New Article: Dramatic Slide as UBS #22 (US) & New Leadership Desperately Needed

EFinancialcareers:

One week ago, UBS ranked 22nd for US M&A deals measured in terms of fees generated according to Dealogic figures. The Swiss bank ranked well behind the likes of Houlihan Lokey (10th) and Barclays (9th). Five years ago, UBS and Credit Suisse in combination ranked 4th in the US M&A market in the first half of the year. Even after the chaos of the merger, the combined banks ranked 14th in the first half of 2023. The slide has therefore been dramatic.”

“UBS hired over 25 senior bakers from Barclays after acquiring Credit Suisse. Some Credit Suisse bankers were unhappy with this and have complained ever since that that the Barclays bankers were a bad idea. Now that their allegedly large guaranteed bonuses have expired, the Barclays hires are likely to move on.”

40 Comments
 

Just google filter 2023-2024 and “UBS bank hires” “investment banker”

You’ll easily be able to find the articles and 99% of these MDs were trash, and I’m still searching for the 1% who weren’t trash

 

Barclays homies thought their massive guarantees meant they now worked at Goldman and could do deals like Goldman. 
Turns out they were no more than overpaid used car salesmen with a laundry list of evolving excuses.

 
Funniest

At least analysts are working 5 days in office! That will turn things around 

 
Controversial

Internationals at UBS are a million times smarter and work way harder than Americans - nothing worse than a lazy and entitled American analyst who can’t even build a basic LBO

 

Dumb internal politics and fighting (CS, UBS, ex-Barclays) meant the PF bank bled the best people from each of their respective groups going in.

In my group, the best MDs (and EDs, Ds, Asos) etc all went elsewhere and only the duds are still left at the bank. 

 

Another MD that was hired from Barclays has left the bank. That marks the 3rd one to do so - they left for WF, RBC and Bofa.

The Barclays / Lehman Bros era of nepotism and incompetence is coming to an end.

Sergio, fire Marco Valla NOW

 

Hardegree (tech), Keller (m&a) and the tech guy fired for compliance reasons lol

Ubs bankers cant actually do the job so they jump when their guarantee is over

 

Get ready to work with the most unmotivated people at associate and above ranks who are only at the firm because of their visa or because they are so bad that they cannot leave. Nobody should stay at UBS after an analyst stint. If you want to do banking longer-term, you should lateral ASAP. Harder to lateral as an associate 2 with no deals vs. an analyst 1 with no deals. Hard to leave as an almost VP when you have no selected transaction experience outside of leveraged finance and passive bookrunner IPO roles.

 

no it’s fun actually to do memos for LF financing deals at 2 am with visa slaves and mentally deficient ASOs/Ds who couldn’t exit. Way better than spending time with friends or family! 

 

When I was young I dreamed of creating extra pages and aligning formatting across product and coverage teams for internal memos past midnight everyday. UBS is truly paradise.

 

the usage of H1B and STEM OPT visas in some of these groups is so unethical… not sure if still the case, but my group had unofficial policy of hiring 50% international for analysts/Asos. Because their employment status was tied to the job and they couldn’t leave

 

 literally foreign scab labor depressing wages and working conditions for Americans 

 

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