Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Overview

It’s been awhile since anyone has given updates about GS’s MBD division, especially in light of David Soloman’s recent changes, so I was wondering if anyone could provide some updated information regarding the group’s structure, recruiting, comp, prestige, etc?

 
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I know their MBD team is separated into PE, PC and Real Estate Assets. Currently interviewing with their PE team. From what I hear, they are very prestigious across the board.

They are leveraging their scale more now as they have amalgamated with their SSG team etc

 

Interesting, thanks for the insight. Do you know what groups the PE team has?

 

If you mean what industry teams, I believe they are industry agnostic but obviously certain industries will get more love

 

How would people typically describe the work at GS MBD PE investing? Is it a lot of co-invest or are they originating their own deals now?

Anyone know how they would stack up vs. Upper MM PE?

 

i’m not sure but I also think a reason for the reshuffle was the fact that there’s some law that forces a bank w/ an advisory practice will have restrictions on its merchant banking department => this explained why a lot of merchant banks either go down market for buyouts (MM/LMM) or down equity cheque (Minority / Co-invest)

Question: Is the new set up more conducive to traditional buyout PE?

 

The times where they only did co-investments are gone by now, so they operate pretty much as the other large cap /UMM names.

When you started you were able to do a rotation in the two teams, Private Equity and Private Debt, which I thought was quite cool and then you sticked with the team you preferred / that had a need. This was before the whole reshuffling within the whole GS Direct Investing platform under Sol, so not sure this is still the case.

Solid name like the others, but ceteris paribus I personally would not choose them over US MFs or Euro Large Cap names like Apax, Cinven, CVC, EQT, Permira (this does not take into account team fit and considerations like this of course).

 

above_and_beyond care to elaborate a bit on the reasons that you would prefer the other names over GS MBD?

I am curious to understand to understand what really sets them apart from the other names (especially in a European setting, but US also interesting). Does the fact that they are part of GS provide any significant benefits over being "independent" in your view apart from a strong brand name for fundraising?

 

I’ve seen on my college careers page that they were running an off-cycle programme in London open to undergrads but I’d say you’d need some great internships

 

How would PE at this group compare to traditional MF’s (KKR, TPG, BX) and UMM firms (CD&R, LGP) from a comp, prestige, and experience perspective?

 

Bump - interested in how their teams are structured. I understand that they divide into PE, PC, Real Estate, but for PE specifically, are their teams structured by industry / deal size? Could someone in their NYC office be working on a deal in various geographies?

The fool thinks himself to be a wise man, while the wise man thinks himself to be a fool.
 

From what I know (may be a year or two dated), associates normally have a “primary” industry that they spend say ~60% of their time on and then can be staffed on other industries the remaining ~40% of the time. Believe that over time you start to focus in more on one industry, but I don’t think that officially happens until VP+

There are MBD teams in London and Asia as well, so unless it’s a cross border deal, you’ll likely be working on the geography your office is in.

 

Hi there, do you have an idea of:

1. Working hours for London office

2. Summer intern class size

3. Offer rate

4. Culture (relaxed/stiff and formal(i.e. tie all the time)) and mix of backgrounds?

5. Sacking rate

 

Depending on the team your hours vary: London office 

Corporate equity had the longest hours, I saw other interns working till 1-2am

as an intern we were on £46k + 1k signing bonus 

growth had pretty good hours as well, as real estate, infrastructure, structured credit but as deals ramp up it gets longer.

culture was good the full time employees where invested in our learning and were supportive of us doing tasks. Regularly asked my input and asked by more senior members to assist on their work.

culture everyone is 

 

Do we know if GS Merchant Banking did on-cycle this year?

 

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