Do many PE firms have dedicated research teams and do people shift to the investment side after an amount of time given they are capable?
Going for a research role at a European PE, but not knowing the complete ins and outs of how many PE firms are set up, not sure of the scope and exit opps.
Would it be a good start into the world of pe with potential exit opps?
what does the research team imply? Looking for deals? Like a broker or bank? Or DDing a deal?
It’s researching sectors and coming up with investment appraisals/thesis’s on potential acquisition targets, then feeding it to partners for approval before passing onto execution team. There will also be involvement from the research team in the initial deal stage.
I’m not sure how common it is, but I did interview for a role like that a few months ago. This was a smaller shop, they had 1 research associate, and about 4-5 investment associates. She said she did deal screening for the team, as well as one off projects for the higher ups and helped the projects for their portfolio companies. FWIW, she was going to get an MBA and I was being interviewed to replace her.
Sounds like a very interesting position. I would definitely give that interview your best shot.
I haven’t heard of too many other PE firms setting themselves up like that with designated research staff. It’s more usual for the deal origination team to be more integrated with the execution team I’d have thought.
One thing I’d try to find out before the interview is if the position is sector or region specific or a generalist role. If you will be working on a particular sector you might want to swat up on that beforehand.