Investment Banking in London (EMEA) - Strongest Players, League Tables, Salaries, Differences...

Here is a summary of Investment Banking in London.

Strongest Banks:

In Europe, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are traditionally the strongest banks that get the most high profile transactions. They are followed by the 'Elite Twins in London' Lazard and Rothschild and the remaining 'big five' US banks - JPM, BAML and Citi. These top 7 banks in Europe are followed by Credit Suisse which proved to be particularly strong recently and the rest of the bulge bracket banks. Difference with the US league tables is surprisingly weaker Barclays and certain Elite Boutiques and much stronger Rothschild.

Here is the most recent league table according to Bloomberg. (Europe, Last Twelve Months, M&A Advisory). Market share based on total deal value in brackets.

  1. Morgan Stanley (24%)
  2. Goldman Sachs (19%)
  3. BoA Merrill Lynch (17%)
  4. JP Morgan (16%)
  5. Rothschild (14%)
  6. Citi (13%)
  7. Credit Suisse (11%)
  8. Lazard (10%)
  9. Barclays (9%)
  10. Deutsche Bank (8%)

Salaries:

Salaries in London are significantly lower compared to New York (and apparently Hong Kong too). Even after taking into consideration exchange rates and real purchasing power, bankers in New York are better off.

Standard base salary in London for a first year analyst is £50k. Bonuses depend on the analysts ranking and range from 10k - 50k. Certain elite boutiques pay better than £50k but the difference is not that significant. Average total compensation would be around £70k before tax. This is still a great salary if we consider that average UK graduate salary is around £20-£30k.

Interns:

Spring weeks are a major thing in EMEA. Spring weeks take place in the first year (sophomore in the US). They are 1 week long programmes that allow students to get a flavour of life at banks and be fast-tracked and secure summer internships for the following year. Summer Analysts in London are paid same as 1st year analysts - £50k, which is around £10k for the whole 10 week internship.

Work Life Balance

Same as New York.

Target Universities

Big thing in London too. In the UK, it would be Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial and UCL. Then there are Warwick, LBS and others. There are European targets such as Bocconi, St Gallen, Rotterdam and others.

 

Main mid-market banks would be Investec, Peel Hunt, Panmure Gordon, etc. Boutiques would be FIG specialists such as Fenchurch, Evercore have been improved rapidly in London, then other boutiques such as Moelis, Centreview etc also have a presence in London but dealflow can be variable.

This is my perception at least, happy for those who know more to add to/correct this.

 

Arma and WB definitely not best MM in London. They both have average deal size around 100m which is very low and none of them ranks among the top 50 in Europe for 2018. Rothschild with average deal size 1bn definitely king of middle market (even though with that average deal size we can hardly say mid market) and crushing league tables - 5th only behind GS, MS, JPM and BAML for 2018. So not even comparable. Jefferies ranking 27th could be considered one of the top mid market banks in London.

Overall, would agree with Engineer Monkey that Investec, Peel Hunt, Panmure are strong in mid market London, London based and focused. Perhaps add Canaccord and Numis. Just throwing names, there is also Ondra partners and Nplus1 Singer. Just my two cents.

 

WB and Arma not top because they are not too 50 in league tables? Are you serious?

BTW, I forgot Gleacher Shacklock. RTH is not a pure MM player, but they do a lot in the space and they are considered competitors by the above mentioned firms. You cannot base these type of things on LT. Do you actually know how League tables work?

 
Funniest

Sure, I would like to know how league tables work from a guy who is still at university and never actually worked in banking and was asking for CV advise on WSO to apply for summer internships last year. Tell me

 
PatrickBateman1:
The best MM in London are WB, RTH, Jeff and Arma

Not sure if you're trolling but no idea what Arma is and WB worked on very small deals and have market share close to 0.

Traditional London mm are Investec, Numis, Peel Hunt. Foreign banks focusing on mid market in London Jefferies, Moelis, RBC, Nomura etc..

 

Agree with PatrickBateman about MMs in London: William Blair, Rothschild, Jefferies and Arma ( for TMT). Never seen Investec, Peel Hunt and Panmure.

William Blair: traditional sectors Rothschild: traditional sectors and also active on the larger deals, but most deals are MM Jefferies: nearly all sectors Arma Partners: top for TMT and dominate the TMT deals in Europe

 

Another point to add - Banks are situated either in the City (e.g. Goldman Sachs, UBS, Nomura, Rothshild...) or in Canary Wharf (Morgan Stanley, JPM, HSBC...). Private Equity and Hedge Funds tend to be clustered around Mayfair.

 

Wouldn’t compare PJT to the others in terms of exit ops, the office was opened in Ldn in 2015 and classes used to be quite small until last year. I think the program M&A + Rx makes PJT quite unique and also they are hiring from top BB. In Europe not having local presences and bs make the work really tough, that’s why I think they are impressive

 
Most Helpful

Naturally, the best private equity exits in London are from US bulge bracket banks GS, MS, JPM, Citi and BAML and boutiques such as Lazard and Rothschild. These are followed by the rest of bulge bracket.

In addition, big four plays much greater role in Europe than in the US.

 

In theory yes - more time off for vacation. In practice, not really. Even if you get holiday, you're expected to be on your phone and ready to come to the office if something happen. On the other hand, I think this depends on the group as well. I've seen first year analyst taking 2 weeks off to go to Thailand and others on vacation as well in DCM. Furthermore, time of the year could be crucial.

 

Could we have a quick ranking for different groups and products (even though these are less important in PE exits than in the US)? Interested in:

M&A (overall), LevFin, DCM, ECM

TMT, HC, Natural Ressources, Industrials, C&R, REGAL, Infra/Transpo, FIG, FSG

 

M&A Overall, 2018, Bloomberg, Based on total deal value. (Market Share).

1 Morgan Stanley 24% 2 Goldman Sachs 19% 3 Bank of America Merrill Lynch 17% 4 JP Morgan 16% 5 Rothschild & Co 14% 6 Citi 13% 7 Credit Suisse 11% 8 Lazard Ltd 10% 9 Barclays 9% 10 Deutsche Bank 8% 11 BNP Paribas 6% 12 UBS 5% 13 Evercore Partners Inc 5% 14 Societe Generale 5% 15 Macquarie 4% 16 Robey Warshaw LLP 4% 17 PJT Partners Inc 4% 18 Ducera Partners LLC 4% 19 Credit Agricole CIB 3% 20 Wells Fargo 3% 21 KPMG Corp Finance 3% 22 Jefferies 3% 23 Centerview Partners LLC 3% 24 Mediobanca 2% 25 Perella Weinberg Partners 2% 26 HSBC 2% 27 LionTree Advisors LLC 2% 28 PwC 2% 29 Nordea 2% 30 Moelis & Co 1% 31 Greenhill & Co 1% 32 Banco Santander 1% 33 RBC Capital Markets 1% 34 Grant Samuel Securities Pty Ltd 1% 35 Lambert Brown Asset Management Pty Ltd 1% 36 China International Capital Corp 1% 37 BDT & Co LLC 1% 38 Ardea Partners LLC 1% 39 Duff & Phelps LLC 1% 40 Ernst & Young 1% 41 CITIC Securities 1% 42 Investec 1% 43 Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd 1% 44 Axis Bank Ltd 1% 45 Lavin y Cia Enrique y Nelson CBL 1% 46 Nomura 1% 47 Guggenheim Capital 1% 48 Gleacher Shacklock 1% 49 Houlihan Lokey 1% 50 SEB 1% 51 Qatalyst Group 1% 52 Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria 0% 53 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu 0% 54 Dyal Co LLC 0% 55 CIBC 0% 56 Numis 0% 57 Banco BTG Pactual 0% 58 Mizuho Financial 0% 59 Banco Itau BBA 0% 60 Victoria Partners GmbH 0% 61 M Klein & Co LLC 0% 62 Scotiabank 0% 63 Raymond James & Associates 0% 64 Fenchurch Advisory Partners Ltd 0% 65 William Blair & Co LLC 0% 66 D'Angelin & Co Ltd 0% 67 ING Groep 0% 68 Goetzpartners Corporate Finance GmbH 0% 69 Rabobank 0% 70 Ondra Partners 0% 71 ABG Sundal Collier Asa 0% 72 Bradesco BBI SA 0% 73 Kempen & Co NV 0% 74 Studio Tributario Associato Facchini Rossi & 0% 75 Intesa Sanpaolo 0% 76 BMO Capital Markets 0% 77 Robert W Baird & Co 0% 78 Zaoui & Co LLP 0% 79 Carnegie 0% 80 VTB Capital 0% 81 Canaccord Genuity 0% 82 Clarksons Platou Securities 0% 83 Connaught UK Ltd 0% 84 Cantor Fitzgerald 0% 85 Daiwa Securities 0% 86 Svenska Handelsbanken 0% 87 China Renaissance Partners 0% 88 Samsung Securities Co Ltd 0% 89 ALANTRA 0% 90 Banca Leonardo 0% 91 BR Partners 0% 92 RGS Partners Assessoria em Fusoes e Aquisico 0% 93 TD Securities 0% 94 National Bank Financial Inc 0% 95 Lincoln International LLC 0% 96 Arma Partners 0% 97 PNC Financial Services Group Inc 0% 98 GCA Corp 0% 99 Allen & Co 0% 100 Blackstone Group 0%

 

Very different landscape and depends on the specific product e.g:

  1. Cash Equity
  2. Equity Financing
  3. Equity Derivatives
  4. Equity Structured
  5. Multi-asset Structured
  6. FX (spot and derivatives)
  7. Rates (and breakdowns)
  8. Credit (and HY, Dist)
  9. Structured FI
  10. Commodities (and break downs)

No one bank has "the best" markets division, but generally the US banks are strong in fixed income, the French in Structured Equity, etc, with massive polarisation between each. DB still has a lot of [revenue] market [/wallet share despite being a major source of concern.

Offshore liffe
 

FT recruiting isn't as obscenely accelerated as in the US - most firms open for applications the summer before you'd be starting, and can stay open until late October or even November (GS only closed for applications in December for FT 2019 recruiting). WRT to shifting up a firm, put in a lot of work this summer, which means you'll have a solid professional reference, and leverage that. Most firms recruit from their SA pool, but if you want to move then the fact you'll have an SA stint in IB is a huge bonus, as most banks won't recruit students without experience for a FT position.

 

I heard and experienced many people doing a SA and then moving for FT to a different bank. There used to be 'invite only' breakfast and events hosted from top tier bb banks for interns from other banks. This seems not to be the case in London anymore. For example, GS did these 4 years ago, but they do not do them anymore. I would say firstly focus on converting and receiving a full time offer from your bank. You can leverage this later when interviewing with other banks. There are two ways to go about it. 1) Officially apply in September - not likely that you will get far but I've seen people shopping around after receiving FT offer and ending up at a better bank. 2) Meet bankers and alumni for coffee during your internship from banks you are interested in (but be extremely careful) and leverage them after your internship ends and get interviews for specific teams through them.

 

Seriously concerned about the outlook for London given 1) the impact of Brexit, and 2) the prospect of a Labour government. Deal flow has sagged in recent months due to companies awaiting clarity on the outcome of Brexit negotiations, and banks have reduced hiring accordingly. I'm aware that several banks (MS, BNP, CS, etc.) have already moved parts of their DCM origination teams to Continental Europe, with more to follow should a no-deal scenario become reality.

Moreover, it's little secret that Labour's leadership despises the financial services industry and will likely inflict even more pain on the sector should they come to power.

It's a good time to be a banker in Frankfurt.

 
Leon Dragonov:
Seriously concerned about the outlook for London given 1) the impact of Brexit, and 2) the prospect of a Labour government. Deal flow has sagged in recent months due to companies awaiting clarity on the outcome of Brexit negotiations, and banks have reduced hiring accordingly. I'm aware that several banks (MS, BNP, CS, etc.) have already moved parts of their DCM origination teams to Continental Europe, with more to follow should a no-deal scenario become reality.

Moreover, it's little secret that Labour's leadership despises the financial services industry and will likely inflict even more pain on the sector should they come to power.

It's a good time to be a banker in Frankfurt.

Labour won't win a majority government even if they do get in, lifetime labor voters are saying they can't vote for a Corbyn government

 

I think this is an interesting point. I think the answer as to what happens after Brexit is actually no-one knows, other than that recruiting in IBD has indefinitely taken a hit. It will be interesting to see post-March if BBs will continue recruiting, and if so how they will go about it. I'm sure GS haven't put halts to their plans to build a new HQ in London...

 

I think that IBD will probably be the last division to be severely affected by Brexit regarding recruiting, especially M&A jobs seem secure for now. Simultaneously, I don't believe it is impossible that certain industry teams might be moved to other locations, e.g. Industrials to Frankfurt, or other groups where a specific bank doesn't have a lot of business in the UK.

 

IMO, DB looks incredibly strong in EMEA at the moment. The slim down of its operations on the other side of the pond should render an opportunity to focus on its home region and finally show the Yanks who's Kingpin of the Square Mile.

Personal Ranking of BBs atm: DB = GS = MS > JPM = BAML = Citi ... The rest

Disclaimer: Incoming IBD Summer Analyst at Deutsche Bank

 

What do you guys think about S&T in London? I will start applying for S&T summer internships at the end of next summer and I am pretty scared about the prospects for traders/quants/structurers in london. I know that for M&A you need to speak the local language, but does it apply to S&T too? e.g. may I recruit for frankfurt, paris speaking only english?

 

What is the overall take on EMEA M&A product groups in London like they exist at MS and BAML to my knowledge? While M&A is often the top group in the US, I have a hard time figuring out why those would be any good in London given that for most major markets you have established country coverage teams (at least at top 7 firms). If you have a local group that has the relationship and a sector team in London what is the job of EMEA/EU M&A teams? I doubt that they do the model. Is it only for markets where the bank does not have a local presence?

 

Afaik Morgan Stanley’s UK M&A team do the execution and modelling for relevant deals with very little coverage.

Meanwhile, Goldman and all the boutiques have sector teams which do the M&A execution and coverage with no pure M&A team.

 

Which would be the top UK coverage teams out out the below? (they do mix of equity, debt, m&a, broking for juniors)

  • GS, JPM, UBS, MS, Barc, BAML, Citi, CS
  • Exits opps from UK teams?
 

The list in my opinion should be: 1) GS, MS 2) PJT, JPM (PJT>JPM if interested in restructuring) 3) Lazard, Moelis, Evercore (all three also top for hedge funds especially if in restructuring at LAZ or Moelis. Plus all three have the great advantage of having a generalist pool which gets you great exposure to restructuring and M&A ans allows you to work on a great variety of deals, plus relatively easy mobility to the US if you want to transfer. Plus average first year bonus of 90% from what I have been told from friends)

BIG GAP

4) PWP, BAML, Rothschild, Credit Suisse 5) Citi, Greenhill, Centerview 6) DB, Barclays

BIG GAP

7)UBS, Jeffefries, HSBC, RBC 8) BNP, Nomura, Macquarie 9) MUFG, Mizuho

This list is for exit opps, in case you want to be a banker for life boutiques should be much higher because of the higher bonus and cash compensation. You do NOT want to have huge deferred compensation tied to the performance of the stock as most Investment banks have sideline stock prices and even huge declines as soon as a crisis hits. You want to be putting your money to work in a smart way such as real estate and possibly other investments rather than being massively overexposed to one super-cyclical investment. This is not my case, but if I wanted to be a banker for life I would definitely choose Moelis and Evercore over MS and JPM, possibly even GS depending on the group. The reasons are: -Faster promotion for super stars -Less bureocracy and compliance -Easier mobility to other offices -Much greater exposure to senior managers and clients -Higher compensation -Cash compensation rather than stock options

 

Again, stop posting this everywhere just because you start at Moelis. For PE, at least, the EBs haven't proven anything yet. RS below Moelis (and Evercore) is laughable given their track record of MF placement. Greenhill should be at 6th/7th. JPM is better than PJT. Evercore would probably in 4th line, Moelis in 5th.

 

When he thinks Moelis is top tier but he's gonna work on some £300mm sell side deal. Yes pay is good but dealflow isn't.

Agreed that on the Rx side they are quite good - although recently they have been slow compared to few years back.

Putting CTV with GHL is laughable. Is he gonna prove us that Gleacher is top tier too given that they sent one guy to King Street recently?

 
Controversial

Hey, no need to get that mad FZV_. I was polite in my first reply in my other discussion to you but seeing this other comment I will be honest about what I think about the whole situation and what I think about you. I do admit that I did receive an offer from Moelis and Lazard and so I may have a bias for EBs. In the end, I went for JP because I am just quite risk adverse (bigger brand name) and did not know for sure I wanted to do restructuring and thus JP was clearly the better option. TBH, lately I was feeling sort of insecure about my decision to go for JP as many of my friends were telling me I made a mistake and reduced my potential for earnings so I started posting those lists to see if anybody thought JP was below Lazard or Moelis but apparently nobody here thinks so which make me happy. On the other hand, you seem quite salty which is probably due to the fact that I placed your future bank (BAML/Citi) on 4th or 5th place where it belongs. I am sorry that your ACs with GS/MS that you were bragging about did not go as expected, but please refrain from boosting the name of BAML pretending it is what it used to be. As a recent article says: "Following a disappointing performance in 2018, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is said to be lining up layoffs in its investment bank in London. Three independent sources said BAML is planning cuts to its London corporate and investment bank later this week. The cuts could be substantial, with a focus on industry coverage and product teams, although there are also suggestions that what's coming will be no more than standard year-end trimming."

Feel sorry for you for not having gotten MS/GS as you hoped and for having had to settle. Good luck winning a return offer this summer given the situation, I will be watching you smiling as I start FT. When you do not get a return offer and are forced to apply for FT next year and will be forced to accept a position at BNP because that will be the best you get, you will be here stating BNP>Lazard and Moelis because they are "big and work on big deals" (without taking into account that what really matters are exit opps, brand, and comp). Please do not feel so insecure about your second tier BB bank and stop bashing every single comment I post.

P.S.= The fact that you think JPM is better than PJT makes me even happier; funny how your posts were meant to hurt me but only reinforced my decision and showed that you are insecure at your shitty BAML offer, or should I say BoFa since now they even removed the name Merrill Lynch (another thing you were concerned about in one of your posts).

Thank you for making me realize I made the right choice and good luck in getting a return offer at BoFa, otherwise you can always count on getting BNP FT next year ;)

P.S.= I am generally a very nice guy, this is unlike me

 

Berenberg is also getting stronger in London, especially with regards to ECM. Does not focus on M&A right now but already very established and reputable for ER and ECm. 

 

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