There is a ton of IBD-related content on this site, I am starting this thread in an effort to meet some of the fellow WSO corporate bankers so that we can identify those in the industry for future discussions, Q&A, etc. I think it would definitely be useful to know your peer group in case you want to see what the other banks are doing, if you are being paid market, where the hiring is, etc.
Definitely curious to here who else here is in CB and what industry group / region you guys are in and at what level.
Kyc, I am sure experience varies by group. I am at a top corp. banking group focused in a certain industry, can tell you the work is anything but mind numbing.
First for the bridges I have mentioned, we do our modeling in-house rather than using model from M&A team, etc. as we are less concerned with accretion/dilution, EPS, but cash flow/leverage/debt service and build out a full model.
I see plenty of pitch books from other parts of the bank I would much rather be writing a credit approval and analyzing the company/industry/financials than cranking out models 24/7 without actually understanding the industry or how the client fits into it. Our Lev Fin. team is top notch overall and having worked on several leveraged deals with them on names that I cover, I can tell you that the analysts/associates do not know much about the industry. In fact the corporate banker (RM) and guys on corporate banking credit side have a much better understanding.
Majority of work at the analyst level is spent fully underwriting deals and doing the credit write up. For a bridge deal going to the top of the house the amount of work put into the process is far greater than the Lev. Fin write ups I have seen. In the investment grade space most common deals you will see nowadays with the exception of large multi-billion syndicated revolvers will be bridge financing in support of M&A.
To clear up any misconceptions you may have, we do op not use MRA for credit analysis, internal process is not a huge focus (underwriting/quality of our analysis is). I'd honestly much rather write a credit approval and run a model and understand the industry of my coverage universe than crank models out all day and make pitch books, having been copied on plenty of emails from our IBD groups its not a job that I would envy. With that said you obviously have better exits into PE/HF/VC whereas from CB youd go into a credit focused fund, rating agency, corporate finance, etc.
oh great, another thread that started out well and turned into "IB is more prestigious than _____ because blahblahblah."
wouldn't expect anything less after a long weekend away from WSO.