HK/SG Investment Bank Rankings
Hey all, I'm currently an analyst/associate in one of the international bulge brackets in Hong Kong/Singapore and have a general idea on how the banks are ranked in the respective regions but would like the hear what the rest of you think.
Just a quick note that this is just a space to express your opinions, so would be great to also let us know how you base your "ranking" by (i.e. work-life, all-in comps, prestige, deal flow etc.). Cheers, looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Would have to disagree a bit. Some banks like BAML and Barclays are strong in the US but not so much in Asia. On the contrary, CS, UBS, and HSBC are much stronger in Asia. Would also add that MS seems to be stronger than GS in China.
Based on what I've heard from previous interns & various full-timers, the leaders in the field (in terms of deal flow) are MS/CS/Citi (GS has fallen off the top 3 after the entire 1MDB scandal).
Following that you would have JP/BAML/UBS, but not necessarily in that order as it kind of gets murky around here. These guys typically often do landmark deals every now and then.
CS is an exception in that they typically do smaller deals but have an insane deal volume - writing plenty of credit memos for some of their wealthy PB clients. Their team in SG is easily double the size of most of the other BBs.
Hope this helps.
Currently an analyst in one of the BBs in SG I can say this is extremely accurate, although I would group JP with MS/CS/Citi as they definitely have a very solid SEA coverage team. The rest of the BBs (BAML/Barclays/UBS) have decent SEA presence, while DB and GS are probably the smallest two BBs here, with less than 20 bankers in Singapore. Other notable banks with decent presence are HSBC, Nomura and BNP Paribas.
For EBs, Evercore is pretty strong, probably comparable to the mid tier BBs? Lazard recently shut down their SEA M&A practice, while Rothschild has solid deal flow but mostly plays in the MM space.
In HK at least, MS>GS>JP=Citi>CSBAML>the rest of the BBs. EBs other than Rothschild seem to be struggling. Outside of this BB/EB framework, Chinese players (mostly CICC) are doing well too. Everything else you can disregard.