I'm gonna SA at UBS in 2022. What groups should I try to target as the placement process takes place in the spring? Is the M&A group good? Those of you working at UBS rn, is there a hybrid model or have you guys been in the office like normal?
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Heard their sponsors group is decent
LevFin/Sponsors, TMT and Industrials. Not in any particular order, but TMT has won some big mandates- someone exited to Thoma Bravo.
Is TMT still currently good though? I heard the SF practice was essentially abolished and MD's have gone left and right?
Was speaking for NY TMT, not SF. SF is a different story- SVB pretty much gutted out their entire rolodex of MDs. UBS SF still not terrible - good degree of sponsor work with recent exits to Clearlake off the top of my head.
TMT also had ppl exit to KKR and CD&R recently as-well
The thing about that group though is that the majority of the MDs left to go to SVB Leerink in the spring. Future exits and deal experience will probably take a hit because of that
Sponsors and M&A are probably their stronger groups atm. TMT will probably take a couple years to re-emerge.
I feel like I’ve heard their Consumers group is pretty decent but not 100% sure
I've heard M&A is solid and has decent WLB? Any truth to that?
Industrials
None lmao
Current AN at UBS NY. Groups with most activity right now are LF / Industrials. LF is self explanatory - you will get a very structured experience and everyone works very hard but good culture. Industrials is known to be a tough group to be in but they are constantly announcing deals. TMT is being rebuilt with new MDs so currently the group is a little slow. M&A is small so you will have to network hard but decent modeling experience given M&A runs the models on live deals / big pitches.
Are you still working at UBS? 2022 UBS SA here. Appreciate the insight. What group are you working in currently? Is NYC TMT struggling as much as SF TMT then? Also someone from a different thread said most of the coverage groups run the M&A processes, so the M&A group actually has some of the best hours and doesn't have to do everything. Is that just untrue? I think I'm mainly going for the M&A, industrials, or TMT.
unfortunately most groups at UBS are pretty sweaty, with the sweatiest usually being sponsors (!), GIG, M&A (ECM got decked as well pretty recently, TMT in a previous life was brutal).
any of the groups you mentioned will be sweaty, I would just pick the one where you like the people the most/the sector you're most attracted to. I can't speak for TMT b/c turnover and haven't really gotten to know them, but M&A and GIG have good people that are easy to get along with.
Disregard my title - now on the buyside.
Working/worked on a quirky buyside deal with UBS with M&A, GIG and LevFin. Some of my observations are as follows:
1) firm is incompetent at transaction structuring - would not look at existing financing docs and give a view as to what is possible around capital structure, key terms etc - see 3 as well
2) lack of M&A leadership and advice on next steps, actually giving advice on what to do and on what schedule that you’d expect from an advisor.
3) LevFin not showing much leadership (I think it should be done by them to help the M&A guys on transaction structuring) regarding docs / Capital structure reads and also not willing to Underwrite alone the deal - granted this is not your usual sponsor LBO and UBS is not the top LF shop (JPM/BOFA) where they’d be more than happy to take down 100% of the levfin financing if they were given the chance to
4) Industry group seems fine, but sector we are looking at is not too complex so not really sure how to view their value
While this post has a fair bit of criticism - all 3 groups seem to be quite active and frankly more than I expected for UBS.
A few thoughts coming from someone who has been at UBS for a few years:
1) Disagree with this on the financing side, my guess is given the quirkiness of the deal and the fact UBS did not want to lead the financing and commit to 100% (this is driven by internal lending limits, Credit Suisse faces the same issue since both banks are extremely asset-light in their lending and the Swiss love to be conservative). UBS is a go-to shop for many sponsors specifically for the structuring and syndication capabilities in the high-max leverage space (virtually all financings are B3 / B).
2) If the deal was being led by the M&A team I am surprised LevFin was involved at all, must have been an extremely weird deal for both teams to be involved along with coverage. I can't really comment much on their value add as I was only involved in the TMT M&A deals with the prior SVB team (they did all M&A in-house and the M&A team itself was not involved).
3) Similar to 1) above, my guess is the full commitment wasn't plausible (especially given how active financings were this year, lending limits get tight very fast) so not surprised here, did another bank come in to lead it? If the bank isn't looking to lead it will generally wait a bit for another bank to lead the structuring discussions since we won't be able to drive terms much.
4) Generally agreed. A few seniors in GIG really know their niches well, but the extent of involvement varies pretty significantly based on the banker.
Hey, thank you for your insight. Just curious - how hard is it for someone in ST in UBS NY to transfer over to IB?
How did ubs lose their tech team? Not paying the mds enough?
FIG and Healthcare are horrible with next to 0 deal flow. Just lateraled out as an associate.
Thanks for the insight. What groups did you see that had good deal flow? Consensus I'm seeing here is industrials/sponsors are the safest bets. Any info on consumer retail?
CPR is bad now. 0 deal flow; relying on sponsor financings. Just a bunch of jokers from DB before they all get fired
Consumer banker
I’ve never seen UBS across a single deal
I would endeavor to be with LevFin or M&A. LevFin does well across the street and M&A is decent with good modelling exposure. TMT NY is one of the better teams within UBS but only does just ok compared to the big hitters with other banks. Source from multiple friends who all left recently
Thank you much appreciated. Does M&A get to do most of modeling or do many of the industry groups handle it in house? How was GIG thought of as? Heard it's also a strong group but culture and hours are pretty bad. Seems like I'll try to shoot hardest for M&A because I'm not particularly interested in industrials tbh and TMT seems to be restructuring with lots of new MD's and SF practice getting gutted to SVB
Not sure if M&A does modelling for all groups but friends told me they have lots of exposure. GIG culture is tough but solid deal flow but I can't comment specifically as I don't know much about them, I also agree with what you say about TMT. Do you have a preference for industry or product?
Sponsors / LevFin is the top group at UBS and has been for some time now. I would guess >75% of the deals at the bank are originated through the sponsor relationships. At the junior levels (AN / AD) the group is effectively combined (though some juniors are specifically designated FS vs LF, only really means anything if you plan to stay at the bank long-term). Juniors hold pen on all LBO and financing models.
In the world of PE financings UBS is actually fairly consistently a top 5 bank, and always in the top 10. Check Bloomberg league tables for B3 / B rated financings before hitting me with monkey sh*t, you will be surprised. UBS does not typically lead the mega-LBO's (you will always see GS/JPM/MS lead those since they have a much bigger BS and lending limits. That being said, you will absolutely crank out transactions in the group - by the time most AN2s leave you are likely north of 20+ closed financings (not including repricings and A&Es).
TMT is being rebuilt pretty quickly, I wouldn't be too concerned if you are an incoming SA. Essentially all the senior seats have been replaced since the SVB exodus.
Do you currently work at UBS? You seem to know a good amount so just curious. Does sponsors get to do a good amount of M&A, or is it mainly just financing?
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