When discussing your experience working on announced deals in interviews, what are some best practices, tips and conventions to talk around confidential info, but still sound knowledgeable about the deal? Advice from PE professionals and former bankers who have gone through PE interviews would be highly appreciated.
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Your goal for deal discussions is to convey knowledge about all aspects of the deal process and structuring and an understanding of of the company, its industry, its competitive strengths / weaknesses, growth vectors and financials from an investor's perspective. To do this well, it is much easier to be able to talk about a specific company. If something you are working on is so confidential that you can't even say the company's name or its industry, I would suggest you choose a different deal / company.
If you are able to identify a deal / company, but the specifics of the deal are confidential, it is fine to speak in broad numbers. "The company has approximately $500M of revenue and $100M of EBITDA, growing a low double digits, and the buyer was looking to pay 9-11x" is sufficient to showcase you know about the company. As an aside, a pitfall a lot of interviewing associates make is getting caught up in trying to remember exact numbers on their deals - there is no need to fumble with if its a 12% or 14% margin, just stick with round numbers and be confident about them.