Deal Experience - Dilemma
I'm an first year IB analyst hoping to participate in on-cycle recruiting. Currently updating my resume for PE interviews and not sure whether to list company names for my "announced" deals: During my 2 internships, I worked on a few deals that closed (did a summer in LevFin, so a few of the LBO financings closed & a summer in M&A, where one acquisition closed). However, in all cases, the acquired companies were private. Here is my dilemma: Since the deals have been announced, it might look more impressive to list the names of the companies. However, I know that during interviews, I will most likely be asked to discuss the deals, including some financials. Since all deals were LBOs of private companies, they were based on non-public info. I'm assuming that I shouldn't list the companies names if I will be discussing the transaction in detail, and wanted to confirm that this is common practice.
Is it industry standard to list closed LBO deals without naming the companies (e.g. "PE firm leveraged buyout of widget manufacturer" rather than "PE firm A acquisition of Company B")? Thanks!
Without going into the numbers you can talk about the business itself why it’s a good one - customer concentration, future growth, sector, key DD points etc, and also for LBOs check if the LP/OM isn’t available in which case some numbers are public. I’d even check on BBG/LCD/Capital Structure/CapIQ to see what info is out there.
Put the names, maybe the even looked at the asset so know about as well the firm as you do.
Thank you - very helpful! Three questions:
What if they ask me "What were LTM EBITDA, revenue growth, margins, etc.?" Should I respond with a range (e.g. "It was around $200mm", "projected growth was around 5%") or should I refuse to answer the q and say "Since this is non-public information, I can't answer your question, but happy to discuss anything on the strategic side")?
Wouldn't it make me seem more technically-proficient if I anonymise the deals and talk about specific numbers and valuation? Or would you say that having announced deals is more impressive and outweighs the benefits of discussing the #s? I'm also concerned that listing 3 closed deals as a just starting analyst is too presumptuous.
Assuming I list the companies' names, what kind of items are OK to discuss? E.g. would things like product segment %s and geography breakdown %s be permissible? How about margins? Or are virtually all numbers (actual & projected) a no-no? Don't want the PE fund to think that I'm careless with non-public info.
Thank you again!
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