Thoughts on Northwestern Mutual Capital?
Invited to interview for their summer internship as an Investment Analyst. I've generally thought Northwestern Mutual does financial planning/life insurance, etc (which I'm definitely not interested in) but the investment arm seems to deal with private equity and debt financing.
Here's their company page (http://www.northwesternmutualcapital.com/index.ht…), $39B AUM
Anyone have any thoughts or experiences with them? Glassdoor pegs total comp. at $110-220K (which seems unreasonably high for an analyst position)
I don't know much about them but took a quick look at their website. This graph should give you a good sense for the type of work you would be doing: http://www.northwesternmutualcapital.com/asset-classes/nm-capital-asset…
FWIW, most firms with $39B AUM are going to be more of an asset allocator than a direct investor, though obviously it seems like that's at least part of the portfolio at NW Mutual
Thanks for the response. It seems to have a PE/LBO deal-making focus if I'm not mistaken, so I am a little hesitant since I come from a more quantitative background though it'd very cool to learn about this side of finance.
To kick off my career, would you recommend I look into smaller specialized shops like this or go with a similar position at a bigger firm (ie bulge bracket for IB, mutual fund for AM, etc)?
" It seems to have a PE/LBO deal-making focus if I'm not mistaken"
I actually don't think deal making will be much, if any, of the role (but obviously I could be totally wrong). This sentence in particular: "Over the past ten years, we have invested over $7.5 billion in mezzanine, preferred and common equity securities alongside more than 90 equity sponsors. As of June 30, 2016, Northwestern Mutual's mezzanine and equity co-invest portfolio had a market value of $3.8 billion (excluding our private equity fund investments)."
So I think other sponsors are leading the deals and NWM is co-investing (which isn't necessarily a bad experience, but just don't expect a standard PE role here).
I also don't think this role is smaller or more specialized (if anything, probably broader of a role). It's going to be similar to the roles at any sort of allocator of capital (fund of funds, pension funds, endowments, etc.)
Also to answer your second question, it just kind of depends on what you're looking for - it's not really big vs. small in this case. It's more of a question of what type of role you want. Like, you won't be doing any M&A here (or at least not leading these deals).
This is mostly investing in funds and co-investing alongside said funds. Not a direct / traditional PE investment role. Have to be careful with job descriptions. Just try to do your own diligence and look for news / articles to see if Northwestern or any other large asset managers are actually leading and executing their own deals (hint: they are not).
I also talked to a few people from there. They only do direct lending (mezz/senior) and pe co investments. Contrary to what everyone is saying, they do send quite a few people to PE.
So this isn't technically considered private equity? I'm planning on doing a little reading later tonight (don't know much about the industry), but so far it seems like they are co-investing in transactions that other PE firms carry out.
For example if a traditional PE firm structures a LBO into whatever company, these guys may help finance a portion of this buyout in return for a cut of the profits. Does this seem somewhat accurate?
Yes to reiterate whatledger123 said, they are primarily a direct lending company that also does private equity co-investments. So a debt shop. They way it was put, they have the ability to invest across the capital structure since they are backed by NWM. Now they also have another team that is a FoF that people were talking about earlier, but I only know about the 'private debt & equity' team.
Yes, it is NOT private equity.
Basically all the above. I found out about them last summer interning in NY and know they are developing a decent presence in the Infrastructure Realm. I believe they were a sponsor on a couple of projects I was working on which would make sense of the co-invest emphasis. As for traditional PE, probably not as much. It seems like they are mostly a debt shop when it comes to LBO's. This internship will probably give you experience with Infrastructure PE if anything.
If your set on M&A you probably won't get much exposure. I would try and get an internship at a decent boutique for IB (its pretty much too late for anything else) and try to hit recruiting for BB's during your internship. If you don't get any other offers you should take it. You can spin it on your resume if anything.
Received an offer for this internship role. Do you know whether you get to do a lot of LBO modeling and valuation? This would be my next year summer internship that I would use to recruit for IB, so I want to make sure if it has value or not. If it's completely different from PE and adds no modeling, I don't know if I should do it or not.
I know the NWM team well. They are a great group of people and they've had a number of junior folks go on to successful roles at other companies or top business schools, including HBS. They do a fair amount of debt as well as co-investing. While their co-invest is directly invested into the company, they rely on the sponsor to lead the due diligence process. The result is you will get less exposure than you would at a PE shop that is leading the deal, but it isn't a bad place to start your career by any stretch.
CompBanker do you know how accurate the compensation on glassdoor is? I agree with the poster that it seems unrealistic. Thanks
Received an offer for this internship role. Do you know whether you get to do a lot of LBO modeling and valuation? This would be my next year summer internship that I would use to recruit for IB, so I want to make sure if it has value or not. If it's completely different from PE and adds no modeling, I don't know if I should do it or not.
I second this. I have worked with NMC a decent amount. They not only invest in some of my firm’s funds as an LP, but they also directly invest in some of our portfolio companies alongside us as co-investors. Overall they’re some great guys and really enjoyable to work with.
As others mentioned, you won’t be “leading” the deal diligence process here since you are investing in a co-investment capacity, but you will still be diligencing the opportunity for NMC’s investment committee (just utilizing materials from the lead sponsor/agent). You can still get a lot of valuable experience - the deals they are investing in with us are middle market PE backed LBOs, so still great getting exposure to the PE industry, sponsors, management teams, diligence process, how to identify good investments, etc.
Also familiar with this company, I interviewed with them last year. Correct in that they almost exclusively co-invest. This means lighter analysis since they're relying on other firms to do that, more investments, less rigorous requirements to invest, etc. I would definitely take this over not doing PE if that's your goal though. Pays pretty good, seems like a great lifestyle and a nice team, and a solid resume builder.
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