Pitchbook

A pitchbook is a selling document for the bank itself. It typically runs to four parts: credentials showing comparable deals the bank has executed, a view of the market and who the likely buyers are, a valuation of the business, and a recommended process and timetable.

It is where a junior analyst spends most of their time, and understanding why explains a great deal about the job. The large majority of pitches never become deals, so most of the work produced is for transactions that never happen. That is not waste, it is how the firm sources revenue, but it does account for a workload that looks irrational from outside.

The valuation section carries a real tension. A high number helps win the mandate, but it becomes the expectation the bank then has to deliver against in the market, and pitching high then clearing low is a difficult conversation. Bankers manage this by showing a range with the assumptions visible, so the seller can see what would have to be true for the top of it.

Reading one critically means asking which comparable deals were chosen and which were left out, and what the valuation assumes about growth and synergies.