Sleeping on Jefferies???
This might be sampling bias but I don't think Jefferies should be considered a middle market. I know people consider it a "mini bulge bracket" but Jefferies is advising deals like Adenza x Nasdaq (10.5 bln), Diamondback x Endeavor (26 bln), and now Darktrace x Thoma Bravo (5 bln). Some of these larger deals might have been co advised but the fact that Jefferies is able to get in on them speaks to the traction its reputation is gaining.
I will be interning at another middle market bank that advises mostly private businesses with the EV of a liquor store. I am extremely grateful for the offer but I hope I have the opportunity to gain experience at a more developed and well respected platform like Jefferies.
Say what you may about toxicity or politics at Jefferies but if you are an analyst at that shop, you are coming out with some pretty good deals on your resume.
I do acknowledge that Jefferies probably has the silliest CEO on the street.
I'd love input from people with actual experience dealing with the firm. I'm just an intern who will be printing copies and grabbing coffee for the bullpen.
cheers
Dick Handler will be sleeping on his new yacht while you sleep at your desk
From 2021 (not on league tables) to 6th in US and 9th global (approximately) is impressive and their dealflow has been surprisingly good with a lot of new MDs. Interested to see if it will continue.
They weren't on the league tables in 2021 (assuming top 20)? Hard to believe
Bump
Good place to be but not as a junior. Low comp, deferred clawbacks and sweaty hours. Good place to go and get burned and churned out of the industry in <2 years
Spot on.
Clawbacks don’t impact exits to PE/HF/etc it’s only to competitors like lateraling
second this. Have heard of a few exceptions (basically cuz they lucked into a great team with middle and senior level folks who are actually competent), but it's a cushy place for underperforming middle level dudes.
So basically as a junior you get fucked. No deals, no bonus, but alot of slogging away on countless pitches and "pipeline work" as MDs about to get the chop try to save their asses.
Was there before moving to buyside and agreed.
People who actually spend time and energy on thinking about these kinds of things.
Time wise it took two minutes to type
Energy wise I only moved my fingers
Materially insignificant just like the post but it sparks conversations
Also was lead advisor on recent SRS distribution deal. ~$18bn. Goldman was to the right.
Lots of high profile deals recently but doubt jrs see it in their bonus
No one is getting a good bonus because they spent a lot hiring new MDs with guarantees
darktrace is not 20bn
He clearly wrote 5bln. Gosh your attention to detail!
Fixed it
Rich Handler alt account or troll post?
"but I hope I have the opportunity to gain experience at a more developed and well respected platform like Jefferies". WTF?
I'll bite.
Good place if you're a senior MD with lots of relationships at the end of your career looking for a payday.
Not great from AN-VP. Hard to get to MD as the firm just buys in MDs externally. Lots of churn.
You'll do some good deals and some decent sponsor sellsides.
FYI - Darktrace was only a mandate due to the fact JEF was corporate broker and did the IPO. Still a good one to have. Its a defense mandate, not a buyout mandate. Darktrace also brought in Qatalyst so Jef wasn't trusted to do the defense solo, something you should be able to do easily.
JEF is a good shop with terrible culture and not great pay for juniors. It has some good MM PE exits for Juniors. It's not really a firm, so much as a collection of sole trader MDs with a junior resource pool.
Most defence mandates have multiple co-advisors given board dynamics, so whilst they did definitely have a seat at the table given the corporate brokerage it’s not a slight on the firm just because they also decided to bring in Q (who are by far the best tech banking firm possibly ever).
I don’t think pay deviates much from the street (been at multiple firms) and if you align yourself with a rockstar MD you are getting far better deal exposure than at larger bulge bracket firms or whatever you call them now.
Not the world’s greatest bank clearly but just to offer some counter to the above. Anecdotally as well I find the quality of junior at Jefferies better than anywhere I’ve seen, and I’ve worked with or across the table from most other banks.
Is corporate broking a thing in US?
This is spot on. Saw at least 3 SVPs in my group get pushed out after being there 10+ years. What I’ve noticed is that internally there really isn’t a clear pipeline for older MDs to pass along the baton to their second in command, which then leads to an illusion of the SVP, underperforming, which then leads to the group hiring an external MD to fill that gap instead. Feel like this is a big cultural issue at the top unless you can really carve out a super specific niche, although obviously the more niche you get the smaller your client universe gets.
Congrats on JEF, you'll never be RBC
You should Reread your own post, slowly….
They have been killing it in the UK plc scene for the last 2-3 years. Tech and HC teams are also quite good. Rest are mehh
Somewhat. 2021/2022 was good for plc banking if you had corp broking clients and could get defense mandates.
The UK team is actually shrinking and laid off a bunch of the MDs and Ds last year.
Healthcare will always be strong at Jef and TMT is also strong in the US.
True re UK trimming but think it was a bloated team anyway. 21/22 was a great year for plc work and there's still a lot of traction on UK take private deals. Doubt anyone else has captured as much of this trend as them. Guess helpful they can do MM deals too given there's a lot of listed work for MM assets in the UK.
Noob question - what are these so called Defence mandates, and how do the fees work with them? Same as a normal sell-side when the fee is paid on completion?
In the UK you get things called corporate brokers, which are retained advisers to listed companies and do things like advise on any transactions (buyside/equity fundraising/debt fundraising), as well as what is essentially glorified IR work. This relationship means that when a client is "approached" (ie a bidder gets in touch) the corporate broker gets a mandate to advise the company on "defence" against the bid and on things like at what point they should contemplate accepting any offer.
Sounds like it could be unfair to the shareholders if the board does not do a competitive bake-off to see if they can get a lower fee on the deal or extract more value out of the acquisition, I’m not from the UK but that defense process is an interesting dynamic
Jefferies has an interesting array of people. Met a few alum there at a happy hour and they came off as douchey to me. But the year above me at my MBA program, the friendliest / nicest finance guy went to Jefferies full time and the same thing happened in my graduating class (2024).
.
I think its better to be sleeping on Jefferies instead of not getting any sleep because of Jefferries
You should not sleep when working at Jeffries, rookie mistakes!!!!!!!!!!
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