Hey monkeys, any ideas on Advent (culture, WLB, performance etc.)? Speaking specifically about the London office
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No London-specific view, but Advent (at least Boston + NY) is known to be an above-average opportunity in basically every sense
I met some of their associates briefly last year, can only speak on the culture and people. Apparent they are very smart and select many of the best analysts from the top BBs and equivalent. I think WLB is more respected than other PE firms and people seem to have a life outside of work, although imagine hours are still long.
Can't speak specifically on their portfolio, recent deals, fund returns, compensation; hopefully someone else will chime in. I know at least three other senior analysts from my firm (EB) who got through to interviews, but ultimately got no offer - seems quite competitive to get an offer.
Anyone have updated views on their B-school placement these days? Used to be mostly, if not only, HBS but am seeing a lot more Wharton recently.
That’s true of everyone, I mean Berkshire had the HBS agreement and now most of their class got shafted this year!
Any reason on why it is this way?
What is the HBS Agreement? Is most of the class going to Wharton instead too or foregoing B school?
They just raised - what - a ~$17bn fund? Their fund also has no hurdle rate. Tells you everything you need to know about the perceived quality of the firm at least from an LP perspective.
What’s the real benefit of not having a hurdle if you think about Carry? Don’t most funds have a catch-up period so that if you hit 2x you should be same off as without any hurdle to begin with? So that would be mostly relevant if your fund only returns 1.6-2x? Or anything I’m missing?
The math you described is probably more or less right - but I would say in this current era of PE - hitting a 2x is far from certain, particularly for larger funds that do larger (and more contested) deals. It's a marginal term - but a strong one from a signaling perspective that in the very competitive environment that is PE (i.e., lots of GPs), that select GPs can drive terms - very few can do this.
Can you explain what you mean? Don’t really understand. No hurdle rate surely means they are less concerned with LBO math, and more focused on with operational improvements to drive returns (this would be harder to quantify today?). You’ve also mentioned their latest fund size, and said this, along with no hurdle rate tells you how they would be perceived at least from an LP perspective…again can’t connect the dots here. Genuinely trying to understand your point, I have no background in the space.
Hurdle rate for the LP. Typically a fund will have 8-10% preferred return threshold for their investors, whereby the “first 8-10%” of the fund’s returns goes directly to the LP, after which then the fund shares in performance above that. This protects the LPs, so even if a fund doesn’t do a 2x/20%, you can still get your 8-10%. Fact that a sponsor can get away with not offering that to investors means that ppl want to invest in them anyway.
This has nothing to do with the underwriting investment/IRR calculation, which is used to evaluate if a deal is worth doing.
Is it a generalist program? How's comp as well?
No it’s not. You get placed into industry groups.
My understanding is that they are a top quartile performer.
Comp is market for a large-cap american shop in London.
You're looking at $150k base + 100% bonus for the associate 1 level. This comes out at about ~£225k.
Is this standardized for American offices?
Do you know how this evolves over the years, up to VP?
Not true, it's substantially lower in Europe
I have some prior experience with advent London from last 5 years based upon interactions with 6+ associates and some mid+ level people.
My take on the culture: hard working, play hard too. Calibre of hires in London is really strong and tend to be quite "polished" individuals (from the "right" families and backgrounds).
Would warn its pretty cut throat though, with a lot of in fighting and dog eats dog, even amongst associates.
One of my friends work there in London office and doesnt like the culture at all - lots of facetime needed with very IB like vibes from the top
2020 wages and salaries were ~75m; 97 people (79 professional staff 18 admin staff). Based on other accounts I've seen on companies house I'd say they're probably a little above market (at least on a pay/head basis)
Does anyone know whether the Advent U.S. recruiting process is office / location specific? Heard a few rumors that Advent (the BOS / NY offices) gave out offers first (without a specific location), and then told you which location you'd be in after
Don't work there (never have) but understand the following from discussions with friends that do:
£90-100k cash comp base for Associate 1-3
Target Bonus 100%
No Carry
Deal Bonus (Acquisition): 80% of Base
Deal Bonus (Exit): 40% of Base
Total Bonus capped at 180%
Most people expect 100-140% total bonus.
Assistant Directors (their VPs) get ~50%-100% higher base salary (depending on year), same bonus structure, plus fund carry, plus deal carry.
Deal carry depends on i) size of deal and ii) number of deal team members. 50% vesting over 4 years, 50% vesting at exit of PortCo.
The deal carry component has a material impact on culture, as people are incredibly pushy to get staffed on specific deals (ie insane amount of politics, cut-throat culture, not collegial). In addition, I have been told a few times (both by people who liked the system and people who didnt) that it is a fairly meritocratic place when it comes to promotions. If you perform well as an Associate then you can effectively replace your badly performing superior, who is getting cut in the next cycle (and obviously hates your guts). Not really my ideal working environment (even as a net beneficiary of the system) but each to his own.
Believe WLB is not great but still somewhat reasonable despite this, certainly when compared with Apollo, Blackstone, KKR, Warburg, H&F. From memory they are also doing a bunch of offsites etc.
They obviously have a large fund, but feels like they have an absurd number of offices and investment professionals to deploy it - more similar to some of the European rather than US shops.
Performance is good, although worth for someone more knowledgeable to comment on the volatility / spread of returns across investments which people tend to overlook.
The London and Frankfurt offices has a bias for consultants, but definitely hire bankers too.
In Europe, they had success with i) take-privates and ii) corporate carve-outs, and adopted a fairly aggressive mindset towards those which helped them to continue winning similar deals. They were effectively able to prove through numerous investments that the cost take out opportunity in both publicly listed and corporate-owned assets is always meaningful and oftentimes underestimated by the market, and were comfortable signing deals without the necessary data access during diligence that other funds required due to conviction in their proven playbook.
Incredibly detailed response, thanks a lot! Do you have any feeling for Deal & Fund Carry quantum at VP level? What amount of £ (or $) are we talking here about very roughly?
Fund Carry ~$1m at 2x
Deal Carry I believe 10-80bps of carry pool earned on specific deal but not sure I got that right
Hi, mind if I PM you more about this?
Their recent returns are very strong, well into the top quartile and stronger than many of the "more prestigious" MFs. Headhunters should know this and point it out to candidates who are comparing offers. Of course, this matters more at the VP+ levels when carry comes into play. One other nuance that my friends have pointed out is that they don't have founders at the helm which has downstream consequences such as more carry dollars to go around and more intellectually honest ICs (which one could argue drives better returns). Their HBS/GSB placements are a bit weak, but not sure how much of that these days is specific to Advent vs all of PE having a tougher time getting into those schools.
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