Mergers & Acquisitions: What You Do Every Day
One question I’ve been getting lately is, “What do you actually do in XYZ group at a bank?”
And since everyone still wants to be in Mergers & Acquisitions, “M&A” is the most commonly requested group.
I had assumed that if you found a site like this, you would just naturally know what you do in each group.
But I was wrong – because I keep getting this question over and over.
So today, we’ll delve into this and answer definitively the following question:
What do you actually do in Mergers & Acquisitions?
Pitching vs. Execution
There are 3 things you do as a junior investment banker: pitching for deals (going to a prospective client and making a long presentation that says, “WE’RE GREAT, HIRE US!”), executing deals (taking a client to potential buyers and saying, “BUY OUR CLIENT, PLEASE!”), and completely random stuff that has nothing to do with anything (when your MD calls you to pick up his dry cleaning, for example).
Generally, you do more of the “execution” part in M&A and less of the pitching / random stuff.
You might think that would make your life less mundane, but that’s not quite true –there’s a lot of grunt work no matter what you do.
In M&A, the grunt work is more of the “Update our conversations with each buyer in this really long spreadsheet” variety rather than the “Make our bank #1 for EVERYTHING!” variety that you get when “crafting” pitch books.
The Role of the Executioner
If you’re working in an M&A group, there are two types of deals you’ll work on: sell-side M&A deals and buy-side M&A deals (executing your enemies is an entirely different line of work best left to Patrick Bateman).
Sell-Side M&A Deals
These happen when a client comes to you and says, “We want to sell our company and make a lot of money – can you help us?”
Sometimes they know who they want to sell to – while other times they have absolutely no clue and they are desperately seeking a means to avoid embarrassment or continuing to run the company.
If a private equity firm owns the company, the PE firm pulls all the strings and decides when to sell; otherwise, the Board of Directors is in charge (not the management team – except for the CEO, who may have some input).
Another common motivation to sell lately has been, “Help! We’re about to go bankrupt and cause a massive black hole to form in our wake – can you save us before we go belly-up?”
This is called a “distressed sale” and although it’s technically an M&A deal, it works a bit differently – so we’ll come back to it in future articles.
Buy-Side M&A Deals
In these deals, the client comes to you and says, “We want to buy a company. Can you help us do it / help us finance it?” (Most often they only care about the last part).
Sometimes they know exactly what they want to buy, or are already in discussions with the seller; other times they have no clue and just want you to search hundreds of companies for them and do all the work while they sit back and contemplate how to proceed.
This happens all the time with huge conglomerates where it takes 18 months to decide how to allocate the paper clip budget; smaller companies move more quickly, but they are also less inclined to acquire other companies in the first place – especially in the current market.
Lock Onto Your Target
So what do you actually do, and how does the entire process work?
It depends on whether the transaction is targeted (the buyer and seller are already talking, or they are focused on just 1 buyer/seller) or broad (they want to be shown to a large group of potential buyers or they want to look at a big group of potential acquisitions).
With a broad process, you go out to lots of different buyers/sellers and try to get interest from as many as possible – and then you run some kind of auction to get the best price possible for your client (in a sell-side deal, anyway).
When it’s targeted, you’ll still try to get bids from other parties (or multiple potential acquisitions lined up if it’s a buy-side deal), but there is less “process” work and more negotiating and back-and-forth with one party.
There’s always some overlap, and one type of deal can easily turn into the other.
When you’re dealing with huge ($10B+ market cap) companies, you’re more likely to see targeted processes because the pool of feasible buyers and sellers is very small; but when you’re representing a smaller company, or a private equity-owned company, it’s more likely to be a broad process.
Ok, But What Do You Actually Do As an Analyst or Associate?
As you might have surmised, there are 4 types of deals: targeted sell-side, broad sell-side, targeted buy-side, and broad buy-side.
Unless you want to read 30,000 words, I can’t go into each one in an extreme level of detail – but here’s a quick summary:
Targeted Sell-Side
In this type of deal, the buyer and seller are usually talking – and your role as an investment banker is to get a higher price for your client.
How do you do this?
Well, you can try to argue really hard with the buyer and make some nasty threats. But that doesn’t work well unless you have actual leverage – namely, an offer from another party.
90% of the time with a targeted sell-side deal, you go out quickly and stealthily to a small number of other buyers and attempt to get a better offer on the table. So here’s what you’d do as an Analyst/Associate (usually the Analyst does the work and the Associate checks the work):
1. Make a short (5-10 pages) summary of your client’s key selling points (“Executive Summary”).
2. Watch while the senior bankers (usually the Managing Director) call the small set of potential buyers they’ve thought of or already know.
3. As they get back to you, you update a spreadsheet with their responses and send it out in periodic updates to your client. When the (new) buyers ask for material (“due diligence requests”) you send them what you have.
4. Meanwhile, you try to keep the original buyer at bay and give the illusion that nothing deceptive is going on – and you process their due diligence requests: the buyer asks for something, and you have to go through your client’s poorly organized files, find it, and then send it… or beg for it if it’s not there.
5. The senior bankers give the buyers you’ve contacted “a deadline” and to see if they can get a superior offer from any of them – if they get one, they then bring it to the original buyer and say, “We have another, better, offer – pay up or else!”
6. If your team manages to get multiple offers, the bankers lock the buyers in a bidding war until someone emerges victorious and proceeds with acquiring your client.
7. If not, your team continues talking to the original buyer and they try to negotiate improved terms (sometimes the buyer will cave on terms like reps and warranties and treatment of options, if not the price).
What type of work would you actually do as a junior banker in this kind of deal?
1. Update the buyer list with notes on what’s happening and the latest news. This is probably your most important duty.
2. Process due diligence requests from the buyers – this means you look for stuff when they ask for it, and if you don’t have it, you then ask your client for it… and then you get it, and send it back to the buyers. Efficiency at its finest!
3. Occasionally you’ll do some valuation and modeling work – most often you do this to “justify” what your MD thinks your client is worth, or to show how the acquisition would instantly double the buyer’s EPS. The numbers and modeling work you do here are somewhere between “complete lies” and “creative non-fiction.”
There’s less technical work than you might have expected – that’s just how banking is.
Despite all the hoopla over “learning financial modeling,” you don’t spend the majority of your time doing any kind of modeling work – even in a more technical group, like M&A.
And yes, I realize the irony of this statement given that I just released a financial modeling course – but it’s the truth.
Broad Sell-Side (Auction)
This is not too different from the targeted sell-side deal above. The main difference is that you go out to a broader group of potential buyers, and you do it much earlier on – you don’t wait until you have a potential buyer at the table first. Here’s a quick outline:
1. Meet with client and develop “marketing” materials. Every bank and group is different, but usually these consist of a “short” document (usually called an “Executive Summary”), a longer document (“Confidential Information Memorandum” or “Offering Memorandum”), and a PowerPoint presentation (“Management Presentation”).
2. Depending on the deal and client, you may develop your own operating model for it showing where the revenue and expense numbers in each year come from. You might also do a valuation as backup material in case the question of price arises.
3. Once you’ve finished at least some of the marketing materials, your team starts approaching the potential buyers – usually the senior bankers and client come up with this list, but sometimes you get to “contribute” (i.e. they tell you “Go find more buyers in such-and-such category”).
4. As the potential buyers start expressing interest, you execute NDAs (“Non-Disclosure Agreements” – this means sending a Word document back-and-forth until everyone stops arguing) and pass along information requests – usually the buyers want to see your client’s financial details, more about its products/services, and more on its customers.
5. At some point you set a “bidding deadline” and the interested buyers must submit bids with their prices and other terms. Usually the “other terms” are not well-defined at this stage.
6. The senior bankers and your client pick “the winners” (mostly based on price if it’s the first round), and they advance to the next round of bidding.
7. At each round, you share more and more information with the potential buyers, and narrow down the list. This can last for many rounds, but 2 rounds is probably the most common – more than that gets excessive, even for Patrick Bateman.
8. When bidding is over, the “winner” emerges and your team negotiates the purchase agreement that spells out details of how your client will be acquired.
So it’s not too much different from the targeted sell-side process, but it is more drawn out – you create more marketing materials, speak with more buyers, and do a lot more administrative work.
It’s hard to say whether there’s more or less modeling work; I would say there’s more administrative work and more modeling work, so basically there is just more work in general.
Targeted Buy-Side
A targeted buy-side deal is almost the same as a targeted sell-side deal, except you don’t go out and solicit bids from other potential buyers… since you’re representing the buyer.
In many targeted buy-side deals, a bank is close to useless – because no matter how well your MD can “negotiate,” ultimately the seller has all the leverage.
In most targeted buy-side deals, the bank’s true role is to provide the financing. Here’s what a typical process might look like:
1. Client contacts your MD and asks him to represent them in an acquisition.
2. Your team goes in to “analyze” the situation and provide recommendations – these recommendations usually come in the form of how much they should pay for the seller and what kind of terms they should negotiate for – as well as what the financing should look like (how much debt they should use, the number of tranches, interest rates, etc.).
3. As a result, you as the junior banker will most likely do a valuation of the seller and a merger model for the combined entity.
4. In the background, your team starts communicating with the Leveraged Finance team and sending them information on the buyer and seller to see what kind of debt they could provide (Note: In the current market environment debt issuances don’t really happen except for small deals).
5. Most of the value your bank provides lies in the financing – so your team spends a lot of time communicating with the company telling them about the terms and advising them on what price they should push for.
6. If all goes well, the deal goes as planned and your client acquires the other company using the debt that your bank has raised.
Sometimes your bank doesn’t actually do a financing – in that case, you mostly just do valuations of the buyer and seller, and create “updates” showing what the acquisition would look like at different prices.
For a truly targeted buy-side deal, you do less administrative work because you are only tracking discussions with one party – the seller. There is some back-and-forth with the Leveraged Finance team as they request information, but it’s way less than in sell-side deals.
You’ll notice that I did not give much detail on the debt process, and that is because as an M&A banker you are usually not too involved with this.
Broad Buy-Side (Complete Waste of Time)
Otherwise known as a complete waste of time, a broad buy-side “deal” (and I use the term “deal” loosely) happens when a company – usually a large one – comes to you and says, “We want to acquire… something. Help us find it.”
So here’s the process:
1. Client comes to you with a vague idea of what they want.
2. You, as the junior banker, dig through mounds of information, research, and internal databases to locate potential acquisitions.
3. You create detailed “profiles” for each potential acquisition, and then show them to your client.
4. They give a vague response, and/or tell you to look for a completely different type of company.
5. You continue to pore through research and information, looking for the needle in the haystack – the one company that they might actually want to acquire.
6. This cycle continues indefinitely until your client decides that they actually want to speak with one of the companies you’ve found and/or possibly acquire them at some point in the future (the bigger your client, the longer and more painful this process is).
You’ll notice that I don’t have a “conclusion” here, and that’s because most broad buy-side deals turn into long, drawn-out processes that never go anywhere.
You will also notice that I have almost nothing about any technical work – and that’s because you very rarely do any “modeling” for this type of deal.
Sometimes, you may do a quick and simple valuation of one of these potential acquisitions or you might run a merger model to show what the combined entity would look like.
But you spend most of your time looking for that needle in the haystack – so it’s not a very fun process for you, unless you love to search through databases and read research.
I recommend that you stay far, far, away from these types of deals and gravitate toward sell-side M&A and targeted buy-side M&A.
Most senior bankers also know that broad buy-side processes are a waste of time, so they rarely take them on unless they’re doing someone else a favor (which is usually why they happen in the first place, of course).
Murders & Executions
So that is what you actually do in Mergers & Acquisitions: administrative work, research, sending updates to your team, and occasionally running some models in Excel.
If you’re really lucky and your deal actually closes when you’re still at the bank, you might also get to go to the closing dinner, which is the most fun part of the entire process.
Break Into Investment Banking
Free Access to Exclusive Content for Members Only!
Sign up for The Banker Blueprint today and enjoy:
- Free Report: 37-page guide with the action plan you need to break into investment banking - how to tell your story, network, craft a winning resume, and dominate your interviews.
- Exclusive emailed bonus material.
- Free Banker Blueprint newsletter with more in-depth advice.
- Unlimited access to all articles, videos, and advice - and free updates whenever new content is added to the site.
Great article as usual, thanks!
What are your thoughts on working on IPOs relative to M&As?
My boutique specializes in IPOs which is obviously suicide in today’s market.
Generally worse because you do not do much in the way of technical work aside from valuations and basic IPO proceeds models. PE firms also much prefer people with M&A/Debt/LBO experience, though it’s not the end of the world if you want to move into something other than PE.
Great post!
Glad to hear you will be doing more of these *fingers crossed for DCM*
Solid post explaining the types of M&A transactions. Considering that the rare transactions i have been on have been targeted sell side how can i leverage that experience to get a PE/HF job? I can build LBOs (one pagers in about 45 mins) but the down side is that my company does not have a strong M&A showing. Also i know much less about HFs so is there another site like M&I dedicated to that? Thanks for all the awesome info, definitely much more informative than random blog sites
Does anyone know anything about good or bad groups for banking at UBS?
UBS is going down, stay away at all costs! M&A is always a good bet, so is healthcare with a poor economy… they don’t really do restructuring or I’d recommend that
there is almost no useful information about finance on the internet, and hedge funds are very secretive so I don’t know of any good resources there.
your transactions are fine… the key thing with buy-side recruiting is meeting all the headhunters… I wrote an article on PE recruiting a few months back that you should review. It has 100% to do with your relationships with recruiters and very little to do with your modeling skills… and deal experience is only helpful assuming you know the recruiters and have access to the right channels.
would love to learn more about FIG
agree… it would be great to hear about FIG!
great article, thanks!
I’ve got 3 questions:
Why do they ask so many technical questions in the interviews, if it’s not that important? In your IB-questions-pdf (which helped a lot btw ;-)) half of the 88 pages consist of technical q&a’s
Do you get more technical modelling work at the Associate level?
Or do you focus more on negotiating/rainmaking the higher you move in the hierarchy?
thanks!
My opinion after interviewing and working at a bank is the following .
1. They ask technical stuff to basically see if you really know what you’re getting into / interested in the job. Anyone can divide an enterprise value by sales or calculate a wacc. But knowing all these things shows you did your homework which means you are hardworking.
2. Associates do a lot of checking work, they arent supposed to model but do at times, and are more focused on going into a space from my experience IE: software, hardware, semicnductors instead of “tech”. Also they begin reading a lot more about the space and begin attending meetings more frequesntly. Until you’re a VP you dont source.
3. Yes rainmaking is VP+. VP’s arent expected nearly as much to make it rain but an MD would. Hence higher bonused for MD’s becuase they brought in the revenue.
Yeah I don’t have too much to add here. Basically they want to see who puts forth the effort to actually learn all that stuff, it’s a way for them to weed out less serious people.
Associates mostly check work and sit in meetings without saying anything.
There is honestly very little “technical” work to begin with in the industry – despite what you might have heard. Yes, there is some technical skill involved but the degree to which it matters is greatly exaggerated.
And yes, you focus more on bringing in deals the higher you move up. To advance to MD you basically need to bring in a certain amount of revenue / clients to “prove” yourself.
Hi,
I have a quick question regarding qualifications. Am about to start as an Analyst in June and I was wondering if there were any qualifications (CFA, CIMA, etc.) that would be worthwhile and help me with a) my career progression and b) biz school or PE transitioning.
Thanks
Short answer is no as IB/PE do not care about any of that. It’s only help for dramatic career changers.
Awesome. Thanks for the response. Was just worried as alot of people in the City right now seem to be taking the CFA or the CAIA. Not sure if that was a trend or just a one off occurrence because of quiet times.
thanks for your answers, Exit2010 and M&I!
How would you rank Haas business school and the likeliness to land an I-banking job upon graduation?
It’s a good school, definitely in the top 10. Likeliness to get an i-banking job is 100% dependent on your background and previous work experience… school only gets you interviews. If I had to pick a number, though, I’d put it at around 27%.
Hello again,
What are your thoughts of joining RBS M&A investment banking in Asia now?
I supposed it would be safe considering the government’s backing and more risk adverse going forward.
I don’t know much about RBS, but I think it’s fairly solid… I don’t know how strong they are in Asia specifically but it is certainly a better move than staying somewhere where you might be forced out (that’s what your situation was IIRC).
I’ll also add that you will end up doing a significant amount of legal research if these M&A deals involve foreign companies – or if we’re advising on foreign companies being sold to US. Some interesting regulations exist…
Yup this is very true, though I always tried to make the lawyers handle that…
Hello, M&I! Thank you for your site!
What technique could you recommend for developping attention to detail for a 1st year IB analyst? So many mistakes appear everywhere in my work despite hours of checking.
Thank you!
When I did my first SA stint, I personally made a checklist of places that I made mistakes on. Everytime I would make a mistake, I would add it to the list. Later, I referenced the list before submitting/emailing my work.
After about a month, I made minimal mistakes – mistakes that would only be noticed by really anal analysts and associates in which case I made sure I was being anal before submitting to them.
I have terrible attention to detail so don’t go by me, but one thing that helps a lot is printing out everything before showing it to anyone… also run it by other Analysts before you do anything as well and they will often find your mistakes.
Then, as Tommy said, make a list of your common mistakes and run through them each time before you print anything / give documents to people.
Yup this is very true, though I always tried to make the lawyers handle that…
I have terrible attention to detail so don’t go by me, but one thing that helps a lot is printing out everything before showing it to anyone… also run it by other Analysts before you do anything as well and they will often find your mistakes.
Then, as Tommy said, make a list of your common mistakes and run through them each time before you print anything / give documents to people.
Hello again,
Do you have any tips off hand on how to best present my brief 1 year IPO experience for an M&A application? I was involved in the late stage of a successful IPO that mainly involved producing the regulatory documents and prospectus. Zero modeling involved.
I would just state what you did and point out how you were highly involved with due diligence and other parts of the IPO process – they know there’s no modeling involved with IPOs. More important to be honest and tell them about the client interaction / DD work you did.
Hi again,
Thank you for being very patient in your helpful replies.
I have another question :-
Despite the obvious differences in work scope and possible paths between Transactional advisory services at a Big 4 and an analyst in an IPO boutique, do you have any comments or thoughts on choosing between the 2 paths? Assuming I don’t have a fix career goal apart from driving a Porsche before I hit 30.
I really don’t aside from the obvious. Personally I think IPOs are really boring to work on, though pretty much everything in banking starts to look the same after awhile until you get to the MD level.
You might want to get a different goal, though, because the “coolness” of having a Porsche wears off after about a week.
I’ve seen you mention this in other places too….why do you think IPOs are boring work?
Not good to discuss in interviews (little story to tell), also little modeling / technical work so working in ECM limits what you can do afterward
This is an excellent article.
I have not come across such a comprehensive and accurate description of what an analyst ACTUALLY does previously – really gives the readers an insight into how time consuming, often mundane, and sometimes boring M&A can actually be….
Thanks! Yeah, people often think M&A involves rocket science but it’s 90% administrative stuff…
So, if you were to bring up some of the mundane stuff in an interview when asked “what are you expecting to do as an analyst”, what you get points for actually knowing what your going to do or well you be penalized for not glorifying banking?
I would spin it in a more favorable light… give an overview of what bankers do, then explain what the analyst helps out with.
I’ve heard that M&A is more strenuous (high-octane, longer hours) than Capital Markets, but the bonuses are higher. Is this true, and are the differences proportional (ie. are the hours only slighter worse in M&A, but the bonuses a lot better)? Is DCM generally considered less sexy/competitive than ECM?
At the Analyst/Associate levels I don’t think there is much of a difference in terms of bonuses. “Tiers” are generally set for the entire firm rather than by specific groups. Hours are probably longer in M&A though.
Actually DCM is probably better than ECM because you learn something about debt, which is useful for private equity, as opposed to ECM where you mostly work on IPOs.
This is such a great article. I have been waiting to find an article that gives a more practical description of M&As for a while.
I am completing a JD/MBA at a school in the top 40 (I know, I wish it were a top 10 school), and I am hoping to land an summer associate position at a bulge bracket. Based on what a previous comment said, what advice do you have for someone in my position to leverage my JD and make me a more attractive candidate? Also, do you have any advice on how I could differentiate myself in front of I-bankers at a career fair (I know getting a job from that is a long shot)?
Thank you and I appreciate the time you put into responding and posting articles on your site.
Just talk about how you have an even more in-depth understanding of M&A / Securities because you know it from the legal side as well and can interface with lawyers more effectively than the typical bankers.
To differentiate yourself from others, be a normal person – too many people try way too hard to “sound smart” or brag at these types of events, and it always backfires. You want to be the guy that all the bankers want to speak with and hang out with rather than the annoying person who keeps talking about himself/herself.
This is EXACTLY what I do…mostly broad sell-side and targeted buy-side, though. I’m glad I’m getting a decent experience.
Hey, really helpful site, and getting pretty popular at Dartmouth. Could you explain to me why I’d prefer to work in equity/debt capital markets over industry coverage? Also why I’d rather work in industry coverage than equity/debt capital markets? In terms of stuff like skills needed, skills learned, hours, exit options. Thanks
Equity/debt capital markets may have slightly better hours and are more “markets-based” if that appeals to you. Industry has more intense hours, but arguably better pay and exit opportunities because you work on more actual deals, as opposed to compiling data, following the markets, etc.
M&I,
First of all I wanted to thank you for this great post, it really clarifies a ton for people who haven’t worked in an investment bank. I wanted to ask you about a certain career move I’ve been contemplating recently. I’m currently in a rotational corporate finance role with a large defense company but am mainly looking to break into M&A (took the job out of school because I had nothing else lined up). I graduated from a top 50 university and have the opportunity to work in the M&A group at my company. How can I leverage this into a possible M&A job with an investment bank a year down the road? Should I look for groups that are involved in Aerospace & Defense (Jefferies Quarterdeck or Lazard)? Is an MBA going to be almost necessary for me to make this move? I appreciate any insight you might be able to offer.
Yeah, focus on the same industry and do a lot of networking. MBA is not necessary though it would definitely help. Try networking after you’ve been there for a year + have deal experience first, gauge reaction, and then keep at it or go for an MBA.
Hi M&I,
A bit off-topic but I have the opportunity to intern at JP Morgan PEFS (Public Equity Funds Services in the Worldwide Securities Services Division) and a relatively small boutique investment bank focused on M&A in the tech sector. I am not too certain of what I may want to do in the future but I do know that I want to break into Investment Banking because I believe that the best chance is right now, when I am still an undergrad.
What is your advice. I go to a target school but my GPA is definitely not the best. Would interning at the boutique help me in the long run? Thanks!
Depends on how far along you are in school… if this is your last year before FT recruiting I would do JPM, otherwise if its earlier I would go for the boutique.
I am currently in the spring semester of my Junior year, so this is for a spring internship. Why would you suggest JPM over a boutique if you don’t mind me asking? Thanks a lot!
Eh if it’s a spring internship and not summer I might actually go with the boutique, assuming that you will be doing something different for the summer.
thanks, but whats the reasoning behind ur advice?
Brand-name matters more the older / more experienced you are… whereas if you’re relatively early on it’s better to get any type of finance-related experience you can so that you can leverage it for internships / jobs elsewhere in the future.
hey sorry to bring up old news, but it turns out that the JPM job is back-office/middle-office
“provides middle and back office outsourcing of fund administration services such as fund and partnership accounting, tax support and comprehensive reporting services to private equity firms and limited partners.
Even knowing how IBD frowns upon back/middle office, should i still go with JPM because of brand-name?
Thanks so much for your help! You’re a life-saver
if its really a back or middle office role i would go with the boutique instead
I have done Project Finance (PF) in Middle-East with U.K. commercial bank for about three years at an Associate level and have engineering background. I do not want to go into M&A due to long-hours.
What else can I do besides Project Finance? What kind of firms should be targeting? Big 4 have PF teams, so also PE has active Infrastructure funds. But, breaking in such PE firms is very tough.
Another venture is Leverage finance groups with commercial banks but market for debt is still dull.
I just moved to Canada from Dubai and still trying to understand the market here. I have education from U.S. universities but worked only as engineer in U.S. all PF experience is outside U.S.
Currently, I am just getting Equity research positions in the market. Does Equity research lead to better positions in future.
What else is out there in Debt capital markets?
Would highly appreciate your feedback.
Manish
Besides PE, LevFin and DCM are your best bet. You could also go to smaller PE firms that invest in infrastructure, but that’s about it unless you want longer hours.
Equity research is possible, but if you do that you will be more limited to hedge funds in the future.
How does JPM stack up against MS and GS nowadays?
I am particularly interested in how their M&A, Natural Resources, and SLF (LevFin) groups rank on the street (league tables can be deceiving)
Thank you!
JPM is probably better than MS and almost on-par with GS these days. Groups you mentioned are good.
What are some of the pros and cons of doing a JD/MBA program vs just an MBA for entering finance from an engineering management background?
Thanks
I don’t really think a JD/MBA program adds any value over just an MBA program. Most bankers do not deal with much of anything legally, so the only area where it would add value is if you want to work in Restructuring, where the legal framework is more important. It’s not worth the added time and expense unless you go there.
Could you provide any recent information about the groups at UBS? I’m in the process of choosing a group for summer analyst IBD and I am mainly between putting M&A, industrials, or energy as my top picks. Thank you!
I don’t comment on specific groups because they change a lot and I would have to spend hours each week just updating that information.
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-summer-analyst-group-selection/
Hey M&I,
Thanks for your excellent posts. Hopefully you can answer my question: I want to get into M&A post my MBA (starting this fall in top5 bschool). But I do not have any relevant M&A or finance experience before MBA. What I do have is that my firm has been involved in a major divestiture, a major acquisition and a major merger in last few years. I have experienced the impact of those events at engineering level (change of customer priority, change in product offerings, issues with cultural integration etc) but was not involved in financial aspects. Do you think there is any way to spin the experience better for my resume to M&A positions?
Sure, just say that you’ve experienced the impact of major M&A deals and that’s what made you curious – your “finance spark.” It’s hard to convey on your resume but you could easily spin it for interviews / cover letters / networking.
Hey M&I,
Currently i am working in a boutique IB(India), in Infrastructure coverage group. We handle the M&A and PE internally and forward the ECM and PF related deals to respective product groups.
I want to move into a M&A group in another bank (we dont have separate product group here..). How should i go about it? I have just joined this bank and this is my 1st job post MBA.. Would my limited experience (in terms of exposure to number of sectors.. only infra) would be a problem… My ultimate goal is to break into PE…
Also, can you suggest any good M&A groups in India or Middle East.
I would wait until you’ve been there a year and then start contacting headhunters, networking with alumni, and cold-calling banks. With a year of experience you can move elsewhere. I don’t know much about groups in India / the Middle East but you may want to ask on WallStreetOasis and see if anyone there can help.
Hi AJ,
I am a recent Management Post graduate from one of the TOP Business schools in Europe and looking to break into IB could be Bulge or Boutique in INdia. Appreciate if you could suggest me few names or any other related information in that regards.
BTW which IB you r working at?? Thanks in advance and best of luck for your future hunt.
hey MAIB,
I guess you should target the banks in India who have a good IB team. Some good names that come to my mind are – Kotak Mahindra , ICICI, Axis (recently acquired a good boutique – Edelweiss cap). All these are Indian banks, you can obviously target the MNCs who have rather smaller teams out here.
- AJ
M&I,
Just want to recognize your efforts in responding to basically every single comment posted. Either IB analysts like yourself do not really work that much (hehe) or you are really good at time management.
Congrats on another good, informative article.
5 minutes per day of batch processing… this site was written over the course of years, which you can’t see since I’ve removed dates.
Great Post M&I
I have an upcoming phone interview with a BB and I have done some research on the person who is going to interview me so I know his position, interest as well as past working experience. How should I bring this up in the interview to make me lot good in terms of having done some research but not portraying yourself as a stalker?
Thanks
Don’t ask directly about his past experience – just use it to frame your questions. So if he worked on a major deal in a certain industry, instead of asking directly about it, say, “So have you worked on any deals in _____ industry?” and use leading questions like that.
Hey
Fantastic site…I am just want your advice,I have 4 years experience in the corporate world working for as an M&A I have been offered a position in Citi as an entry level associate, I have also been offered a position in a small industry specific PE firm?
…I would like to get your view on Citi and also, which position would you recommend, in terms of learning, networking, lifestyle, rewards etc?
Thanks in advance
Depends on what you want… if you want to stay in PE, go to the PE firm, otherwise it will be very tough later on. If you want broader options, go to Citi. While Citi is not in a great state post-crisis, you would still get solid access to recruiters.
I have worked for a Big Four firm 6 years on several M&A transactions (financial & operational/IT due diligence on sell-side and buy-side transactions and post merger integration).
I noted that for me it is very hard to switch to a role in investment banking. I tried almost all banks in my country but no result. Main cause: state of the economy and lack of experience in IB. I have my qualifications (CPA and MBA) and I love M&A.
My goal would be to become a deal maker for a reputed bank. I understand that I have to be very good in marketing & sales and relationship management. That will be my challenge.
Any opinions?
Think about an MBA if you can’t get in via networking.
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/breaking-into-investment-banking-accountant/
Thanks but I already have an MBA from a reputed business school (top 5 school). I talked to several head hunters and even used my network from business school. It is too hard. I somehow have a CPA label on my head and I just can’t get rid of it. Thanks for your link I will read it.
I’m considering an IB associate offer at a bank. Although I’m not sure yet, I think I might like to work in Corporate Development (Internal M&A) after a few years on the job. That being said, does it make sense to join the M&A group and work across industries, or target a coverage group and gain experience across a variety of products?
Probably a coverage group because then you can join a corporate development team in a specific industry more easily.
I work for the regulator in India, in the divison that regulates M & A. I have an MBA from a tier 1 b-school in India and this is my first job post MBA. I have been working for the past 27 months in this division. I would like to move into deal-structuring. Do i-banks have special teams for strcuturing deals? Will it be possible to move there directly from the regulator? Will more experience with the same divison be necessary/useful for such a move?
Some banks do have special teams but most do not other than the standard M&A groups – not sure if it’s different in India though. You would be better off moving to M&A or another group at the bank first.
So…. What exactly is the broad future of the M&A industry? Just how few deals are taking place and what are the factors of the drought?
PS. Great article!
M&A will always exist as long as corporations exist… deal activity fluctuates year-to-year depending on the economy. I don’t really do current events-style commentary here, so I’m not the best person to comment on that – maybe check the WSJ Deal Blog.
Hey M&I, been a silent reader for a while.
I’m currently in the last semester of my business undergrad and recently quit my consulting analyst position to conclude my graduating project (business plan) with good attention. I’ve been reading here that what you describe as M&A IB is pretty much the same thing I did at my former employer, a consulting firm.
I was a “consulting analyst” for the financial advisory and transaction advisory services in a boutique firm. Most of my work was assisting in financial modelling to value privately held companies in M&A transactions, doing market research, pitching power points for clients and updating data after client meetings. I worked 8-5 and had class from roughly 5:30pm to 10:00pm everyday, if it weren’t because I had class there is no doubt I would have been pulling around 10-13 hours a a day on average.
How different is this this concept of “Consulting” to “Investment Banking” ?
It sounds similar but you worked a lot less than bankers and it was labeled something different.
Could you outline typical steps in M&A due diligence taken by buyside?
Normally they request the financial statements, customer data by size and region, then call in tax, legal, and environmental specialists to examine tax returns, legal docs and customer contracts, leases, and so on.
I just got a job in a top investment bank in LA.
I’m not really sure which group I have been assigned to, it didn’t say in which group in the contract. Should I ask them this?
Also, are there any good books or classes you would recommend to read, take before starting investment banking?
Yes, ask them for the group you’re in or how you get assigned. http://breakingintowallstreet.com/biws/breaking-into-wall-street-courses for courses.
Great site. I’ve been hooked on it since the past couple of weeks.
Ok tell me one thing, do IB MnA analysts do a lot of cold calling?
Being a management consultant, (and atleast on the present case), we have to cold call people every now and then for primary research – more so, on when the data is not explicitly present in analyst reports/data banks etc. Now I like taking interviews, that’s not the bad part. But I don’t particularly like calling up some random person to organize a primary interview and they just hang up or get annoyed and shout out at you.
I would imagine you’d have some sources for due-diligence work, mostly through ties with the company. But how often do you have to cold call for either due diligence/business development etc?
No, you don’t cold-call people unless you’re at a really small boutique and they’ve told you to source deals. In PE you do a lot more cold-calling but it’s uncommon in IB.
Hi Brian,
I was wondering if there was an article about TMT, FIG and Lev Fin that I could access. I recently got recruited at a bulge bracket for their Summer Analyst program and am trying to read up on their different groups in order to best position myself for the dedication process. I would also appreciate your guidance on how to go about maximizing my chances of landing my desired group now that I have an offer. Happy New Year!!
Some of those are coming up. There is one on industrials and some of the other product groups now (do a search). Basically for summer internships it doesn’t matter all that much and its more about what you are interested in. http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-sell-day/
Thanks Brian. That article was to the point. I have a question about potentially getting some negotiating leverage by landing another offer at another bulge bracket besides the one I already have an offer from. What do you think about this? Is it advisable to keep on interviewing even if I landed my dream offer and am 99% certain I will be accepting that offer? Would it make a difference if I have another offer on the table come sell day? I would have to accept the offer first in order to get to sell day but would another offer necessarily help me get my most desired group at my dream bank? Thanks.
You can’t negotiate anything at the analyst/associate level, so there’s no point if you already have a good offer.
Hi, thanks a lot for the great post (again)! This is exactly what I was looking for. It was really helpful to know what M&A bankers do on a daily basis.
I just got a summer analyst offer to join one of the top 5 BB in NY, and I have a sell day coming up to pick groups. M&A is my No.1 choice, and I want to make good conservations with the group on my sell day.
I was just wondering, what are some good questions to ask/good comments to make during the sell day when networking with the M&A bankers. By the way, I have read the other articles about sell day on this website, wonderful posts as always. I was just wondering if there is anything specific (dos and don’ts) when talking to M&A bankers.
Thanks a lot!
Not really, the same strategies as always apply… be normal, don’t start talking about WACC, be more interested in them than you are in you…
Thanks a lot!
How is Wells Fargo’s M&A group compared to the rest of the BB’s?
Definitely not among the more well-known ones, but beyond that I don’t know much