I'm interested in people's views of the most important market trends and issues for investment banking in Asia Pacific at the moment. If you were the Asia Head of Investment Banking for a BB bank, what would be the top 5 items on your list of issues at the start of 2014?
Any input much appreciated!
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retrenchments
Thanks SSits. Do you think IBs are specifically pulling back from Asia (and if so, why), or is this just part of general trimming of balance sheets and focusing on core businesses given the increasing regulatory capital requirements, regulatory issues, etc?
-Still not seeing the growth in IB fees that prompted a lot of the big banks to build out their HK/China offices pre-2008 -Continued layoffs and poor hiring at most banks in Asia for IBD, due to the above -Growing activity stemming from SE Asia versus sluggish activity from Greater China (constant fears of China slowdown and a "hard landing") -Within IBD, continued reliance mostly on IPO business, M&A markets still not very active in Asia
Thanks asiamoney, v useful
Curious how IB work is structured in Asia (HK SG regional hub vs. local execution) (Originally Posted: 12/31/2013)
Hi Monkeys,
I justed wanted to understand how bulge brackets which have regional headquarters in HK and SG does its business in Asia, particularly in SE Asia such as Thailand, Manila, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam.
What role does the regional HK/SG team, which covers the whole Asia - ex Japan region, play vis a vis their local team counterpart and how do they work together?
Obviously this is an advantage if you are in HK/SG - but what about the other side of the fence? Does that mean that if you are a banker in these emerging markets you get limited exposure in modeling / creating pitches and do more on execution and distribution / relationship management? Or do they just arbitrarily divide work according to bandwith and capacity? Or other ways?
Any insight on why this is the model of choice for BB's (local representation w/ HK/SG hub?) Is it lack of deal flow, scale, etc.?
Thanks!
I was told that in Vietnam it's more about origination/relationship managing. Heavy lifting is done by the SG team. One of the biggest upcoming IPOs in Vietnam is done by Citi SG.
Thanks for that Ezio. Anyone else, how about other parts of Asia? Like China, Manila, Thailand Malaysia Indonesia etc?
Also, what's the difference between the SG and HK regional hub for bulge brackets? How do they differ if they cover both?
Asian IB outlook (Originally Posted: 11/06/2008)
Hi,
Does anyone have a sense of how things are going in Asia? I've heard that things are currently pretty slow, but does anyone have insight as to whether investment banking activity in Asia may pick up faster than in the U.S or Europe due to faster GDP growth?
Thanks, Jimbo
From what I know, things are pretty bad right now. Most of deals are delayed because the market is hit pretty bad.
Job-wise is not good at all. I heard a round of cuts were made last couple weeks and another probably around Dec. 2nd yr US MBAs are saying the Asian IB job market is worse that US/UK!
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If I'm not wrong, IB offers from Asian offices are either exploding offers or have an extremely short response deadline. In other words, you would have had to make a decision before US recruiting starts.
Batman is correct.
^ lol
Advice - Investment Banking in Asia (Originally Posted: 07/01/2012)
Hi All,
I just wanted to get some advice from you guys regarding my current scenario and perhaps get some feedback around my prospects of landing a job in investment banking. In particular, I am aiming to get into a BB firm in Singapore/HK/Shanghai in a year or two's time.
By way of background, I am currently 26 and am from Brisbane, Australia. I am of Chinese origin (moved from Hong Kong to Australia when I was young) and hence, I am fairly fluent in both Mandarin and Cantonese (speaking and reading). However, I am unable to write Chinese - which is an area of focus for me in the next two years.
In terms of education, I studied Accounting & Finance at an average university in Brisbane but managed to score fairly high marks. On top of that, I have already finished my Chartered Accounting course (obtaining merits in two subjects) and have passed two levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst Program (still awaiting my results for level three - fingers crossed!!).
I currently work in corporate finance at an international mid-tier accounting firm and have been heavily involved with financial modelling, valuation and M&A work for mid-sized clients. Whilst I am a manager in that division, I have only really 2 years of true corporate finance experience as I worked as some research analyst in a tax division beforehand.
In terms of my questions:
I know that most investment banks have target schools and, unfortunately being situated in Australia.. the schools here are probably not too flash in comparison to those in the States. As a result, I was hoping to get some feedback as to what you guys think my employment prospects would be per my current situation? Do I have no chance?
Apart from networking, is there anything I can actually do to improve my prospects, so that I can stand out?
I am assuming that I will be targeting the Associate level, if I was to apply for any investment banking position. Is this assumption correct, or am I overshooting in terms of expectations?
Are there other options out there I should be considering (i.e. moving to a local big 4 bank and leveraging off their Asian presence for a transfer and then consider moving to a IB?)
Thank you in advance for your recommendations!
I would be thinking about getting an MBA at a university which is a target for IBs in those locations. Most associates have MBAs. Plus, this can help make up for your non-target undergrad school.
Chinese people love degrees..
You should get an MBA. A lot of the associates/analysts in Asia I've met or know of are either planning to get one, in one right now, or already got one. So, basically if your in Asia, going to Stanford GSB, Harvard, Wharton will help alot... Also, as a side note the spots for Asia are not as huge as US so you probably do want to be from a target school.
IBD in Asia (Originally Posted: 08/22/2010)
Folks,
I'd need some help on identifying the 'best' BB in Asia ex-Japan for an Associate position in terms of deal flow, culture, salary+bonus, exit opportunities, etc. Excluding China where it is necessary to know Mandarin, what can you tell me about HK? Is Singapore so bad?
I am particularly interested in MS: how is the culture? What are the major differences with GS and JPM?
Background: Dutch, top-10 MBA, 2 years M/B/B before MBA. Many classmates applied for SA positions (some of them very top notch) and did not get even R1 interviews.
The following M&A League Table Asian Target ex-Japan (Year-to-Date) may help the discussion: Rank Financial Advisor Ranking Value inc. Net Debt of Target ($Mil) Mkt. Share Number of Deals 1 MS 26,253.40 14.5 28 2 GS 18,452.94 10.2 21 3 JPM 16,959.24 9.4 15 4 Standard Chartered PLC 14,910.56 8.2 11 5 CS 14,181.29 7.8 24 6 China International Capital Co 12,729.89 7.0 21 7 Rothschild 11,684.02 6.5 13 8 Nomura 11,496.29 6.4 12 9 CIMB Group Sdn Bhd 9,388.46 5.2 29 10 Deutsche Bank AG 8,866.42 4.9 15
(© 2010 Thomson Reuters. All Rights Reserved.)
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No? Just had a business trip to SE Asia and MS is definitely the top in terms of absolute deal size. however, GS carries more laymen's prestige.
The culture of IBD in Asia is definitely more uptight, as they are more strict with professionalism and timelieness
Bump. Curious as well. What are the work hours like in IBD in Asia? Does it go beyond 100+/wk? Considering how we all know Japan/any other asian country works on average, more than the US/EU/UK.
I interned at an IBD of a large commercial bank over the summer in Korea.
I can give you a decent picture of IBD in Korea. Honestly, the biggest difference are the cultural norms in Asia. There's much more of a social hierarchy, people are generally more reserved. It's really hard to generalize, is there anything specific that you want to know?
if you don't know any of the mainstream asian languages (i.e. mandarin, korean, japanese), it will be a huge waste of time for you to go to Asia. That might be one of the main reasons why your classmates didn't get interviews
Anyways, business is all done in relationships in Asia and the culture is more strict. Gotta know the right people or you won't last long there especially as a foreigner.
Interesting insight. So you think this is going to be a waste of time applying for a FT position because I do not know a local language?
I am not really interested in South Korea, China and Japan. My targets are HK and Singapore. I heard that they speak English in these offices. What should I do? I am not planning to stay there just for a couple of years.
Regarding my classmates, the situation is really crazy. Some of them are real superstars but they were not even invited for first rounds. On the other hand, it seems that many people (some of them on this forum) did manage to transfer to Asia. I can recall a Canadian girl (snowrice) who somehow managed to get into GS Singapore. I wonder how is that possible. Especially without a top MBA!
More opinions would be really appreciated.
I'm looking at Hong Kong FT job listings on my school's career site, and a bank that posted for an associate position (BB) seem to require proficiency in Cantonese and ability to read/write Chinese.
HK and Singapore mostly speak english in their offices. I know in S. Korea if you work at a foreign IBD you speak english in the office.
they do speak english in the office to each other. But how you communicate with the client mostly in canto/mandarin.
Some of the BB banks require the associate and analysts to speak mandarin,too.
Singapore might be easier for you to get in so try focus on that area, since the business there is sometimes conducted in English.
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