Hey guys,
Incoming NY SA here. Would love to get the inside scoop on what UBS is really like from the analysts and associates and everyone working there now - what’s one thing about the firm that we absolutely would not hear on our introductory zoom calls or that people would be hesitant to tell us? Any bad groups to be in? Anything to look out for? Any advice?
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I mean they're pretty straightforward, just work hard play hard. it's not like we have the declaration stashed away lmao.
although we have a really nice art collection.
Tech is in rebuild mode, M&A is a grind fest, HC is basically nonexistent on major non-financing transactions. Everything else is business per usual, but I think the reason UBS has been getting dogged so much is because they don’t really have a single group anymore which wows on the street. They also need to pay more lol. They’re not awful at anything but certainly not hitting above their weight class. The metaphorical Acura and Infiniti of the banking world rn.
1. Get rid of your clickbait title, incredibly annoying. There is enough troll sh*t on this site.
2. UBS is in a totally fine position, every group had a knockout year. Honestly in a better position than Credit Suisse (evidence latest CS bonuses, teams leaving, etc) largely driven by their huge losses last year with the major HF closures. 100% better position than DB, Jefferies, WF. UBS is still the United Bank of Switzerland...tough name to beat. The bank is also far more prestigious internationally than in the U.S.
3. Sponsors group does extremely well, and has for years. Fact of the matter is almost every deal that comes thru the bank is sponsor-backed, and has a sponsor relationship. UBS does not really do large corporate work aside from a few relationships of the big rainmakers at the top. Advisory has not been the strong suit of the bank for some time (since Ken Moelis, Aryeh Bourkoff (Liontree), Blair Effron (Centerview).
4. Despite all the crap UBS gets, placements can be incredibly strong. TMT had a few great exits last year, Sponsor/LF and M&A have strong exits as well. That said UBS is obviously not going to get you to top of the list for BX etc
5. Pay sucks compared to most of street. They have not raised base again yet, and last years bonuses were kind of garbage. It is also a 3 year A2A (you get title after 2.5 years, but pay does not change until end of year 3).
Sorry again for clickbait (I changed it) and thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed response.
All good man, happy to help out. Feel free to pm if you want any more details, something tells me this monkey sh*t is from a few salty jeff people and CS 1st years who dont want to face the music with what has been happening there
Lol, another UBS banker here. I think you're definitely inflating some things.
2. Our name brand is the only thing that is in a totally fine position, and UBS is far more prestigious internationally than in the U.S. because our international deal flow is far superior to our US deal flow. That really doesn't apply too much when we're focusing on the US operations, though. Also, in a year where every bank had record deal flow except for CS, our performance wasn't anything amazing. We still generated less than 75% of CS's total IB revenue despite CS imploding, and we generated roughly 70% of Jefferies IB's revenue. We may have had a decent year, but something that one simply can't ignore is that every year we're more and more carried by our BB reputation rather than our performance and it reflects in our pitch decks where we put together our league tables more and more. CS has largely concluded its exodus and I think they've bottomed out, and Jefferies has leapfrogged us, and we are without a doubt in a weaker position than we were in 2018 or so. DB's IB division has struggled for a while, so we should be above them. Also don't forget we saw a mini-implosion at UBS in the SF office, so we didn't go through the year without any struggles.
3. UBS is sponsor-driven (so are CS and Jefferies to an extent), so our sponsors group should be doing well considering our whole franchise is built on it. If our Sponsors group isn't doing well, that would mean our entire IB division would be under. It's like rewarding Citi DCM for doing well (they indeed do very well) when Citi's DCM underpins much of Citi's entire IB division.
4. Placements are decent. We do have some great exits from M&A and Sponsors. That being said, great is relative, and we're not nearly as strong as 5-6 years ago compared to some other firms. Back in 2017 or so, UBS's placements were actually very competitive across the board to CS placements, and far above all but a couple of groups at Jefferies. Don't get me wrong, we still have solid placement now, but I'd say on average our placements are noticeably worse compared to CS than in the past, and even Jefferies has caught up.
5. Agreed.
Once again, not trying to attack you, I just think your picture of us is a bit rosy. There's no denying that over the past 6-7 years, UBS has lost ground against some of its traditional BB competitors (CS, Barclays) as well as some newcomers also implementing UBS's Sponsor/Levfin-foundation IB model (Jefferies).
2. That was my whole point about prestige, of course its due to better deal flow over there. I was simply pointing out the quality of the brand still quite good despite all the crap it gets on this site which is largely American focused. CS has definitely not bottomed out, respectfully disagree and if you talk to anyone on the buy-side they will confirm the same. There has been significant talent drain there at the senior level. Jefferies also is still not a balance sheet bank, and that brand is not remotely on the level with UBS yet. In my opinion the "implosion" in SF is completely overblown...this is banking and senior teams routinely hop banks all the time. Give it another 6-12 months and the TMT group will be back to similar levels as before.
3. I don't really understand your point here...why are you discounting the performance of the group when I was answering OP's question for what group has been doing well? All I was saying is the bank is sponsor driven, and thus the sponsors group consistently is very strong.
4. Somewhat agreed, although I think exits are also partially driven by the people who get hired originally (lets face it, very few people coming to UBS are the typical candidates for mega fund exits in the first place...those kids are all at GS and MS).
I agree Barc in particular has outperformed, but right now I would rather be here than CS. And definitely over Jeff, RBC, Wells, etc. Jeff also does not have that strong of a sponsors franchise to be honest...their platform is carried by levfin because they can lever shit to the tits at 8x and above because they don't have to face the regulators like every other balance sheet bank does
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