When preparing for investment banking interviews, one of the most common questions you’ll encounter is: “Walk me through a recent deal.” Understanding current investment banking deals helps demonstrate your market awareness, analytical thinking, and genuine interest in the industry. This article explores notable middle-market investment banking deals from the past year and explains how to discuss them effectively during your investment banking interviews. Discussing a deal with authority requires more than just knowing the numbers; it requires a deep understanding of the underlying technical mechanics and valuation drivers. To ensure you have the foundation needed to discuss these transactions, read our Master Guide on Investment Banking Analyst Skills.
Why Investment Banking Interviews Focus on Deal Knowledge
Investment banking interviews assess whether candidates understand how transactions create value and how advisory work shapes markets. When interviewers ask about recent investment banking deals, they’re evaluating your ability to think critically about valuation, strategic rationale, and market dynamics. Discussing middle-market transactions—typically valued between $10 million and $500 million—shows you understand that impactful investment banking work happens across deal sizes, not just in headline-grabbing mega-mergers.
Commerce Bancshares Acquires FineMark Holdings
Transaction Value: Approximately $585 million
This regional banking consolidation represents a classic example of the investment banking deals you might discuss in interviews. Commerce Bancshares agreed to acquire Florida-based FineMark Holdings, combining banking and wealth-management platforms in a strategic transaction. Investment banking interviews often explore regional bank M&A because these deals demonstrate how advisory teams evaluate franchise value, deposit premiums, and cross-selling opportunities.
The strategic rationale centers on geographic expansion and wealth management capabilities. For your investment banking interviews, you could highlight how advisers like Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and Piper Sandler—boutique firms specializing in financial institutions—bring sector expertise to transactions of this scale. This deal illustrates that successful investment banking professionals often build careers advising on focused, strategic transactions rather than exclusively pursuing billion-dollar mega-deals.
Trivest Partners Buys Applied Value Group
Transaction Value: Up to approximately $300 million
Private equity transactions frequently appear in investment banking interviews because they represent a significant portion of middle-market deal flow. Trivest Partners, a middle-market private equity firm, acquired Applied Value Group, a consultancy, in a platform acquisition valued in the mid-hundreds of millions of dollars. When discussing investment banking deals involving private equity, focus on how sponsors evaluate EBITDA multiples, leverage capacity, and operational improvement opportunities.
Investment banking interviews may probe your understanding of how PE-backed deals differ from strategic acquisitions. In this case, the transaction represents a platform investment where Trivest likely plans add-on acquisitions to scale the business. Understanding these nuances demonstrates sophistication when discussing investment banking deals during your recruiting conversations.
Baldwin Group Acquires CAC Group
Transaction Value: Approximately $1.0 billion
Sitting at the upper boundary of middle-market investment banking deals, Baldwin Group’s cash-and-stock acquisition of insurance broker CAC Group demonstrates strategic consolidation in a fragmented industry. Investment banking interviews often explore how deal structure—in this case, combining cash and equity consideration—affects negotiations and shareholder alignment. The insurance brokerage sector has experienced sustained consolidation, making these transactions relevant examples for investment banking interviews focused on sector trends.
For your investment banking interviews, consider how advisers evaluate synergies in service businesses. Unlike manufacturing or technology deals, insurance brokerage consolidations emphasize client retention, producer talent, and commission revenue streams. Demonstrating this sector-specific knowledge when discussing investment banking deals signals that you understand how valuation and strategic assessment vary across industries.
Middle-Market Investment Banking Interviews and Deal Trends
Investment banking interviews increasingly focus on candidates’ awareness of market conditions affecting transaction volumes. Middle-market deal activity—transactions under approximately $500 million—declined in 2024 and early 2025 compared to prior years, even as total M&A values remained strong due to larger transactions. When discussing investment banking deals in interviews, acknowledging these market dynamics demonstrates that you follow industry trends beyond individual transactions.
Despite the slowdown, nearly a thousand middle-market deal closings occurred across the United States in 2024, spanning sectors from healthcare to technology to financial services. Investment banking interviews may ask why volumes declined—pointing to higher interest rates, economic uncertainty, and valuation mismatches between buyers and sellers shows you understand macroeconomic factors affecting deal-making. Private equity firms are expected to increase middle-market dealmaking in 2025 and 2026 as confidence returns, creating opportunities for investment banking professionals focused on sponsor coverage.
How to Discuss Investment Banking Deals in Interviews
Successfully navigating investment banking interviews requires more than memorizing transaction details. When asked about recent investment banking deals, structure your response around four elements: the transaction overview, strategic rationale, valuation considerations, and your personal perspective. Start with a concise summary—who acquired whom, for how much, and in what sector. Then explain why the deal makes strategic sense, whether through geographic expansion, capability acquisition, or market consolidation.
Investment banking interviews assess analytical rigor, so discuss valuation where possible. For the Commerce Bancshares-FineMark transaction, you might note that bank M&A typically trades at multiples of tangible book value and deposit premiums. For the Trivest-Applied Value deal, reference typical EBITDA multiples in professional services. These details distinguish prepared candidates in investment banking interviews from those offering only surface-level knowledge of deals.
Finally, offer perspective. Investment banking interviews reward candidates who think critically about whether a deal creates value, faces integration challenges, or reflects broader sector trends. Discussing investment banking deals this way demonstrates that you approach transactions the way analysts do—questioning assumptions, evaluating trade-offs, and considering multiple stakeholder perspectives.
Why Middle-Market Deals Matter for Your Career
Investment banking interviews often reveal candidates who exclusively focus on mega-cap transactions, overlooking the reality that most bankers build careers advising middle-market companies. The investment banking deals discussed here—ranging from $300 million to $1 billion—represent where junior bankers gain hands-on experience with financial modeling, due diligence coordination, and client interaction. Unlike mega-deals staffed by large teams, middle-market investment banking deals give analysts and associates direct exposure to decision-makers and meaningful contributions to transaction execution.
When preparing for investment banking interviews, recognize that middle-market transactions intersect with private equity, regional consolidation, and strategic growth initiatives—exactly the deal types where client relationships, valuation work, and negotiation skills matter most. Investment banking interviews that explore your understanding of these transactions assess whether you appreciate the breadth and depth of advisory work beyond the bulge bracket mega-merger headlines.
Preparing for Investment Banking Interviews with Real Deal Knowledge
Mastering investment banking interviews requires combining technical knowledge, market awareness, and the ability to discuss transactions thoughtfully. The investment banking deals outlined here—Commerce Bancshares’ acquisition of FineMark, Trivest’s purchase of Applied Value Group, and Baldwin’s consolidation with CAC Group—provide concrete examples demonstrating strategic M&A, private equity activity, and industry consolidation. Investment banking interviews reward candidates who move beyond simply reciting deal facts to analyzing strategic rationale, valuation frameworks, and market context.
As you prepare for investment banking interviews, remember that discussing these middle-market transactions shows interviewers you understand where most banking work actually happens and how deals create value at various scales. The confidence and analytical depth you develop by studying real investment banking deals will set you apart in a competitive recruiting process.
Take the Next Step in Your Preparation
If you want to feel prepared before recruiting starts, the best next step is to see how a real deal is actually put together. We built a free three day course that walks through the Confidential Information Memorandum the same way analysts learn it on the job. Join by clicking the link: Free Three Day Course.