Moelis, Evercore, Parella, Greenhill, Jefferies
Hey guys,
I'm attending CBS this fall, and plan to enter banking (should I be lucky to be given an offer), and wanted to ask you for your advice on boutiques.
I worked at a GS portfolio company and so I like the small(ish) feel of a company, and while the bulge brackets will retain their prestige, it seems like some boutiques are grabbing up considerable market share and bankers.
Looking at Moelis, Greenhill, Evercore, Parella, and Jefferies, how would you rank these banks? And are these banks (with the exception of Jefferies) large enough to have coverage groups, or do they have product groups? I'm just not sure what type of deals/work I'd expect at each of these firms and would really appreciate your insight.
Thanks again, and if you guys have questions about Bschool apps, etc, I'd be more than happy to help.
All of the firms you mentioned, with the exception of Jefferies, have a generalist model at the analyst/associate levels
Thanks for the quick response. I've never been in banking, so I'll be the first to admit that I don't know what the "generalist model" is. I'm assuming that's a rotational summer program.
It's not really a rotation, you just don't belong to a product/coverage group so you get to work on deals from different industries.
Thanks for the detail - I probably should have listened to my interviewer more carefully
On the contrary sir: For analysts at least, Jeff is a generalist program for the first year, then the analysts specialize in their second year.
There are so many threads about each of these banks. Right now, Evercore is the best of the above mentioned. Perella tends to not let recruiters in and you'll most likely stay in banking forever. Jefferies is growing extremely fast and has hired some great people, but I would still take Evercore, Moelis and Greenhill over Jefferies. Moelis also growing but we are unable to see their full capacity, I'd wait it out with them, even though they do some good deals. For M&A, you can't beat EVR/GHL.
How common is the jump from associate or summer associate at a bank to buyside? People here make it out to be impossible but I've seen a couple of associate to PE profiles at some great firms
One more question regarding Associate recruitment. When you're applying for an internship, can you choose which group (ie, Healthcare at BB or M&A at Boutique). Or is this determined on your sell day?
What are your thoughts
In the world of M&A , and I'm speaking as someone who is at the end of his analyst program in the M&A group at a Bulge Bracket, Perella Weinberg is by far the most prestigious of the names you've mentioned above. They work on the most high profile deals (there's probably a lot more, but off the top of my head I know recently they've done NYSE ($15bn+), Cargill ($24bn) Massey ($9bn), did the J.Crew and Del Monte LBOs, etc. etc.). The caliber of the top brass there is probably better than any other boutique out there, even Centerview. Jefferies is seen as more of a middle market chop shop, whereas the others mentioned here would be "elite boutiques", with PWP at the top of that list. Now I have no idea what you're trying to get out of it or what that means for you, but for what it's worth, that's how those places are viewed in the world of Bulge Bracket M&A.
Absolutely false.
perella is the place to be if you want to:
1) have your staffer kill you (timesheet with minimum of 100 hours worked; unheard of at any other top shop) 2) do a bunch of fairness opinion / special committee work while getting paid peanuts ($3-5 million, J Crew, Del Monte mentioned above as well as PBG and a bunch of other deals can't think of off the top of my head) 3) do a bunch of fairness opinion / special committee work while not being good at it (i.e. Del Monte) 4) take deal credit for doing nothing (Cargill - advised some trust; Rohm and Haas - advised Watchtell Lipton wtf?) 5) have no exit opportunities other than b-school 6) fail at transactions (Air Products / Airgas; Seagate, etc)
prescient1, you have no clue what you are talking about. From another top boutique, perella is not viewed in the same light as GHL / EVR / LAZ / BX / CVP
LOL, bitter much, bunkerbanker? If you'd have read my post more closely, you'd have seen I clearly provided a very explicit disclaimer that my view is strictly the word of mouth I've heard working in the M&A group of a BB. Obviously, boutique competitors such as yourself, will likely have a different, albeit clearly not objective, perspective on the matter. Like I said in my original post, that's how it is, whether that's right or wrong is not for me to decide and nor do I really care; take it for what it's worth.
What is Jefferies doing in the title?
HA! hope you're kidding though. JEF is doing well. also, they've been out of the public eye - no senior banker defections like CS and UBS no bad press like GS (still prestigious, but they just can't catch a break with the SEC shit)
overall, EVR is a great shop as are the rest, but for a Post-MBA, I'm going to argue that JEF is better - just as competitive with respect to pay,
based on colleague's experiences - commitment to grow associates into senior bankers, and just a lot of growth expected in the future. JEF is fighting to get bigger and has had success in bringing over some great bankers.
one thing i would find out about though is what kind of turnover/churn does JEF experience in its first year associates class vs. the other banks - that should allow you to read between the lines.
.. JEF is better than Evercore? o rly
Have you looked at the hires Evercore has made over the past few months? Jefferies doesn't even come close. There's nothing wrong with Jefferies as a company, but in terms of advisory they really only play in the middle market, and I think it's a huge stretch to suggest that it's a better place to be than Evercore at any point in your career.
evercore and ghl are two obvious choices when you are looking at pure advisory
pwp does a lot fairness and make their name on the newspaper that way, and you get killed working countless hours. good pay though
jef is a good company, but it's in the MM range. If you want to stay in MM (which is nothing wrong by any means), jef would be a pretty good choice and you do have the opportunity to concentrate/switch other product/industry sides as opposed to the generalist pool like what most evercore and ghl guys are (unless you are in LA, sf, boston, etc)
moelis is good in LA, the nyc group...not really. They have good placement for the LA office analysts though.
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