Mid market advisory
Fit & BehaviouralAdvisory work on transactions below the size that occupies the largest firms, where a junior touches the whole process rather than one workstream.
Also written: mid market, mid-market, mid market adviser
Mid market advisory covers the large population of European transactions that sit below the deal sizes the biggest firms compete for. There is no fixed threshold, and where the mid market starts and stops depends on the country and on who you ask.
The client base differs in kind and not only in size. A large share is owner managed and family owned businesses selling for the first time, which changes the work: more explaining, more preparation of accounts that were never built for a sale, and a seller for whom this is the most significant financial event of their life. The other large share is private equity buying and selling companies below the size that interests the biggest funds.
For a junior this is the clearest structural difference in the job. Processes are shorter, teams are three or four people, and one analyst may own the model, the information memorandum, the buyer list and the question log on the same deal. You complete more transactions a year and see all of each one.
What you give up is brand and structured training. Large firms have formal programmes and a name that travels internationally, while smaller firms teach by putting you in the room. Neither is the better job, and treating the choice as a ranking rather than a trade is what makes an interview answer sound thoughtless.
Worked example
A founder owned business is sold to a mid sized sponsor. The team is a partner, a vice president and one analyst.
The analyst builds the model, writes most of the information memorandum, maintains the buyer list, runs the question log and joins the management meetings.
The same analyst at a bulge bracket, on a transaction ten times the size, would own one of those five workstreams.