Nordic Capital NYC - 2025 Thoughts?
Does anyone have the latest updates on Nordic Capital and their NYC office regarding culture, hours, comp, and returns?
Looks like their latest flagship fund was at ~US$10Bn, and they’ve done US deals such as the $7.3Bn take-private of Inovalon, so they’re probably more of a large-cap fund than an UMM these days. What's their investment mandate in the US?
Great firm – strong fundraising momentum and returns but NY office is an absolute sweatshop. Big time player in HCIT and fintech. Within their focus areas they look at anything from UMM to $5-7bn+ TEV assets. Prefers flying under the radar compared to other large cap funds. European firm at heart but increasingly active in the US. 5/8 of their platform acquisitions out of the flagship fund last year were in North America according to their website, and their US deals tend to be sizably larger than their European deals on average. Comp should be around $380K for first years.
Can’t speak to specifics on their culture and comp but have previously worked across them on a few deals on the US side. Extremely sharp guys and very creative around deal structuring. Highly disciplined and selective in terms of which sub-sectors they choose to play in. Their diligence process is deeper and more intensive than any other buyer I worked with.
Returns have consistently been amazing, each of their latest fund raises have well exceeded target / closed at hard caps. Have a few US portcos that are now valued at $10Bn+ (Clario, Inovalon, etc). One of the very few larger funds well positioned to continue growing fund size going forward in spite of the current market.
The NY team is very lean considering the size and volume of deals they work on, so hours and WLB probably quite bad.
Curious too. What types of deals does Nordic usually target and what are some notable deals they’ve done, especially on the US side?
Saw they recently did a $7Bn take-private of Hargreaves Lansdown along with CVC, so assuming they must be quite big in fintech.
In the US, their focus has been on healthcare IT, fintech, and highly specialized enterprise software. They took Inovalon private for $7.3 billion previously as OP pointed out, and earlier this year they acquired Anaqua for $2.5 billion. Recently saw they’re looking to carve out Clarivate’s IP unit, which would be a $4-5 billion deal if completed. They were also planning on acquiring Davies Group for $5.3 billion but backed out of the deal last week.
Overall, they like to target wide moat, non-cyclical companies that are downside protected and FCF generative. Won’t hesitate to dive into more complex situations like carve-outs and take-privates if they feel like they can acquire a high quality asset at a bargain. Very technical, thesis-driven investors but also selectively opportunistic. Their strategy favors holding assets for longer time frames (7-8 years) as opposed to the typical 3-5 year holding period.
Went through Nordic’s recruiting process when I was in IB but didn’t end up landing an offer. Only recruited at $8bn+ fund size NY MF/UMMs and Nordic's process was probably the toughest and most technical one I participated in. Did a ton of studying on their fund back then so have some insights.
Nordic invests via 2 fund strategies – large cap fund and evolution fund. The large cap fund is their flagship buyout strategy, the evolution fund is a newer MM/LMM strategy that exclusively invests in Europe. The US team only invests out of the large cap fund, and sector-wise they focus on tech and healthcare. Associates in NY start as generalists investing in both tech and healthcare.
Historically returns have been top tier and they scaled fund size steadily. A year ago they exited a portco to Thermo Fisher at like 20x net MOIC and sold another portco to FP at 6x. Had legendary exits in the past such as selling Nycomed for $14 billion, which was one of the most successful LBO deals of all time.
Hours are brutal even when compared to other large funds, but not surprising given how lean they run on the NY side. Basically banking 2.0.
Have generally sensed mixed things on culture besides being a sweatshop, some of my interviewers definitely gave off more intense vibes, but all were very sharp and impressive people.
In terms of their recruiting process, they usually hire only 1-3 associates per year and would only give you an offer if they think you have potential to become a partner there one day, so the bar is extremely high compared to the 2-and-out PE firms that have much larger associate classes. The case study was insanely difficult, by far the most complex one I took, and be ready to get grilled to the ground by the partners during the debrief.
Based on HH conversations back then, comp is around $380k all-in for 1st year associates, going up by $70k a year until promotion, but these numbers might be outdated now.
Hi! Just curious how long is the process in general? Is it first round and model and then super day thanks!
Have read in previous threads that the process is very technical - in what way? Hard accounting questions or hard model test with div recap add-on etc.?
And is comp going up by $70k a year normal or exceptional? Think for most funds it only scales 30-40k per year?
If you think a div recap / add-on is “hard,” you’re cooked
Eos asperiores atque voluptatem deserunt doloribus suscipit. Facilis dolorem nisi mollitia ut voluptatem delectus amet voluptas. Non vel facilis quo culpa corrupti et. Quis doloremque velit rerum tempore soluta nobis porro.
Quia non sit aliquid eius nobis iusto. Voluptas excepturi et quia ad placeat. Reiciendis tenetur minus culpa ipsum qui molestiae explicabo. Quo voluptas unde eligendi at sit ea sed. Quo est asperiores sed.
Provident vitae quia eligendi omnis dignissimos velit molestiae. Impedit dolorem beatae odio repellendus autem omnis hic. Et nihil in eos. Excepturi fugit id vero nostrum eos alias.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...