Houlihan Lokey is the biggest bank most students have never heard of. It's regularly at or near the top of the league tables for restructuring advice worldwide, and for the number of M&A deals it advises on in the mid-market. Its European business got much bigger when it bought GCA in 2021, including the old GCA Altium team in London.
Three businesses, three applications
Houlihan Lokey hires juniors into three main areas:
- Corporate Finance: M&A and capital raising, mostly mid-market.
- Financial Restructuring: advising companies or creditors when debt goes wrong. This is what it's most famous for.
- Financial and Valuation Advisory: valuations and fairness opinions.
Pick one and write the CV for it. A restructuring application should show some interest in credit and distressed situations; an FVA application should show you're careful and good with valuation detail.
Why it's a good place to start
Lots of deals, so lots of experience. Mid-market deals tend to have smaller teams than mega-deals, so an analyst does more of the work. And a restructuring background is valued highly by credit funds later.