Anyone have intel on Incentrum Group?
Hi all,
Has anyone here heard of a firm called Incentrum Group? They seem to have been founded only recently, but have some pretty big heavy hitters from what Im able to source through Linkedin - former BAML vice chairman, BAML / MS MDs, etc. I see also they have analysts but all seem to come from top-tiered schools. Yet, I can't really find any info on them with regards to deals or anything.
Seems like a diamond in the rough kind of opportunity for an internship, but they don't seem to have a dedicated HR staff so if anyone can provide any info on them at all, that would be super helpful, especially how their recruiting process works.
Hi Prospect in IB - Gen, whoops, looks like nobody chimed in here.... maybe one of these discussions below is relevant:
More suggestions...
Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.
Bump... anyone?
Interviewed with them in the Fall. They're a "merchant bank", so they have an IB side and PE side of things. Analysts work dedicate half their time to each side. Very good experience and I know of analysts who chose Incentrum over EBs/BBs.
Hi super helpful! Do you know their rationales for doing so? Also can you let me know how you were able to get into a process with them?
Basically, those who accepted offers with them were interested in gaining both exposure to PE while gaining the skills in IB. They recruited on campus for my school where they had two back to back 30 minute interviews (behavioral) and then a superday.
Anyone else have insight on these guys?
They recruit juniors from specific schools (I'm pretty sure only specific Ivies, from those that I talked to) and look for people that will want to build their career with them. Like ib5136 said they dedicate half/half to IB and PE. I also interviewed with them in the fall and seems like they have good deal flow and talented people. Recruitment consisted of two phone screens followed by a leeengthy super day. I applied via my school.
Hi this is really helpful. Do you know how many interns they ended up taking? What was the super day like?
I think they took two for the summer? I'm not entirely sure. Super day was fine but kinda long. Mostly behavioral questions but there was one MD poached from MS who was the scariest man I've ever met. They also made me do a pretty basic case study.
It’s basically bunch of senior guys who already made big money (eg Lars who sold Monsanto to Bayer) and wants to capture the economics from a big hit or two + do the merchant banking thing. Experience from what I heard is mostly going nowhere but very complicated work / pitch around deals (eg if you tried to do a mega merger between Comcast and Verizon or something that wild) and can be no revenue for a while (which may impact comp). They put some money in as merchant bank (which is mostly not own capital, basically try to source a deal and get capital from others after, so not raise fund first like PE). All pains of a small, early stage place trying to grow. For internship (or even FT) if your other options aren’t BB/EB/well known MM - why not though
Hi thanks for your input. Didn't think about it that way, but this makes a ton of sense. Do you think that they've started to build up a robust practice and attract top talent? Seems like they just poached a senior healthcare MD from Morgan Stanley so surely theres a reason for him to join this place? What about exposure to senior guys? Is there any merit in that?
Think they attracted some great senior guys (more economics than anything) but I would probably argue it’s been difficult to attract great mid level (if I was an awesome VP at GS why’d I leave, if I did why’d I go to Incentrum over like Centerview). You’ll probably get exposure to senior guys - sure. But if you think a Vice Chairman knows what a summer analyst or analyst is doing (hit F9 to price update entire book), you are sorely mistaken. As Matt Levine put it yesterday
“ I love the idea that the key element of an investment bank summer internship is interaction with clients. Ah, yes, summer, when corporate CEOs stop getting advice from investment bank managing directors and start getting it from 20-year-old interns.”
Again - if this is for Summer 2020 where all banks did recruiting last Fall, why not?
I think the above poster brings up some good points and helpful insight, but I do think he is wrong about this not being an optimal place to start relative to BB/EBs or even good MM. For one, I think his points about a lack of middle management is valid but only when it comes to his perspective as a VP, and not so for those on the lower rungs of the totem pole. I think it's true wherever you go that VPs tend to not drift to newer places simply given that they've already been building up a track record at the firm they're at - this applies to M Klein,. Foros, Dyal, or Liontree as most of their middle mgmt. were all internally promoted as opposed to poached.
To give OP some context, I'm currently at a mid-tier BB and as a second year analyst I work most of the time with my associates and a few VPs. I'd kill to get the daily exposure to these veteran dealmakers that you can get at a small place like this. Part of developing yourself professionally is to have mentors to look up to, and frankly for me that only extends 1-2 rungs up the corporate ladder. See if you have the opportunity to engage with the directors and MDs on a daily basis - seems to be the case given lack of middle mgmt. Now, the one downside to joining a "start-up bank" I can see as an analyst is that your exit opps might be non-traditional. Not that you won't have great exit opps from a place like M Klein or Dyal, but being that they are so new, headhunters may not be made aware of your firm's reputation so placement for them may be more difficult.
Frankly OP, I think this is a great opp. I looked through Linkedin quickly and analysts there all seem like bright kids who graduated from elite colleges with internship experience at places like Jefferies, Goldman, Deutsche, and PJT. Think you'll be in good hands there. Best of luck.
My intel is from people who worked / interviewed there as associate. The senior people there def has a high bar and try to recruit top notch people (eg they want associates to come from BBs, now like PwC advisory) - but it’s been tough (whether you are VP3 or Associate 2 - same stuff applies. Would you leave an established GS/JPM to go there unless you are about to get fired / got screwed in bonus? If you are doing well and leave, 100% of the time you going to a Centerview / Evercore). Analysts - you can go to good schools and spread a wide net and grab some smart kids (plus pretty sure people with prior internship basically didn’t get an offer to go back, but I could be wrong). But associate / VP level it’s much tougher to get decent people in and they are the ones who actually tell the analyst what to do / how to do it (despite the assumptions here that analysts are Gods)
Do you think the draw of doing principal investing could be a reason for making the jump from a more established place? I could see the case for post-mba associates who wish to do buyside work but a bit late for them to jump to a traditional PE shop. You obviously are more informed than me as you have inside experience on these guys though
Have a friend at M Klein. The one or two analysts that decide to go buy side place incredibly well (Ares, Crestview, Carlyle, etc.) As a result they’re on most HHs radar right now and have heard of kids getting into top roles in nontraditional ways as mgmt will go to bat. That said most do say so there isn’t as definitive of a pipeline. Thought this insight could help...don’t know anyone at incentrum and while it’s slightly less prestigious wouldn’t be surprised if exits are somewhat similar.
interesting, im at a EB atm and most of my class won’t be staying on past the two yr mark. Why is it that those analysts at M Klein tend to stay on? is it a function of self selection by current analysts who just happen to be career bankers or is there something abt the culture?
dang never heard of these guys but just checked out their website and all the partners look crazy legit... Anyone know why the partners from TPG would choose to do a merchant banking model vs starting their own pe shop?
Having looked at a deal with them (where we would provide over 90% of the equity check) here are some of my conclusions on them:
1) they are overpaying for assets (at least for our deal they clearly were), they barely put money at risk but try to structure fund like economics on your equity so they set up an “option”-like investment, little if any downside but big upside which creates misaligned incentives
2) reference checks on Lars - the co-founder are not great, big drama when he left MS (he basically screwed them by including a clause that a big fee event was tied to him not the firm and more or less got fired on the back of that)
3) TPG Folks were not doing that well at TPG (probably why TPG shut down their activities in Europe few years back already)…
Overall juniors seemed good, some of the partners were really good and others B+ at best.
Anyone know if they take 1st year analysts/ right out of undergrad?
A quick look through linkedin shows that they take undergrad interns and also hire fulltime out of undergrad
Can anyone comment on recruiting process at MBA level? Do they take summer MBA interns? If not, are they willing to hire for fulltime out of top MBA programs?
Hi guys this firm recruits on campus at my school and sounds like a cool opportunity but does anyone know how legit the investment side is? I tried googling and couldnt find press releases of a fund they raised. Are they currently raising a fund or are they investing via a spac?
Bump, is this a good opportunity if i want to go to buyside but didnt end up landing PE offers? Worth taking them over a mid / lower tier BB?
Yes, definitely good place to stay since mix of buyside and sell-side. If you want to move to buy-side you probably can due to senior leadership, deal-flow, and principal investing mix.
Isn't buyside recruiting driven almost entirely by headhunters though? Wouldn't you be at a disadvantage relative to more established firms or do you think thats not the case given the caliber of senior leadership?
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Thoughts on the experience, exits, growing with the firm, etc?
Bump on this?
do they have a internship program for juniors?
Yes, they do. They mostly do OCR from top tiered Ivy's like Yale, Princeton, and Harvard. Relatively informal recruiting process that is focused on behaviorals for juniors, with a couple curveballs (know basic concepts for LBO, DCF, comps, etc).
Anyone know the typical range deal size for them? i.e., is is bn+ deals or more in the mm range?
Bump on this
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