Evercore vs. Citi

LeoMessi:

Who started this rumor that the elite boutiques have fantastic exit opps? Other than Lazard and Blackstone, most of the boutiques have much weaker exit opps because they much prefer to internally grow their talent. A lot of guys who go to boutiques stay there for the long haul, and thus the exit opps often don't match the bank's reputation.

Mm hmm, Moelis LA had 3 to TPG and one to Silverlake out of 6 analysts. I'm pretty sure no group from a BB, and definitely not any groups outside of top GS/MS, placed better than that.

LeoMessi:

Who started this rumor that the elite boutiques have fantastic exit opps?.

I personally know evercore 2nd years with megafund offers lined up. As mentioned, places like blackstone, lazard and moelis do extremely well also.

If you're interested in moving to the buyside, take evercore. If you are interested in potentially becoming a career banker, maybe take citi.

LeoMessi:

Moelis might be a counterexample. I don't know anything about them, outside of my limited interaction with their NY group, which left me thoroughly unimpressed. I do understand that Moelis LA is a de facto UBS LA group, so perhaps that explains their placement.

I wouldn't be surprised if those placements only describe the first 1-2 years of Moelis LA placement, however, when all the analysts were ex-UBS LA analysts. I'd be curious to know which class placed that well, since that is indeed pretty impressive.

This is right now, as in this is what the current 2nd year analysts have gotten.

LeoMessi:

Moelis might be a counterexample. I don't know anything about them, outside of my limited interaction with their NY group, which left me thoroughly unimpressed. I do understand that Moelis LA is a de facto UBS LA group, so perhaps that explains their placement.

I wouldn't be surprised if those placements only describe the first 1-2 years of Moelis LA placement, however, when all the analysts were ex-UBS LA analysts. I'd be curious to know which class placed that well, since that is indeed pretty impressive.

The top Moelis guys have been out of UBS LA long enough that current analysts never saw them, so in theory it's a non factor...

squawkbox:

As the only WSO certified member posting here, go with Evercore for the guaranteed M&A experience.

Citi has great M&A group, but there's no guarantee that you get placed into it.

Always choose M&A over a BB coverage group.

You won't get good modeling experience in a coverage/industry role unless the industry group runs its own M&A, which is only the case at Goldman.

This isn't completely true... there are lots of industry groups at other shops that run their own M&A. My group for example does all its modeling within the coverage group. Our M&A team only sends us supplementary pages on WACC Analysis and other random bs, but there are definitely industry groups at other banks that operate on the Goldman model and keep all M&A in group.

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Duke4Lyfe:

Not sure where this rumor is coming from to always take the BB offer. I am an incoming analyst at Moelis LA / Blackstone Restructuring / Lazard, have friends at the other two and can attest to the great exit opportunities at all three.

Moelis as a whole has still been having amazing analyst placement. The LA office is still placing 50-75% in megafunds (which is unheard of at most BB's) and New York has been sending the analysts to a lot of great shops (Apollo, TPG SSG, Centerbridge, etc.) with 100% placement into PE/HF.

Blackstone is sending analysts wherever the analysts want to go, and that is usually BX PE (as long as they perform) or another megafund, sometimes Apollo/Warburg Pincus/Advent, etc. M&A and Restructuring both place phenomenally. The hours are also pretty nice.

Lazard is Lazard. The oldest and most established pure advisory shop in the world. Hours are group dependent, but the only group with good hours (for bankers) is the generalist banking program. Exit opps are good, sending a handful to megafunds and the rest to upper tier middle market shops. The analyst class is largest out of the three at 25, but still a quarter of the size of a bulge bracket firm.

I do not know anyone at Evercore, but I would make the assumption that it would probably place like MoCo/BX/LAZ. Culture and hours are different at each firm. Boutiques are taking market share and associate PE spots away from bulge brackets.

This is spot on. Admin please make user certified.

bulldogs12:

First of all, congrats! Two great offers that would make a ton of people jealous. In terms of exit opps to PE/HF, boutiques can be a struggle sometimes. As mentioned before, these places are often focused on internal promotes. Exit opps to tier 2 buyside are common, but placement into tier 1 megafunds are rarer. However, EVR M&A is one of the better places to be for that purpose. EVR has done very well recently.

Evercore M&A analysts get placed decently well, occasionally at some megafunds too, but honestly, I think BBs are gonna heat up vs. boutiques as we get farther from the 2008 crisis. The days of places like Evercore, Moelis, Perella, Centerview killing it might be over, but I could be wrong. Especially since these places often tend to be one-man or two-man shows. Moelis analysts don't get placed as well anymore, while two years ago they were hot-shots, and Evercore's analyst program is getting bigger from what I hear, diluting deal experience opportunities. Again, this is just what I've heard, ask around.

Now if this were GS/JPM/MS, I would recommend BB, but Citi is on the fence vs. pure-play M&A at Evercore. Live M&A is fun vs. ECM/DCM, or worse, pitching. I'd probably lean towards Evercore unless you get the top groups at Citi. Stay away from Citi's product groups except M&A if you can. Two guys I know from Citi industry coverage got placed into megafunds, but also had top-notch undergrad.

Lot of strange comments in this post, I'd take with a grain of salt. Moelis LA analysts, as said in my previous post, absolutely killed it this past year. What changes in the market do you see having an impact on boutique vs BB in the next two years, especially considering how well boutiques have done in the past few years? Just a gut feeling from your wealth of experience browsing WSO?

Citi IBD doesn't have any real product groups other than M&A (you can argue FEG is a product, but they're really not), so I have no idea what you mean by product groups other than M&A. ECM/DCM is done by Citi's CMO team.

Live M&A is "fun" compared to ECM/DCM? Have you ever been on a live deal? Very exciting, but I wouldn't call it playing golf compared to pitchwork. Also, you should expect to do some pitchwork no matter which firm you join, including Evercore M&A (yes, M&A does pitchwork too sometimes).

bulldogs12:

First of all, congrats! Two great offers that would make a ton of people jealous. In terms of exit opps to PE/HF, boutiques can be a struggle sometimes. As mentioned before, these places are often focused on internal promotes. Exit opps to tier 2 buyside are common, but placement into tier 1 megafunds are rarer. However, EVR M&A is one of the better places to be for that purpose. EVR has done very well recently.

Evercore M&A analysts get placed decently well, occasionally at some megafunds too, but honestly, I think BBs are gonna heat up vs. boutiques as we get farther from the 2008 crisis. The days of places like Evercore, Moelis, Perella, Centerview killing it might be over, but I could be wrong. Especially since these places often tend to be one-man or two-man shows. Moelis analysts don't get placed as well anymore, while two years ago they were hot-shots, and Evercore's analyst program is getting bigger from what I hear, diluting deal experience opportunities. Again, this is just what I've heard, ask around.

Now if this were GS/JPM/MS, I would recommend BB, but Citi is on the fence vs. pure-play M&A at Evercore. Live M&A is fun vs. ECM/DCM, or worse, pitching. I'd probably lean towards Evercore unless you get the top groups at Citi. Stay away from Citi's product groups except M&A if you can. Two guys I know from Citi industry coverage got placed into megafunds, but also had top-notch undergrad.

Only parts of this are correct.

Duke4Lyfe's post above is much more on target with what is actually going on now.

bulldogs12:

First of all, congrats! Two great offers that would make a ton of people jealous. In terms of exit opps to PE/HF, boutiques can be a struggle sometimes. As mentioned before, these places are often focused on internal promotes. Exit opps to tier 2 buyside are common, but placement into tier 1 megafunds are rarer. However, EVR M&A is one of the better places to be for that purpose. EVR has done very well recently.

Evercore M&A analysts get placed decently well, occasionally at some megafunds too, but honestly, I think BBs are gonna heat up vs. boutiques as we get farther from the 2008 crisis. The days of places like Evercore, Moelis, Perella, Centerview killing it might be over, but I could be wrong. Especially since these places often tend to be one-man or two-man shows. Moelis analysts don't get placed as well anymore, while two years ago they were hot-shots, and Evercore's analyst program is getting bigger from what I hear, diluting deal experience opportunities. Again, this is just what I've heard, ask around.

Now if this were GS/JPM/MS, I would recommend BB, but Citi is on the fence vs. pure-play M&A at Evercore. Live M&A is fun vs. ECM/DCM, or worse, pitching. I'd probably lean towards Evercore unless you get the top groups at Citi. Stay away from Citi's product groups except M&A if you can. Two guys I know from Citi industry coverage got placed into megafunds, but also had top-notch undergrad.

The days of boutiques killing it will be over? Have you found out some magic ways for the BBs to return to two digits ROE? Or have you figured out how to offer financing while having no conflicts? If so please call Blankfein and Dimon. They need your help.

Charles-perry:

Please tell me this is is a non-London location? I was told by Evercore that they are not hiring in London....

LDNBNKR:

evercore in ldn is hiring

op just take ever, not sure why ppl in this thread are being retarded but ever is so much better than shitti.