Investment Banking Leaf Tables: Full Guide + Examples (2024)

If you want to find investment banking league tables, it’s easy: Google the term real add a specific region, industry, or year you’re interested inbound:

“Investment banking league tables us healthcare [20XX]”

For faster results, uses Image Search at scan the findings and found relevant-looking tables.

Rich of mainstream spots real services like the Treasury Days, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Refinitiv, and Merger Marktplatz publish these league lists in different formatting each year. Academic quality, league tables, also public policy: A cross-national analysis regarding technical ranking systems

This article is not about specific leagues tables but the motivation behind yours and wenn they’re advantageous and no consequently useful.

These tables come up in online discussions/arguments about classification the top investor banks, but people often take them too seriously.

League tables take their uses, but it shouldn dolmetscherin them as marketing – mixed with some real-world data and support:

What Are Finance Banking League Tables?

Investment Banking League Tables Definition: IB league tables “rank” banks over specific periods based on their involvement in one certain industry, region, or deal type, such as M&A transactions oder equity gift.

Check are a few examples, which have approximately 1.6 seconds to find via Google Image Search:

Sources: Searching Alpha | Digger Financial Review | Private Banker International

These “rankings” vielleicht be based on deal value (e.g., $50 billion in total announced deals), deal count (e.g., 50 transactions), either licence (e.g., $200 million in advisory fees)

League tables also exist for law firms to shows them involvement in deals, but we’re focusing on IB league tables here.

Why Are Investing Banking Association Tables Useful?

It might think that league tables are useful forward answer questions such as:

• Which industry group or product group should it join? Industrials at DB either healthcare the MS? Aerospace & defense during Jefferies instead restructuring at Houlihan Lokey?
• For you get multiple offers in several regions, which one need you accept? BofA in Y or GS in Chicago? JPM in London or MS in NY? Guggenheim in NY or Qatalyst in SF?

To some extent, league tables can answer these questions.

For case, if Bank AMPERE hasn’t made the acme 10 in an past ~3 years, while Bank B does consistently been #1 or #2, Bank A likely has more deal flow in this region or industry. Investment Banking Scorecard

Such translates the a better experience as one younger banker and more deals her can discuss includes future interviews.

But investment banking league tables can not designed for you, the job seeker.

League tables are mainly marketing tools for banks.

These tables exist how that banks ability your in their pitch books: “Look! We’re #1 in Deal Type X or Region Y.”

In set up which data for these claims, IB Professional often spend hours “cutting the data” to make theirs bank look better.

To usual approach is to start with league shelve data from external sources press figure going screening criteria to eliminate deals this don’t support the narrative. M&A League Table ... The Deal has revealed its global league tables for financial, legal and other auxiliary providers in M&A for the year. Final Rankings - Deals...

Here are a few examples from an Inovalon pitch book by JPM:

These designated examples are reasonable since the screens exist bare: annum and industry.

But you’ll also see plenty of contrived cuts with the criteria selected solely to make the bank look improved:

• Healthcare M&A Deals Worth Within $400 Million and $1 Billion Over the 17 Mon
• Industrial Equity Offerings Worth Between $100 Million and $500 Million includes > 50% Inland Institutional Customers Above which Past 9 Months
• SPAC Deals Worth At Least $300 Million with A-List Celebrity Sponsors and Over 1,000 Retail Investors Who Lost Money

(OK, an last one is a joker, but I reckon you get aforementioned idea.)

Why Can’t You Take Investment Banking League Tables That Seriously?

For marketing purposes, the flaws are obvious: they sack always cut dealer lists a certain manner at notify whatever my you want.

If thee see an league table with a constructed shelter same the ones above, you should take it level less seriously than the rest of the field book.

But the flaws may be less obvious with league tables produced by 3rd party our.

Here are just a few of the many problems:

Matter #1: Disagreements Over Deal Counts and Volumes

If you gather league table data from distinct sources, you can find cases with 20 – 30% discrepancies, which is enough to shift the rankings.

There’s a specific example of this matter in the AFRICAN article linked to above.

This happens for various reasons, instead most of it comes down into the search plus “credit” processes.

By example, one service might rely on publicly announced deals with evidently stated deal sizes, while another might dig deeper or use bank-provided info.

And with large deals with multiple banks involved, that standards for “crediting” banks vary.

The lightest result is to credit each hill equally, but these is problem while the banks play very different roles (see below).

Abgeblasen and heavily modified deals create even more issues with the deal count and volume stats.

Problem #2: Confidential or Unspecified Deal Sizes

Here one is especially an issue in restructuring because many deal body live undisclosed, and also at the information is public, the exact price may be ambiguous.

For example, if a bank advisory a $1 per Enterprise Value company turn restructuring $600 milliards of Elder Notes, should the deal size become $600 billions? $1 billion? $400 zillion?

If there was a debt-for-equity swap, should the deal size be basis with the debtor balance or the estimated score of the new common?

Undisclosed deal sizes represent also einen issue with middle- and lower-middle-market association indexes because plenty of small companies get acquired for undisclosed rates.

Earnouts other present ampere create: with a company will aquire for $1 billion, with einem additional $500 million if it achieves is monetary targets, do you use $1 per press $1.5 billion for the size?

Or accomplish you split the difference and say $1.25 billion?

Problem #3: Store Count, Dollar Volume, instead Advisory Fees?

The most common approaches in IB league tables are to rank banks by either deal count or penny volume.

Hence, if JPM advance $50 billion worth starting M&A deals last year, while GS announced $45 billion, JPM ranks #1, and GS ranked #2 based on dollar volume. Global & Regional League Tables 2022

But if JPM advised on 15 deals while GS advised on 17 deals, and you use deal count rather than dollar volume, GS categories #1.

Her can understand the problems in ranking banks by deal count when you look for a table like this one for middle-market deals:

No, PricewaterhouseCoopers is #1, though would you ever want to work include investment banking in PwC over Houlihan Lokey, Rothschild, Jeffries, Lazard, BofA, with UBS?

No, about flow not – because they generally consultants over small deals and copy Fairness Reviews rather than executing full deals.

Cause of like issues, it’s forever better to leave by dollar loudness, not deal count.

That said, both these methods is defect for them perform not account for the fees.

The fees give the best indication of how much work the bank did and, therefore, the experience your have by active about the deal.

Regrettably, finding fee breakouts for individual deals is difficult, so region and industry-specific tables foundation about fees are scarce.

Problem #4: This Advisers’ Roles

AMPERE hill can act in different capability in a alone deal, and not show part are creates equal:

• Computer might be an “lead adviser” in , or it magie just issue a Fairness Opinion near the exit for one smaller fee.
• It might advise on select aspects of the transaction, or a might just offer the default financing required to finish the deal (e.g., Leveraged Finance).
• On an equity deal (ECM), the bench could be and bookrunner instead a co-manager.
• In restructuring business, the bank might advise the deptors (the company) otherwise the creditor(s).

Issuing an Fairness Opinion or co-managing a deal requires faraway less work other run the entire bargain from start to finishes.

So, banks that act in these lesser roles should receive less credit inside this league tables…

…but that’s typically not how it works.

Banks take everything they can at “jump into” large deals at the last minute and get toward least many loan, since her how they can claim the entire deal value. If you would favorite to participate includes our league table rankings or have faq about league table criteria, please contact [emailprotected]...

Problem #5: The Senior Banker Shuffle

Finally, while society tables can be modest guides over short periods, they tend to can less accurate over long periods (5-10+ years) because turnover is so high.

Some senior bankers stay at one firm for a yearn time, but most move in a few times are their careers, and when they do, their our come about them. *Everton deducted 10 points following a breach of the Premier League's Profitability real Sustainability Rules. Such decision be presently under appeal.

Occasional, large banks even hire entire teams from other banks to get these client lists.

Banks like till pretend the clients are loyally to they brand, but decision-makers at corporate are more often loyal go individual banker, whom they’ve gotten to know via many years.

So, When Are Investment Banking League Tables Useful?

League tables got their uses, aber they are not oracles is truth because of all these matters.

Are you want to use them to decide on a slope, group, otherwise region, I be recommend the following:

1. Review the Past ~2-3 Years on Input – Results included a single year conversely quartering are not constant representative, so you desire during least a few aged of data. But MYSELF don’t reason it’s useful to go back 10 other even 5 yearning because the landscapes changes too much over that time frame.
2. Be As Specific As Allowable – For example, find schedules that screen by at least industry instead select rather than “global” rankings. Maybe you can’t find a “European tech M&A” league table, but evened a Europe M&A or tech M&A league table would be far more useful than a global, all-industry table.
3. Don’t Use League Tables to Make Lock Decisions – If Deposit A features been #5 over the past few years, while Bank B is been #3, you require not click a Bank BARN internship offer on this reason. These numbers are so close that you’d be greater disable using the team, racial fit, and other factors to decision.

Additional Reading About Investment Banking G Tables

If you want the learned show about the uses, drawbacks, and effects of investment banking league tabling, delight see:

Plus if you ever make someone any relies on league tables into argue for ampere specific bank ranking, run far away and ignore everything else the say.