Look, Zaoui & Co. is taking on interns

M&A boutiques are the new black. Small firms set up by big bankers are winning more business, paying more money and hiring more people. Now, it's come to our attention that one of the most illustrious of the lot - Zaoui & Co, founded by brothers Michael and Yoel Zaoui (ex-Morgan Stanley and ex-Goldman Sachs respectively) in 2013, is putting out feelers for hiring juniors.

Insiders inform us that Zaoui & Co. is already taking on 'off-cycle' interns for stints of seven months, and say there are early plans for summer internships from 2016.

Zaoui & Co. didn't return our call asking for information on the new programme. However, we located several current and ex-off-cycle interns on LinkedIn, including John Monod, a final year student at Essec Business School and Charlotte Seminel, a current intern who studied at Université  Paris Dauphine.

Zaoui hasn't expanded in London since its inception. It has six registered staff in the City, each of whom were only logged with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in November 2014 and have prior experience at bulge bracket banks. The addition of interns suggests the firm is planning to grow from the bottom up.

Despite being diminutive, Zaoui has worked on some impressive transactions, including L'Oreal's €6.5bn buyback of its stake in Nestle in 2014. However, sources tell us that landing an internship at the firm isn't easy: "There are hundreds and hundreds of applications every year."