HIG in 2024
Hey all - wanted to see if anyone has any updated insight on H.I.G. recently, especially with their MM and Advantage funds and how those are doing given H.I.G.'s fundraising track record.
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We work with them a lot. They're probably the Apollo of the MM PE space in that they're the brand name for value-oriented MM PE. Incredible investors, great returns and fundraising track record, abrasive personalities at the top who will fight tooth and nail for their equity (LPs love to see it, counterparties definitely do not), and overall based on my interactions with their associates, a very sweaty junior experience. Heard that they finally raised comp to be in-line with street at the junior level a couple of years ago though.
agree with this. strong brand rep, typically known as value investors - are typically on the lower end of bid price for most processes. heard from folks there that they are pretty underpaid though.
Can echo the above poster. To add, they have some weird fund naming; MM fund is their "flagship" fund and focuses on relative value investing for MM companies with >$35M EBITDA, flagship fund is their LMM fund focused on value investing for LMM companies (<$35M EBITDA), Advantage is their "growthy" buyout fund (read: not really growth-oriented in a TA sense, just more in line with other buyout strategies and not as value-oriented as their MM fund) focused on MM companies with >$35M EBITDA. MM fund is their most successful fund historically and has scaled the quickest (latest fund at $5.5B, $6B if coinvest accounts are included), Advantage's latest fund is $3B, and HIG has deliberately kept the flagship fund small (latest fund $1.3B).
Looking from the outside, HIG is definitely a very respected firm with a track record of really good returns. They're value players, and generally look at underperforming businesses and hairy situations/carve-outs that few other PE firms would look at in the hopes they can find a value creation avenue and throw in a low-ball bid in an uncompetitive process. Because their strategy is trying to search for undiscovered diamonds in the rough, they have to go through and diligence a lot of companies in order to do so, which will almost always translate into a sweaty experience for the juniors (see: Apollo, Platinum, Cerberus). With that being said, I'm sure it's a great learning experience; everyone I know at HIG is incredibly smart if not a bit more on the aggressive/abrasive side. Despite their conduct during investment processes (submitting extreme low-ball offer packages and subsequently getting kicked out of processes, being overly annoying during diligence, and re-trading enough times for the word to travel across the sell-side community), HIG is very respected as a firm with a great fundraising and performance track record. There's also few firms that have managed to stick as disciplined with their core strategy while nearly doubling their fund every raise (although HIG's primarily solved that problem with creating other funds in addition to their core MM fund).
Know HIG guys and people extremely well. They are in the top decile in PE returns.
It’s a brutal experience but you will learn a lot when you’re a junior there.
They are black listed by the most lenders because of their reputation of being absolute savages when things go bad.
Have a friend at HIG - heard that the sweat isn’t really from the hours but rather the constant stress - everyone’s always stretched thin looking at several investment opportunities at once (and by looking I mean doing deep dives on objectively bad businesses trying to find a value creation path), and HIG’s operational focus means that even juniors spend relatively a lot of time on portco work in addition to all their other workstreams.
That being said, HIG’s track record is undeniable. They’ve had a ridiculous number of 8x+ MOIC investments, and are one of the few funds that can get away with charging a 2 + 25 fee structure.
How does HIG compare with the other top value funds like KPS, Platinum, Brookfield PE, One Rock?
All are reputable major players in the value investing space, and HIG is probably most similar to One Rock in terms of strategy (not very familiar with Brookfield PE though). Platinum has a larger fund and is willing to write larger equity checks, so I don't really consider them to be a MM in the same regards as the other funds on the list. KPS is a "deeper" value fund - whereas HIG and One Rock focus on underperforming businesses with strong fundamentals where they can avoid paying a high multiple, KPS is a true turnaround shop in that they target firms that are distressed or nearly distressed.
Former roommate worked at HIG - honestly hours didn't seem that bad (50-60 hours when not on a live deal sprint, 80+ hours when on a live deal sprint) and weekends seemed relatively respected. However, it was definitely stressful; associates are given a lot of responsibility and the seniors expect a lot out of their work product. No doubt it's a great learning experience for juniors though given how much exposure they get to the entire investment process.
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In addition to what everyone above has said, HIG is an interesting platform as a whole as they've done a really good job scaling to replicate the MF strategy in the MM space. In addition to their buyout funds, they've diversified into credit, real estate, special sits, and recently infrastructure to essentially build an all-in-one alternative asset management platform in the same way MFs are structured, but just purely focused in the MM space, and if I'm not mistaken as a platform they're probably the largest pure-play MM firm now. So far, they've done well to stay true to their value-oriented strategy for their "core" funds as they've scaled by creating and scaling offshoot funds (eg. Advantage), but it'll be interesting to see if their focus and strategy dilutes as they continue to scale their MM fund.
What H.I.G. as a firm is doing is definitely very interesting. They’re effectively bringing the AUM playbook that BX, KKR, etc are playing down to the MM space, which serves as a differentiator to incentivize LPs to cough up H.I.G.’s above-market performance fees and park their money at H.I.G. rather than other MM funds (e.g. why park your money at 8 different firms when you can write a $200M check to H.I.G. MM, a $100M check to Advantage, a $75M check each to White Horse and Bayside, $50M to Realty, etc). At the same time, they’re also targeting (and have been able to achieve) premium returns to incentivize large LPs to park their money at H.I.G. over just pooling more money to a MF.
any info on comp?
Through word of mouth have heard 270k first year + co-invest. Can’t speak to how that scales.
Any insights on HIG Growth side on comps?
$150k base, bonus ranges but puts all-in cash comp for ASO1 at $270-$300+ usually. Heard that they're levered coinvest program is very generous though.
Thanks, any details on the coinvest program?
Are $270-$300k comp numbers verified to be most recent in 2024?
Yeah - friend who was an ASO1 at HIG made $300k this past year.
AS1 comp last year was ~$300k
Anyone have any insight on how the Advantage fund compares to MM in terms of culture and performance?
Heard that culture is a bit better than MM. Returns are lower, but Advantage isn't really targeting MM fund returns. MM is value oriented and generally targets >3.5x MOIC fund-level performance and >4x MOIC investment-level performance, and the fund's investment profile is going to be riskier with that value orientation (don't have inner details but wouldn't be surprised if MM's loss ratio is higher than Advantage's). On the other hand, Advantage focuses on growth buyout (read: vanilla buyout, just growthy by HIG's standards), and targets ~2.5x MOIC fund-level performance and has a 2.5-3x MOIC hurdle for its investments. Advantage will never have MM's track record or sheer number of >8x MOIC investments, but was a strategy created for LPs to park additional money in a "more traditional" strategy.
Really helpful insight especially the MOIC targets. Feel free to correct if I'm wrong, but it seems at face value the mm and advantage team experience is pretty comparable in terms of deal size and portco or modeling experience, but biggest difference is mm will get all the companies doing not as well and advantage will get the standard names and maybe have to pay up slightly as a result. Curious if you know if the associate learning experience or perception from the street are very different for the two groups or similar? In terms of lateraling out to another associate program or mba.
Also saw that the advantage fund II is in the market rn and currently has $1bn in commitments (which makes sense given the MM fund just closed a few months ago, and the first advantage fund was closed all the way back in 2018). The previous MM fund was raised at around the same size/time as the first advantage fund, so was wondering if anyone knows if the 2nd advantage fund will come close to the $5.5bn raised by the MM fund or what they are targeting?
Any insight on their growth arm? (Fund performance, culture, hours, comp etc.)
Just a perspective coming from the sell-side, H.I.G. is objectively a great shop with consistently strong performance, but I think they get shit on a lot on the sell-side because of their misalignment with bankers. The sell-side generally has a dislike for H.I.G. and you'll hear statements like "bankers purposely exclude them from processes" because H.I.G. is an absolute pain to deal with, but for very justifiable reasons. Yeah, often we won't entertain H.I.G.'s bid or even go with a lower bid from another firm during a competitive auction, but that's mainly because every banker is well aware that H.I.G. is a value shop that will never win any remotely competitive auction process, and from IOIs all the way to close they will find every reason to lower their bid and completely utilize the bankers' capacity while doing so. H.I.G. is also known for being obnoxious during diligence, pouring over every detail and asking remote questions no other firm really cares about. While H.I.G.'s conduct during processes is bad from our perspective, we also have to acknowledge that H.I.G. has achieved their returns through remaining extremely disciplined and sticking to its core strategy as a value shop; the reasons for why IB MDs hate H.I.G. are the same as those for why LPs love them.
Thanks for the well rounded and self-aware perspective. At the end of the day HIG's "customers" are their LPs and that's who they serve first and foremost (and have served extremely well over the past 30+ years). That said, they do need to be generally wary of not completely pissing off every bank or sponsor selling assets in the market so that they are not denied deal flow... always a balancing act.
how is their infra strategy? barely any info out there
Infra adjacent so less fixed income assets and more service businesses
Have they finished their 2025 process?
I think they are still looking to fill some spots in Boston based on recruiter outreach, can’t speak to SF/NY, but Miami may be done.
I applied to a position in Miami like a week ago and heard back, I am assuming they are still open
Recruiter said interviewing on rolling basis, unsure which locations are full
It's a top brand name for MM PE with a value tilt. Senior guys are super sharp, very disciplined, have basically mastered the art of PE value investing down to a science. The associate experience is tough/demanding but a very good one. Culture has improved in recent years. Overall a great opportunity.
How would you say HIG is differentiated (if at all) over other MM buyout shops similar in size / returns. I’m mainly wondering about Audax, Charlesbank, THL, etc.
Very different strategies among those firms. H.I.G. is a true value shop where they go through a lot of undervalued or complex opportunities to try to find a value creation strategy that would allow them to buy low, improve operations and financial performance, and sell at a market+ multiple - they'll also do buy-and-builds and opportunistic platform add-ons but they normally don't go into an investment with that strategy. Audax is the archetype of a buy-and-build shop, and are willing to pay top dollar for a good platform. Charlesbank and THL tilt towards the value side, but are nowhere as disciplined as "true" value shops like H.I.G. (e.g. THL and Charlesbank will participate in broad processes but often won't be the highest bidder in those and submit a lowball bid, whereas H.I.G.'s MM fund would rarely be looking at assets that are marketed in a broad process in the first place).
H.I.G. has been historically the fund with the most consistent and highest returns out of the list, with THL and Charlesbank having more volatile historical returns (Charlesbank had mediocre performance for some of their funds, THL of course with their infamous implosion). That being said, all of the firms have shown great fundraising track record with their most recent funds. All four firms are known to be on the sweatier side of PE, but are great places to be as an associate in terms of learning/getting deal reps in. Can't speak for Audax, but I also know that THL, Charlesbank, and H.I.G. all have good business school placement as well (H.I.G. seems to especially do well with GSB compared to the two other Boston firms).
Any thought on the associate program at THL?
lmao how times have changed with no more ZIRP and tech funds in the shitter
Heard anecdotally through people I know there that the non-Miami offices' cultures have improved significantly over the past few years. Went from culturally in line with Apollo to "just" a sweaty UMM-esque culture.
From my experience interviewing in Miami/talking with associates, culture seems to be significantly better than what you read here. The 4-5 associates I interacted with seemed pretty happy across the board. Hard work during live deals, but better than banking most of the time with cool VP’s and Principals for the most part.
This is correct
Can’t speak to returns or experience working at HIG, but have only heard their people described as abrasive (if not totally insufferable) from bankers and management teams alike.
As someone that works for a MD that used to work at HIG, can confirm the abrasive (if not totally insufferable) style. He almost takes some sort of sick pride in it
I asked about culture during my interview and the principal said this isn't google there are no free snacks, this is private equity
Went to their office for a meeting once, can confirm that they have very-well-stocked pantries filled with snacks.
What does the path to VP promotion look like? Currently at a larger fund in a 2 and out program and am considering moving after 2 years to avoid going to b school.
Believe it’s one of 2 options after 2 years ASO:
Direct promote: 1 year senior ASO, 1 year mandated at portco to gain more operational exposure, then VP
MBA: 2 years MBA then VP
I know that H.I.G. has a pretty good track record of ASO -> VP promotions who go the former path. It seems like most of their VP laterals came to H.I.G. as a VP after getting their MBA though
Anyone else take the model test?
Any specific thoughts about Bayside? Is culture better / less sweaty?
What are the changes H.I.G. goes public sometime over the next few years? Seems like everything's in place for that - the firm's grown into a large diversified platform, seems to be focused on scaling AUM with its fundraising strategy, and the founders seemingly are ready to hand the reigns over to the next generation (Tamer's recently stepped into the backseat as Chairman).
Mentor of mine did 2 years in the MM advantage fund and moved on to another style of investing; very grindy, they pursue way too many deals, so that translates to 70 hour weeks in to 100 hour weeks during deal crunches often. Respectable name and good platform for learning but I wouldn't work there personally, would go to a smaller MM fund that plays in the same space that lets you live a little better. Just my two cents.
To be fair, I feel like most shops in the value investing space are pretty grindy because value investing requires taking a look at a lot of opportunities to find those where (1) it's a good asset that value can still be squeezed out of and (2) the sponsor won't be overpaying in a broad auction. Similar top value shops (One Rock, Cerberus, Platinum, etc.) are similarly sweaty, and I don't think the strategy translates into a better wlb down market either (eg. Gemspring and Stellex are sweaty volume shops as well).
Makes sense, the space has gotten saturated and there's more competition which translates to more grindy shops in this segment. But HIG more than others in my experience/from people I know has the reputation for looking at everything that's out there which comes down on associates.
Does anyone have insight into Whitehorse, the credit/DL arm?
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/private-equity/whitehorse-liquidi…
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/private-equity/hig-whitehorse-0
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/credit/whitehorse-hig-credit-thou…
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/private-equity/hig-whitehorse
Interested, pm me
Does anyone have any insight on HIG BioHealth?
Very small team - focused on growth equity for biotech, everyone has a background in healthcare or a strong foundation of industry knowledge.
Thanks - do you know if they are recruiting associates?
Found the following performance data from publicly disclosed LP documents released in 2023 / early 2024 if anyone is interested:
- All realized / partially realized investments: 4.6x / 46% gross (3.2x / 31% net)
- 58 exits with 8x+ gross MOIC
- 43 exits since 2021 averaging 6.4x gross (4.3x net)
Interesting, thank you for the data. Clearly impressive performance. Why is the haircut from gross to net so large for H.I.G.? I feel like the performance haircut between the two is much larger than for the average fund.
Fee premium - HIG’s known to charge above-market fees. Instead of the usual 2 + 20 structure, iirc HIG’s core PE funds charge 25-30% carry.
Very helpful. Do you happen to have this by fund?
Source?
Believe those numbers are from NHRS docs if I'm not mistaken.
Anybody know if they are done with 2025 recruiting?
I think the Growth team is still hiring, buyout teams are basically wrapped up though.
.
Any insight on culture of growth fund in NY?
Former associate at HIG who went on the 2 YR -> MBA -> UMM / borderline MF path - my take on the firm below:
- HIG's truly scaled up to become a MF platform oriented towards the MM. That's always been HIG's goal over the past decade, and HIG's done a great job at branching out into new strategies, creating a robust middle and back-office, and integrating its different strategies together to truly take advantage of "the power of the platform". The firm has done a really good job with creating a platform with shared resources (eg. BD team that focuses on sourcing, a very deep bench of operational partners, industry subject matter experts), and as a result, working at HIG really felt like working at a larger institutional platform like a MF but with a more intimate atmosphere (eg. associates got to sit in on IC meetings with Tony and Sami).
- With that being said, HIG's core focus is PE. The firm will likely focus on growing out its other strategies (most notably Infrastructure and Growth IMO), but its primary focus has always been its buyout strategies. Flagship LBO is focused on LMM - MM, and has performed exceedingly well. MM is focused on making MM - UMM investments, and has also had eye-popping returns. The newer Advantage strategy is lower on the risk / reward spectrum than Flagship and MM, is more of an AUM play and will be a larger focus for the firm going forward.
- Associate comp used to be below-market but co-invest was a great perk that softened the blow a bit. I've heard that HIG raised comp to be in-line with market comp a couple of years ago, and the firm has made its co-invest program even more generous.
- I've heard that VP comp has improved significantly over the past couple of years with large cash comp hike and much better carry terms. One sticking point for me that led me to leave HIG rather than stay on was comp at the post-associate level, and tbh if I was faced with the new numbers back then when I was making my decision, I would have seriously considered staying on.
- Culture and lifestyle was actually not that bad besides the Miami office. Culture-wise, the people at HIG were actually pretty supportive and nice; Tony instituted a culture of direct communication, and that really reflected across all levels. People speak their minds and don't hold back. Sometimes, that level of direct communication can make people seem more harsh or blunt than they are, but overall I felt like it was very conducive towards a positive environment for professional development. Lifestyle varies by group and office, but overall I found that it wasn't that bad for PE standards, and people at my current fund actually have much worse wlb compared to my time at HIG. Also, something to keep in mind, HIG may do a lot of volume of deals, but its work is split up quite nicely between different teams (eg. BD team does a lot of origination, sourcing, and taking a first pass at evaluating opportunities) and HIG's associate class is on the beefier side for its fund size.
- HIG's always had a great track record of associate to VP promotion, but I've heard it's gotten much harder the past couple of years. I've heard associate retention has improved considerably, and HIG has also expanded its associate class size, so even though the absolute number of associate to VP promotes is high, on relative terms it's very competitive.
- Overall I had a great impression of the associate experience. Associates get the benefits of having a large platform (eg. zero IR work, no BD, very little menial portco work like overseeing ERP modernization since the operations team handles that) while still getting an intimate atmosphere to learn (inclusion across the decision-making process, senior exposure, portco exposure as well), and I personally enjoyed the generalist nature of the associate experience as well. The HIG name also sets its associates up very well whether associates are interested in lateraling, going to B-school, or going off to the corporate side.
- Even though VP comp has improved significantly, I'm not 100% in on the VP value proposition. HIG is generalist until the late-principal stage, and personally I believe that developing industry expertise is important to do starting at the VP level. Furthermore, HIG is a firm that is very unforgiving towards its VPs and above - the founders have always emphasized a culture of meritocracy where results speak much louder than words, and perfection is expected for VPs and above at a far higher standard than at some other places (including my current fund). Not saying that VP is a cake walk across the PE world (it most certainly isn't), but at HIG you're scrutinized at a different level.
Overall, I enjoyed my 2 years at HIG and felt like I received a very rewarding experience where I learned a lot while surrounded by great people, but ultimately, I knew it was time for me to move on.
This feels like one of those presentations a recruiter gave during my junior year of college on why Moelis was the best place to work ever. I was hooked. Needless to say, it was not, in fact, the best place to work ever.
Thanks for the insight. Can you provide some more color on your decision-making process on leaving for B-school / why you left HIG?
I had the opportunity to stay on as a third-year associate but ultimately decided to leave as I didn't see a long runway for myself at HIG for various reasons:
1) VP compensation was below-market at the time, although as I mentioned above, this has largely been mitigated
2) I wanted more career progression stability. As I alluded to above, HIG is a place where the VP position really isn't "partner-track", and VPs at HIG get culled in a way that you don't see at a lot of other buyout firms
3) I wasn't a fan of HIG's generalist model. I felt like developing industry expertise was instrumental in having the necessary skillset for a long runway in PE, and that's not HIG's philosophy. HIG trains its investors for a very particular type of investing that can be applied across industries, and while the skills you learn are very useful towards becoming a better investor, it also makes it harder to leave as you become more ingrained within HIG's playbook as you progress at HIG
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