I am a sophomore recruiting for SA positions in IB. I prepared a walkthrough of a deal in the industry group I am targeting. However, does this deal have to be specific to the bank I am applying for? If so, I would have to prepare 15+ deal walkthroughs in total, which would be super difficult for me to write and memorize in a reasonable amount of time. Is it okay to pitch a deal to them that their bank did not work on?
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Walk me through a deal doesn’t mean the same as walk me through a deal that analysts usually get in buy side interviews. As a sophomore it’s sufficient to describe the parties involved in the deal (buyer/seller), the reason why the deal makes sense (buyer is looking to expand into new geographies, achieve revenue synergies, seller wants to enter their product into new distribution channels etc.), and its potential impact on the industry (does this deal significantly decrease competition?). It’s fine if your answer is from a birdeyes view because it’s likely the only metric available to the public at the time is the value of the deal overall. As an analyst recruiting for the buys use, you’d ideally see how a deal progresses from beginning (bake offs, go-to-market strategy) through the end (diligence/LOI/Merger Model structuring) and you will have a much better sense of the financial engineering done behind the scenes as well.
Thank you! My question though is does the deal I walkthrough have to be a deal that the bank I am interviewing for specifically worked on? Because in that case I would have to prepare a separate deal for every bank I apply to.
Oh absolutely not - I’d just have the deal be industry relevant (for coverage groups) for generalist M&A groups you’d be fine picking any deal you’d like.
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