We don’t track merchant banks, so there are no updated lists. No views on LionTree, sorry. I would recommend checking Capital IQ because they tend to have the best data.

Merchant banking is not a core topic on this site, so it is something we might revisit once every ~5 years or so. Since this is a free site with no subscriptions or advertising (other than the products/services we sell), it’s difficult to make a business case for the time/money required to update these types of articles frequently.

Two questions / update requests here. 1) Is there an updated list of merchant banks you would recommend? 2) What are your thoughts on where LionTree has gone. They have been very dynamic and look very different now than 2 years ago.

Thanks!

I would say Centerview is probably a better bet for the reasons you mentioned. Yes, Goldman Sachs still has the best name/reputation, but exit opportunities are not evenly distributed among all groups there. And merchant banking / internal PE at the large has been sort of a grey area.

Thanks. Yes, some merchant banks may be more elitist/picky. I haven’t run the numbers or looked at LinkedIn profiles to say one way or the other. But you do see that trend with a lot of smaller firms that view themselves as “elite.”