Merchant Banking vs Investment Banking out of College. Which route is better?
There is a boutique merchant bank that regularly recruits at my college and over time I have gotten to know the employees quite well. Senior leadership is phenomenal and it seems the day to day tasks analysts get staffed on are quite similar to an i-banking analyst with added bonus of helping out on some principal investment mandates.
I have always been told that if I want to move to the buyside, I should go through IB b/c that is the tried and true path. How come no one ever talks about merchant banking as a path to the buyside? Aren't you halfway through the door already in such a role or am i mistaken
Separately, what is a list of reputable merchant banks in the US?
Can't speak to which path is better out of college but can provide some names of reputable merchant banks in the US
-Raine Group(TMT-Focused)
-Liontree (Media & Telecom)
-Incentrum(Healthcare)
-Tudor, Pickering, Holt (Energy, Oil & Gas)
Some firms also have merchant banking, or "corporate private equity", divisions within their bank. Some firms that come to mind are Goldman, Rothschild, and Piper Sandler. Beyond Goldman, however, I don't believe you can recruit for these groups out of undergrad
Thanks for sharing these firms. I know a few upperclassmen who work at Liontree and TPH but they have told me their roles are pure advisory. Do you have to recruit specifically into the principal investing arm for these types of places like you do at a Goldman, Rothschild, or Piper?
Merchant banking will often parallel the experience you have in PE so if you're at a reputable merchant bank then yes you can continue a career on the buyside there if you like the place but you also are put in the mix for PE roles which IB analysts are considered for if you position yourself well with the recruiters. A lot banks on where you're working and the name of the shop you're at but the above mentioned a list of reputable merchant banking operations which would get you serious recruiting looks. IB at a reputable name would yes, yield you the best recruiting opportunities but speaking as someone who handled associate recruiting for my MF for two years, we definitely looked at resumes from analyst buyside backgrounds very favorably given the perceived notion that the learning curve would be much less steep
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