Berenberg Bank?

Anybody heard of this place? From the limited info I can find they seem to be decent in ER. I kind of struck out with IB recruitment this year and I'm looking to join their rotational program between ER, S&T, and IB

If anyone has any insight on this bank it'd be much appreciated - specifically in London. Thanks WSO!

28 Comments
 

I‘m German and interviewed with Berenberg once. I‘ll start FT next year in London though did not take the offer. I‘m not an expert but I would not start FT at Berenberg or in ER to end up at a HF long-term probably. But it should be decent experience if you continue doing your masters for example? I mean it probably comes down to your alternatives

 

This is all second hand info from reading etc. As mentioned above, they're a German bank but they've been expanding quite a bit in London recently and have been competing with Numis and Peel Hunt for corporate broking services. They're definitely not top tier, but they're not unheard of either. Most people who have had a career in finance will at least know the name Berenberg. An offer here is definitely better than no offer and it will give you relevant experience to lateral to a different bank after a year.

I'd take an offer, especially in this climate.

 

Largely agree what comment nr. 1 said, strong in mid-cap ECM (You see them on basically every single MM IPO in Germany for example). Not such a big focus on M&A. Good first IB internship in Frankfurt though (second-hand experience from a friend). Just know it won't be a 100% M&A experience and can be very geared towards ECM.   

Can't comment on London office! Have seen a ton of their ER work on MM companies during an AM internship and think this is a big focus of them.

@OP, why not do something you're truly interested in? Not sure you'll have a good time in IB (esp. in an ECM-focused role with less "traditional exits") if you're not somewhat of a fan of the industry.

 

You're welcome. Hope it was at least of some help.

Like I said, from my very very very junior point of view I think they do quite well in ER but are almost exclusively MM focused since that's where they focus on ECM advisory.

Unfortunately, I can't really say which of the offers is better for your envisaged career trajectory. 

Is this discussion about SA or FT? I'm sure that the brand name of the BB could help a ton for FT hiring?

Hope other more experienced users can shed some light on it!

 

According to Bloomberg currently top 9 in EMEA Equity Offerings. Also very strong in ER and apparently has a great graduate program. 

 
Most Helpful

Very strong German bank, had expanded to the US and then pulled back (nice offices though), mid-tier London presence. 

Berenberg puts out these huge research pieces and pretends to be Bernstein, but the quality is vastly lower.

Would pick a BB over them any day, but not that bad of a place to be. In ER, really depends on the analyst. They have some decent ones and some really not decent ones... 

 

W/ these smaller ER bank roles, a lot of it really depends on the analyst. If your analyst is II ranked & is seen as a thought leader by the buy side, the chance of a move to the buyside after are is than if not-II ranked. 

The problem w/ a firm like Berenberg is analyst quality varies drastically. There are some that are complete trash (one in LDN comes to mind) and there are others that may be fairly good (don't know any off the top of my head). I'd suggest doing some due diligence on the analyst you would be working for before taking the offer.  

 

So it’s more about the deal sizes? How about the quality and reputation? Or greater size imply better reputation and quality.

 

Hi, you seem to be very familiar with these German "private banks". Would you have any info on pay in their ECM division at the Associate level? Many thanks in advance!

 

The bank runs its capital markets division in the Us. They have a small cap ecm shop which is decent also do equity research. The london branch is similar but they do more execution trading. Small presence in us but more presence in london mostly in capital markets. Exit opps are not the best I’ve heard from capital markets 

 

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