Edited by Derek Loosvelt and the staff of Vault
VAULT GUIDE TO THE
TOP 50BANKINGEMPLOYERS
®
GET THE INSIDE SCOOP ON THE BEST FIRMS TO WORK FOR IN THE INVESTMENT BANKING INDUSTRY
Peter J. Solomon Company is ranked #12
in the Vault Guide to the Top 50 Banking Employers.
Read the profile to get the inside scoop.
2016 EDITION
®
Excerpted from the Vault Guide to the Top 50 Banking Employers, 2016 Edition. Reprinted with permission. © Copyright 2015 Vault.com, Inc. Photocopying is illegal and expressly forbidden.
Ex-Lehman Brother Branches OutPeter J. Solomon opened his eponymous Manhattan firm in 1989. Before striking out on his own, the Harvard-educated Solomon had spent many years at Lehman Brothers. As of March 2015, the firm’s upper crust included the founding chairman, Peter J. Solomon; Kenneth T. Berliner, president; Frederick M. Seegal and Marc S. Cooper, vice chairmen; Kenneth D. Baronoff, managing director and chief operating officer; 16 managing directors; and three senior advisers.
Peter J. Solomon Company (PJSC) offers strategic and financial advice to owners, chief executives, senior management, and boards of directors of public and private companies. The firm’s industry expertise includes retail, wholesale catalog distribution; e-commerce, branded and unbranded consumer products; media, entertainment; technology and communications; energy, financial, industrial and health care sectors. Since its founding, PJSC has completed more than 500 advisory assignments.
Business at PJSC is divided into five primary divisions: mergers and acquisitions; recapitalizations, refinancings and restructurings; financing advisory services; the special committee practice (which provides counsel to corporate boards and renders fairness opinions); and the family business advice practice. But don’t mistake this last division for something out of Norman Rockwell; PJSC advises families like the Fortunoffs, the Comers (who owned retail giant Lands’ End), the Rabbs (former owners of the Stop & Shop grocery chain) and the Wylys (who owned the Michaels craft supply stores, and entered into a $5.6 billion leveraged buyout agreement with Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group). The firm also defends companies in proxy and takeover contests.
PJSC is a well-known powerhouse in retail deals—it advised on Phillips-Van Heusen’s acquisitions of Warnaco Group and Tommy Hilfiger and Walgreens’ acquisition of New York drugstore chain Duane Reade—and from the beginning of 2009 through May 2010, the firm advised on a higher volume of M&A deals than any other investment bank, according to Bloomberg. During the period, PJSC advised on $5.6 billion worth of total merger and acquisition deals, which was more than Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, among others. More recently, its clients have included eBay, The Home Depot, Office Depot in its $6.3B pending merger with Staples, the London Stock Exchange, Under Armour, SoulCycle, Sirius XM, RadioShack, American Greetings, and American Apparel. In addition, PJSC’s media group, including its practice in the digital out-of-home space, has been busy recently, representing Media General, Starplex Cinemas, CBS Outdoor, Christie’s International, and Searchlight Capital Partners.
The firm also has a strong restructuring practice, which recently advised (or is still advising) Overseas Shipholding Group, The Dolan Company, Australian company NewSat Limited, and a creditor group of Energy Future Holdings’ (formerly known as TXU).
FIRM INFO
CONTACT INFO1345 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10105 Phone: (212) 508-1600 Fax: (212) 508-1633 www.pjsc.com
THE STATSEmployer Type: PrivateFounder & Chairman: Peter J. Solomon 2015 Employees: 70
Peter J. Solomon Company
#12 VAULT BANKING 50
2016 TOP 50 BANKING FIRM
THE SCOOP
QUALITY OF LIFE
#2 Ability to Challenge#2 Firm Culture#2 Informal Training#2 Philanthropy#2 Promotion Policies#2 Satisfaction#2 Supervisor Relationships#2 Vacation Time#2 Work Hours#2 Work-Life Balance#3 Client Interaction#3 Formal Training#4 Benefits#4 Compensation#4 Internal Mobility
#5 Hiring Process#6 Firm Leadership#6 Green Initiatives#7 Business Outlook
PRESTIGE
#34 Overall Prestige
DIVERSITY
#4 Diversity for Veterans#12 Diversity for Individuals with Disabilities#12 Diversity for Minorities#13 Diversity—Overall#14 Diversity for Women
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Excerpted from the Vault Guide to the Top 50 Banking Employers, 2016 Edition. Reprinted with permission. © Copyright 2015 Vault.com, Inc. Photocopying is illegal and expressly forbidden.
Vault’s Verdict: Peter J. Solomon is one of the top advisory boutiques on Wall Street. As such, it recruits from a select group of top schools, and is looking for well-rounded, intelligent, detail-oriented, highly motivated candidates who understand the investment banking industry and have good social skills. The firm provides excellent internships for college students, offering interns a chance to get tons of hands-on experience while working alongside senior bankers as well as clients. Unlike many firms on the Street, PJSC offers analysts the opportunity to move up the ranks to the associate and VP levels. In addition, PJSC runs highly rated formal and informal mentoring programs, and lean deal teams mean junior bankers receive a lot of transaction experience. The quality of life at PJSC is very high: managers have an open-door policy and will take the time to explain concepts and help junior bankers. Although hours can be long for juniors when staffed on a live deal, the firm’s culture has a family-feel, and PJSC is very generous with perks and pay. The firm pays above the Street average, and offers benefits such as dinner stipends and a discounted gym membership to Equinox. As for diversity hiring, the firm has been putting forth a significant effort to recruit more diverse candidates. Meanwhile, philanthropy is a strong suit at the firm. The firm’s business outlook is very bright. PJSC is one of the top retail and apparel M&A advisors on the Street and its media and tech group has been flourishing. Insiders say that the leadership team is strong and has positioned the firm very well, and that PJSC should continue to grow and thrive for the foreseeable future.
2016 TOP 50 BANKING FIRMPETER J. SOLOMON COMPANY
Hiring Process• “Typically recruits at Ivy League schools and other top business
programs. GPA is a very important screening tool. The firm is looking for smart, detail-oriented candidates. Above all, fit is the most important factor in determining candidates who make it past the initial screening process and have demonstrated technical aptitude.”
• “The firm seeks well-rounded and high achieving students from target schools—people who are smart, hardworking, team players, and like the company’s mission. The firm welcomes liberal arts backgrounds in addition to more typical finance/quantitative majors.”
• “Very accessible and engaged in the callback process. I received a callback within hours of my final-round interview with an offer. At least one member of the firm will stay in close touch with you throughout the process; sometimes many members will.”
• “Very transparent and active interview and callback process. The ideal candidate is a well-rounded, well-performing student who understands the investment banking industry and has good social skills.”
Interview Questions• “There are five 30-minute interviews at Super Day. Each interview
was unique, and questions were up to what the interviewer felt important to ask. Some were entirely behavioral, while others entirely technical. I was asked a range of questions from accounting to valuation to brainteasers and pitching a stock. Easily the hardest interview process I had in banking. I felt like they had explored every area of my knowledge.”
• “Pitch me a stock. How would you value a tech company without profit? How would you deal with a tough assignment an MD gives you that you’re spinning your wheels on and can’t find anything on? How would you handle a situation in which you are overstaffed and cannot possibly get all your work done by each deadline?”
• “You are tasked with presenting an acquisition idea to the CEO of a large, multibillion-dollar corporation. You only have one PowerPoint slide to effectively present your idea. What goes on that slide and why?”
• “Please describe yourself. How did you become interested in investment banking? What is it that intrigues you about our firm?”
Intern Experience• “Mentorship program was excellent and included daily engagement
with an MD and associate mentor to provide coaching. Small deal teams mean the intern is given significant responsibility and exposure to the client. Opportunity to build close relationships with the partners of the firm as well as our clients.”
• “The internship experience was excellent. A short, formal training program provided the right amount of initial guidance, and enough of the summer was left to follow an ‘apprenticeship’ model and learn by doing. The level of access to senior bankers as a summer intern is unparalleled. I worked directly with a group head and even had a speaking role on client calls.”
• “Plenty of hands-on experience. Great company culture. There is a lot of work to do.”
• “The best aspect of my internship experience was how closely knit the team was, from MD down to analyst. Everyone was friendly with one another on both a professional and personal level. It makes discussions on the firm, your work, and how you can be a better banker extremely easy.”
Career Development• “The best aspect is definitely the departure from the traditional
two-year investment banking analyst program into a more fluid structure where anyone who performs can remain at the firm indefinitely—first as a third-year analyst, and then as a direct-promote associate and beyond. Further, second- and third-year analysts are routinely given responsibility commensurate with their abilities, without adherence to hierarchy. This means that an analyst is often coordinating aspects of the deal process left only to senior associates and VPs at other investment banks. Many deals are staffed without mid-level (associate, VP) bankers, allowing analysts to quickly become complete professionals.”
• “The best aspect of our firm is its horizontal structure. It is very easy to get together with MDs and explore career opportunities as well as discuss the finer points of the business. After doing their two (or three) years, PJSC analysts place highly at some of the best buy-side shops. Many analysts stay for a third year because of the superior quality of life.”
• “Analysts are given significantly more responsibility on deal teams relative to other banks; opportunity to advance internally is a positive.”
OUR SURVEY SAYS
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Excerpted from the Vault Guide to the Top 50 Banking Employers, 2016 Edition. Reprinted with permission. © Copyright 2015 Vault.com, Inc. Photocopying is illegal and expressly forbidden.
• “Best aspect is the informal mentorship. Mentors are fantastic and genuinely helpful. People listen to your aspirations and make a legitimate effort to help you. Worst aspect is the limited number of verticals to diversify into.”
Quality of Life • “PJSC has an outstanding work/life balance. Analysts work very hard,
but senior management is extremely cognizant of their analysts’ well being. On pitches and live deals, analysts often attend meetings and have regular interaction with the clients over the phone. Deal teams are extremely lean, so analysts are sometimes relied upon to work one-on-one with their MDs and clients alike. It is very easy to a schedule a vacation and use vacation days.”
• “Our firm has the best quality of life across Wall Street. Management is very flexible about vacation days, and there is always a lot of time off around the holidays. Analysts go home as early as 8 or 9 p.m. on the weekdays or can make the gym at night. Also, all the analysts work well together and genuinely like each other. Organic activities occur all the time, from going out for drinks to planning more elaborate activities. Firm sanctioned activities are also great and a lot of fun.”
• “Collegial atmosphere where colleagues know each other well and pull together on transactions. Firm is focused on a few key industry verticals like retail, consumer, and media, as well as restructuring and private financing. There is very limited international exposure and client opportunity, but those situations do arise periodically.”
• “The environment, which can be stressful as a typical investment banking firm, still has a very family-oriented feel. Open doors, candid conversation, and supportive mentors lead to a more productive and collaborative environment.”
Salary and Benefits• “Analysts are paid at the high end of the Street with bonuses often
being 100 percent of their current salaries. Each night, analysts have $25 to spend on meals. On weekends, analysts can spend $25 on a meal every six hours.”
• “Summer associate offer was 20 percent higher than offers from other banks. Excellent perks, and bonus is all cash.”
• “The firm definitely pays on the high end of boutiques. For junior bankers, there isn’t such a large spread between top and bottom buckets.”
• “Gym (Equinox) is partially covered, and health and medical benefits are great.”
Diversity, Philanthropy, and Green Initiatives• “The firm leaders pride themselves on being engaged in
philanthropy and organizing firm-wide activities to give back to the community. Very open to diverse backgrounds.”
• “We look for the best candidates that are capable, motivated, and willing to put forth the effort needed to provide excellent service to our clients. We go into each recruiting year hoping to find a diverse class. Some years bring more success than others.”
• “Diversity is not a strong suit, but the firm is very respectful to diversity candidates and employees.”
• “We routinely do charity events. Lack of women is not for lack of recruiting effort—diversity is highly prioritized.”
Business Outlook• “Very strong practice in retail M&A due to long-term relationships
with legacy clients. Firm also has a strong track record in media and restructuring.”
• “PJSC is the industry leader in retail investment banking. The firm constantly receives inbound calls from prospective clients and consistently wins bake-offs against bulge bracket firms. The collaboration between PJSC’s retail and TMT groups well positions the firm for future success in ecommerce and mobile. PJSC’s restructuring practice is active and provides an effective backstop if M&A activity slows down.”
• “With a focus on M&A deals in retail, media, and tech, PJSC is very well positioned in current frothy credit markets to execute a large number of deals.”
• “Firm leadership has extremely strong client relationships, which are becoming very beneficial with the uptick in M&A activity for boutiques.”
2016 TOP 50 BANKING FIRMPETER J. SOLOMON COMPANY
