Deutsche Bank Best IB groups

Hey guys. So I am interning at Deutsche Bank in the Investment Banking division. I was wondering which groups rank at the top in terms of prestige and exit opps.

Any thoughts on the Consumer group? Would love M&A but I feel like everybody is gonna go for it.

Top Groups at Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank may get a lot of unnecessary flack but the investment banking division does contain some exceptional groups. Unlike most bulge brackets, Deutsche bank does not have particularly active M&A group. Additionally, the culture within this group makes it enough for it to be avoidable. In contrast, other investment banking groups at Deutsche bank have the "work hard play hard" mindset. So who are the top groups? The best groups in IB at Deutsche are Real Estate Gaming and Lodging, Leveraged Finance, and Sponsors.

For DB I don't know which teams specifically do M&A in house but DB just isn't an M&A shop in general. Its M&A dealflow for strategic deals is low for a BB and even is regularly beaten by the likes of Evercore, Greenhill, Moelis, etc. When DB is on deals, they're usually there for the financing and there's gonna be a GS/MS or EB along as the lead advisor.

DB is strong in sponsors advisory because of their balance sheet though. Does a lot of sponsors related M&A. I don't know this first hand but the M&A doesn't have the best rep for culture and the top candidates tend to go to Sponsors/LevFin with Industrials and REGAL being the stronger coverage groups.

Let's look at a brief rundown of each of these groups.

Deutsche Bank: Leveraged Finance (LF)

The work in leveraged finance may give you a slight edge when it comes to private equity recruiting. The work in this group can involve heavy, technical modeling along with valuation. Since this group gets more deals then average you should have some good deals to put on your resume.

Financial Sponsors Group at Deutsche Bank (FSG)

Deutsche Banks large balance sheet means they are present as sponsors in many deals. The following points can be considered advantages of working with the financial sponsors group (fsg). One, working directly with PE firms hedge funds and portfolio companies. Two, exposure to multiple industries that the client is invested in. Three, exposure to different client investment styles.

Deutsche Bank Real Estate Gaming and Lodging (REGL)

This group remains somewhat ambiguous when compared to the rest of these groups. The appeal of gaming and lodging is unclear outside of awesome due diligence trips (Vegas, Macau etc). On the other hand, the real estate portion of the business could offer a path into REPE or other similar roles. If you have a good understanding of the business you should still be able to spin it in the appropriate manner for more conventional private equity roles.

In conclusion, the best group for you will always be the group that has the best people. This will make your analyst years much more productive and dare I say enjoyable. As far as exit opportunities, leveraged finance will be your best bet if you're hoping to end up in a private equity firm. The skills gained there are the most transferable out of the three groups listed.

2018 DB Top Group Updates

In a 2018 thread on WSO, our users shared their thoughts on DB's top groups.

Antiaverage - Investment Banking Associate:
REGL, LDCM are the crown jewels. Healthcare is strong. M&A is terrific, but mostly in Germany - if you move over to Frankfurt after a year in NYC you'll be working on the most prolific M&A team on the planet.

LevFin is ace, similar to LDCM. Lot of mobility between both groups.

You can read more about Deutsche Bank on the WSO Company Database.

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Consumer just hired a bunch of Retail MD's to build out that platform and also a few more M&A focused bankers (As opposed to debt guys)-- They are doing a ton of pitching and juniors are getting killed right now. This could be a good sign if they are successful and the markets heat up again, as dealflow would probably be great, but not so much if High-yield takes a dump again (DB's bread and butter) and the M&A continues to cool off.

 

-DB has a really good Sponsors group (But who knows if it'll be good to be in it for the near term) -Industrials in NY does a lot of deals -Chemicals is top of the street (Just did the Apollo and Basell deals), the VPs are crazy though -Consumer is not very good -M&T has a decent name, but they do a lot of small deals and pitching (everyone in that group leaves after a year) -ECM is bottom of the street -Lev fin does a ton of deals, but just lost the group head, the head of Senior Debt Capital Markets and well we all know about lev fin right now -Healthcare kills you, but they have a decent name -Natural resources does debt deals, and pitches, probably 8th or 9th on the street

As a debt focused shop, DB may or may not succeed over the next couple years. They are trying to break into M&A and have spent a ton of money on it, but haven't had a ton of success as yet.

Hope this helps

--There are stupid questions, so think first.
 

i heard the analysts smoke up a lot in conference rooms together. this is from a friend who interned there this summer, but i dont know how truthful this is. she tends to exagerate. is there any truth to this, people in the know?

 

People who want to smoke up at work generally limit it to the summer and go to someones apt across the street. There is a general don't ask, don't tell policy with drug use, but if you do it in the office there isn't much they can do to ignore it. Most people don't want to smoke up, cuz seriously why would you want it to seem like your day is any longer while you are at work.

--There are stupid questions, so think first.
 

I work for one of DB's rivals (as do many others on this board), so I'm a bit biased.

DB has a strong industrial group and an extremely strong levfin/sponsors group (note, however, that the DB's real claim to fame is its trading business -- they are REALLY good at trading). My colleagues are of the opinion that DB only gets to tag along on big M&A deals because of its financing ability (DB does have massive financing capacity). I think DB's IB business will suffer more than most if the buyout scene stays quiet.

 
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