Are they recruiting at the moment? Lateral or general associate hiring?

 

No - I want to move into the software space and have decent colour on most of the main players except for Hg. Do you know anyone there?

 

Yes know one. Heard culture is not very good. Mostly buy and let it ride - don't get too involved

 

The strongest Software investor in Europe imo but the culture is absolutely horrendous, to the extent that headhunters warn you about it.

 

Recently spoke to someone there and they were quite surprised to hear about the feedback on culture from places like WSO. It was a pretty shitty place until several years back when they had a management overhaul, the firm seems to have improved quite a bit culturally since then. That said, they're looking to improve diversity numbers in their investment team

 

Know several people here across their three funds (Mercury, Genesis and Saturn).


Never heard of negative comments on culture bar that it is perceived as “nerdy”. They are extremely active on PF (not buy and let it ride) especially in their LMM/MM funds.

Pushing more growthier deals in areas they know well. 
 

They have made a bunch of hires recently (new funds) and are using Dartmouth Partners.

super solid returns & have just upped comp...

 

Thanks vccce - any idea what the comp was upped to for beginner / mid-level Associates?

 

Partners group is below the other two for sure. Between Hg and PAI it should mostly be tech only vs generalist PE that is driving your decision. Also note that withing Hg they have funds of very different sizes and targetting different asset sizes from LMM all the way to UMM, so depending on which fund your offer is for will impact you quite a bit. 

 

Thank you !

I was wondering I could estimate this myself without working in the industry ? For example, in the PEI Top 300 (Private Equity International) Hg is only #80, Partners Group is #50 and PAI #25 but you say Hg is better in reputation than Partners Group.

Also, would love to have your opinion about Astorg as they just raised a 5b$ fund. Are they on par with a fund like PAI ? 

 
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I work at Hg right now and have been there a year+. So weird to see these comments on bad culture - I would def say not the case, at least not right now. People are genuinely nice and you're encouraged to speak up. I won't say there's no bad apples, but those are very few and far between. The senior leadership team tends to churn those out pretty quickly. There was a management change a few years back. Nic H, Matthew B, Justin and Steve B who lead the firm now are awesome from my POV. 

Indeed we're nerdy and more of an introverted firm, so if you're looking to crush beers with the boys every Friday in a loud bar (whenever that's legal again), this is not the place for you. Yes, we do work hard, and have been especially busy since the end of the first lockdown with a bunch of exits and deal activity. Folks are encouraged to take vacation (you have 30 days p.a.) although admittedly I didn't really take all of them this year because of this darned pandemic... 

Compared to most firms, what I hear from my colleagues who've worked elsewhere is that we do a lot more of the DD in house - we're very analytical and tbh it fits me better than just reading a 200 page BCG report without even touching customers of the product you're about to buy. The portfolio team actually does real work with these companies, and especially the data team is a gem. 

My major con for the London team is that the office is at Tower Bridge. While it's a beautiful view, I'd much rather it were in Mayfair personally... Won't change anytime soon tho. 

 

Hey sorry it took me a while, I am really not on here much... Workload depends massively on whether you are on a live deal or not, and which workstream you work on. I think that's pretty typical of all firms, btw. I'd say during the final 2-3 weeks of a deal you'd end up with midnight-2 am's, unless you have the model workstream which is the only time I've done a 5 am. Outside of those, it can get busy at times, esp. if you are still prepping a deal, but it's generally manageable. They are trying real hard right now to fully protect weekends (senior folks not allowed to email you during the weekend if not live deal related). Sometimes this also means you're done real early, I had a few weeks in the summer when I was done at 3 pm and left the office, no eyelids batted. 

To sum up: really it's peaks and troughs, it can get quite crazy but people are trying to be protective of you when not on live deals. Also you get 30 days' vacation per year, which is a ton tbh - last summer a lot of folks, even most junior, took 3 weeks. 

 

Oh yeah, sorry and I forgot: 2-3 days in office / 2-3 days WFH. We're def on the more flexible side of the spectrum here. No one polices you so for all most people care, you can be a hermit and never leave your flat. You'd miss out on hanging out and learning tho! 

 

Super late here, sorry all - I guess too late to answer specific questions on interviewing since afaik we're done with recruitment in the London office for now. I think might still be going on for NYC / SF? Plus the odd associate we add here/there? We're trying to do a cohort thing in London with 10+ people starting at the same time post summer. It's nice to train joiners at the same time and do inductions at the same time. Then you also have a group of peers to hang out with and learn the ropes, much like in consulting/banking. 

We do recruitment mostly through referrals or recruiters, the usual suspects (the likes of Kea, Darthmouth, etc. - genuinely not sure who we've been using most recently). For Hg (and for any other firm you interview with tbh), do ask your consultant to give you a steer on what the structure of the process is like! I think we're still 2 rounds, with second round LBO. Focus is always for us commercial acumen as opposed to a complicated 20Mb model. Good luck!

 

Are there any concerns about upward mobility at the firm? The associate cohort sizes seem pretty large relative to the number of partners and principals there.

 

It is not something I am personally worried about. Every time I've wondered whether the layer above me was a little thick, within 6-12 months folks had either rotated into other funds or gone on to do different things. It's a growing firm in many respects - if you are good, you'll thrive no problem and/or get asked to take on new initiatives. 

 

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