How is PJT London?

How does PJT London stack up to other EBs and top-tier BBs in London in terms of exits, culture, pay, prestige, hours, deal flow etc.? Does anyone have info on where the latest crop of analysts exited? Is it possible to exit from PJT London to NY MF?

 
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In my view, PJT is top tier EB in London along with Centerview and Evercore, and ofc Lazard and Rothschild. They advise on more high profile M&A transactions than the rest of the EBs barring Centerview, purely due to business model. If you actually take the time to read up on the industry (i.e. following earnings call and reading investors presentation from other banks), you'll see that average deal size of PJT is much much larger than its next public competitor, i.e. see Moelis investor presentation.

Plus, you'll get generalist experience which means access to their top tier RX group, arguably best in finance. Pay is top, culture cant comment on, exit similar proportionally to other places, prestige ex-Blackstone which everyone in respectable finance is aware of, hours pretty standard for banking, deal flow is excellent (I know this because I'm aware that they just started to expand analyst class in London from the usual 5-6 to 10-12 this year, no real insider motive to do that if work is lacking).

Regarding exit from London to MF NY, there is practically zero chance you can achieve this directly without your wealthy father pulling the string. There is absolutely no reason to hire someone based in a completely different market when there are thousands of highly qualified people lining up at your door with domestic deal experience dying to get in.

 

Yep, definitely a top tier EB. They expanded SA class from 7 to 10 and are picking Analysts / Associates from GS / JPM / MS along with several high profile MDs (e.g. Michel Antakly).

As for the pay, I was told A1 were paid GBP50k + 70k bonus in 2017. Can anyone confirm?

 

Thank you for this answer. Quick questions about the last point from exiting London to MF NY - if visas were not an issue, would that help at all? Or indeed would it be possible to move to PJT NY (and if so, is that a straightforward process) and then do the recruiting once there?

 

I don’t think the Visa issue helps at all. It’s really about the supply and demand for MF jobs. enough talent to go around that’s available to take part in the on-cycle MFPE madness in NYC. you’d need to meet and get all the US recruiters to like you and push you and they will have low propensity to do that. PJT RX is the top RX shop on the street and a feeder to the best hedge funds/distressed shops. If you wanted to do distressed, I could see you being able to get to like a DK in NYC if you wanted, again because supply of top tier RX guys is necessarily lower than the talent pool large cap buyout shops are ok with.

 

In London there is still a big difference between Top/Mid BB + Laz / Roths and the rest of the EB.

Actually I think that the difference is getting smaller with the time but in terms of prestige you will still find it.

Nevertheless Rx is a plus to be considered and so is their pay.

In 2-3 years they may be competing at the same level, not yet.

 

Could you please elaborate on what that's based on? I just did a quick linkedin search and saw many Laz/Roths/BB analysts/associates (even from one goldman TMT) lateraling to PJT in London but none going the other way around, so it would seem maybe they are competitive already? Thanks for the insight!

 

Overall, PJT is a great place to be with good culture, an awesome office and great comp.

HOWEVER, in London, if you want to do LBO Large-Cap PE, EBs are not the best place to be as deal flow can be tough (this applies to PJT but also to Moelis, Centerview, PWP (outside of Industrials), and to a certain extent Evercore). From PJT there were only 2/3 "normal" PE exits so far.

Therefore, be really sure that you also want to do RX and are interested in Credit Funds/SS/HFs rather than standard PE. If you want to do the latter, go for a BB.

 

I did and there were 3 exits to "normal" PE roles (Apollo (obvious given distressed angle), Partners Group, KKR (albeit initially started at BX). Those are obviously strong but represent only a small part of overall exits which are often focused on Credit at PE Funds (KKR, EQT, Triton) or SS funds.

A HH (KEA/Blackwood) even specifically mentioned that they don't really remember placing PJT for any PE roles before/that funds want BBs.

 

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