager type of function that requires a college degree and no specific background.
Big 4 M&A consulting, then IB or directly in corp Dev.
Corp Banking to IB is a tough road and progression.
I just want to make sure you understand what M&A consulting is, since it could be misinterpreted. The team is operational transaction services within EY.
At my old bank, I’ve seen people move from corporate banking into the bank’s corp dev team. But that’s an internal move, and probably helps that the folks that did also either were FIG corporate bankers, or had done rotations across the bank (and understand bank operations). So their FI industry exp was useful.
Ah okay, I think I would try to move into IB and not try to move into the bank's corp dev team. I've seem former people do it, but think it will still be tough and based on luck.
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