I interviewed with the some people in the group earlier this fall. They have lost a lot of bankers to Lehman. They are sort of in rebuild phase. They have made some lateral hires and have gotten a few good people. I cannot say anything about the culture of the group, it is probably still developing.

 

very good group. i am also taking CS offer, did u get it through placement?

however in Sf they lost a deal team (md, vp, associate, analyst) to Citi about 3 months ago.

 

do you guys know how many analysts they're going to be hiring? SF office specifically...i have final rounds coming up thanks to a connection.

People tend to think life is a race with other people. They don't realize that every moment they spend sprinting towards the finish line is a moment they lose permanently, and a moment closer to their death.
 
banker00:

very small team. most deals are out of ny

Lollllll.. Couldn't be farther from the truth this guy doesn't know what he's saying.. CS SF is a deducted biotech/pharma team. That's why it's small.

They handle it all the execution. If you find an article on google they basically closed the most deals in biotech last year at $16BN. If you get that team you are in good shape if biotech is an interest.

However, personally GS and MS name brand might carry more but if you want good experience, deal flow and exposure then this team is solid.

 
Best Response
coolbankers:
banker00:

very small team. most deals are out of ny

Lollllll.. Couldn't be farther from the truth this guy doesn't know what he's saying.. CS SF is a deducted biotech/pharma team. That's why it's small.

They handle it all the execution. If you find an article on google they basically closed the most deals in biotech last year at $16BN. If you get that team you are in good shape if biotech is an interest.

However, personally GS and MS name brand might carry more but if you want good experience, deal flow and exposure then this team is solid.

oh ok. how's your internship going?

 

my internships going great. mind you tho i'm not in cs sf, only had an interview with them.

didnt realize you were a certified user. do you work with the HC team/CS? I could be wrong, but this is just the strong impression i got from interviewing with them.

 

just for further insight on this-- CS HC SF solely focuses on Biotech. Sit right next to the TMT guys from what I've heard. CS HC NY is everything else (managed care, life sciences, pharma, etc) & is also a good bit larger. Smart people on both coasts.

Array
 

the group is decent, but defintely not one of the best healthcare groups on the street. traditionally, the firm has been weak over the years, but had strong 2006 year. it worked on hca deal, but from what i heard, the only reason it was awarded that was because cs and ms were the only 2 bb's that didn't have conflict of interest and therefore were rewarded with fairness opinion mandate.

also advised bayer this year on its $16.5 billion acquisition.

 

Merrill had a monster year. UBS historically was the best, and still does pretty well, but its a sweatshop run by a shady guy everyone knows and has a terrible culture. JPM is dominant in HC, especially on the LevFin side and I would say is a close tie with Merill right now for first, although JPM lost some good people in the last year. GS is GS, they will be on a lot of the big HC M&A deals, not much financing

 

totally forgot about them, not sure why....yeah i'd day ML is defnitely up there in top 2......UBS hc culture blows though, ben lorello is a prick from people who have worked for him even at vp and director levels.....ubs usually gets lot of deals that other banks reject one way or the other....it is a sweatshop for sure as well.

I know for a fact that JPM HC lost 2 senior guys to CS, 2 to Lehman, and 3 to GS just in the past 7 months alone.

 

I am an analyst in a life science group (won't tell you where for obvious reasons. Strange that ppl on this board keep mentioning UBS as #1 in health care, since I've never heard of them as doing all that much relative to other groups.

If you look at the high profile Pharma M&A deals, UBS hasn't advised on any of the top 10 transactions all time. Looking at underwriting rankings in 2005 for Spec/Pharma and Biotech, UBS is third behind Cowen and CIBC...What am I missing here, why is UBS so great.

It's funny, I was talking to my VP about who he considers top banks in healthcare. He said Goldman, Lazard, JP Morgan, and Merrill.

 

under Lorello has done a ton of deals and really dominiated the midmarket space, which was mostly services oriented, up until recently. They have fallen, but still do a good amount of deals.

GS HC is a good group, you'll get worked hard like any banking group, but your exit opps are still really good (people placed at TPG, KKR, Apollo, top hedge funds, etc) over last couple of years, if you want mega PE or HF, and you're good, you'll get placed (senior folks will put the calls in for you). You will do a lot of M&A in as the group historically focused on big pharma, but I hear that is chaning to get involved in more financing

 

look anywhere for the top HC bankers, and you will ALWAYS see Jim Forbes Head of HC at Merrill and Alan Hartman Head of HC M&A at Merrill (no, I don't work there). Right now, they're the dominant franchise on the street.
B of A did the lion's share of the financing for the HCA deal and several others, so, for Healthcare financing (at least debt financing) they're right up there with JPM. I wouldn't count their actual Healthcare advisory group as that great, though.

 
pitchmonkey:
look anywhere for the top HC bankers, and you will ALWAYS see Jim Forbes Head of HC at Merrill and Alan Hartman Head of HC M&A at Merrill (no, I don't work there). Right now, they're the dominant franchise on the street.
B of A did the lion's share of the financing for the HCA deal and several others, so, for Healthcare financing (at least debt financing) they're right up there with JPM. I wouldn't count their actual Healthcare advisory group as that great, though.

if i could go anywhere for hc it'd be 1. GS 2. ML

 

They give full-credit to all of the banks involved in a deal, no matter how far down the list of co-managers the bank was. So, Wachovia claims to somehow have been involved in HCA (I have no idea how they think they were involved if you search "Wachovia and HCA" on Wall St. Journal.com, nothing comes up, maybe they provided some of the debt financing) and on the league tables, they'll get full credit for the value of the deal - the same as, say, Citi gets, even though Citi was one of the original banks involved in the advisory part of the deal. League tables are useless - look at who's involved with what deals and, more importantly, what that bank's role is. Lead, joint, co-manager, it is all the same on the tables, but it makes a huge difference as far as the prestige of the industry coverage group.

 

Working at a place that often gets screwed in league tables because of what you just mentioned, I certainly understand that. However, I don't get why everyone is so interested in debt financing. I also don't understand why seems to be viewing HCA as some sort of gold standard. Sure, it was a big deal...but c'mon, it was one deal.

I guess my view is, and I admittedly have my own biases, I'm interested in M&A. If you want to talk big M&A in life sciences, than a few posters perceptions are pretty far off in terms of which groups are "good."

 

Nusi,

So who is tops in healthcare M&A in you opinion? Was your post "entirely disagree" regarding Goldman or Merrill? I thought Goldman was big in healtcare M&A. Also, you mention Lazard, do you know what the exits are like out of Lazard healthcare? Thanks.

 

I'm not here to bash anyone's shop, so perhaps I phrased some of my posts poorly. I just didn't understand the lovefest for UBS in healthcare. They have a great shop, and we all have heard how great their LA office places. But I just hadn't heard from anyone that worked in the field that they were a major player.

But I'm just a first year analyst can't say I'm an expert or anythig, so I am always open to new learning about other places.

I do know that Goldman is great for big pharma, obviously. They do all of J&J's stuff for instance. Merrill is great as well. If anyone wants to talk more, they can pm me...esp. since my associate is about done with this turn and maybe I can go home.

 

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