Investment Banking in Poland: deals, prestige hours, lifestyle etc.

Hi everyone

Recently noticed an increasing interest in the Polish Investment Banking scene, with firms like GS, MS, JPM and Rothschild having their offices in Warsaw. Is there anybody in here who could perhaps say a few words about the types of deals done on the Polish scene, office atmosphere across the firms, recruitment process and lifestyle in general? How does thta compare to, for instance, London?

Thanks in advance

29 Comments
 

Rothschild is the only company that has a sizable team in place and does executions from Warsaw. The other banks (there's GS, MS, JP, UBS, I think there's also Jefferies) have mostly relational people (and 1-2-3 junior staff), and execution is done in London or other offices.

 

PwC M&A is the only legit shop there. London money in LCOL area, you mad?

 

They pulled a lot of Middle and Back office from London and sometimes from India. Basically people who don't need to sit in HCOL running the bank processes. It's stuff like product control, accounting, trade settlement/processing/support, AML/KYC etc.

 
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Ib scene is very small. As someone mentioned: rotschild, santander (infra team), jp morgan (its like 2 people xD), morgan stanley, pko (polish bank).

You also have pwc team which is the largest and is run in a similar fashion to IB, including the compensation.

Deals are only in CEE, but most of the time you have exposure to international buyers (strategic and financial)

 
Most Helpful

Only Rothshild has sizeable FO team, JPM, Jeff, MS have 1-3 people, mostly relationship senior bankers. However there are good local boutiques which pay good bucks and 100%+ bonuses. Compensation is not comparable to London in nominal terms, however taking into account COL and favourable tax system you end up with similar number saved up at the end of the year (after bonuses) vs London (I know that is hard to believe, but it's true).

You work much less vs London on average (rather 60h per week) and have mostly local deals in CEE, with sell-side exposure to international PE funds.

 

Hey B_B

I hope you are well:)

I saw your comment from 2 years ago about the Polish IB market. Are you Polish and speak from your experience? If yes, I would love to connect and ask some questions if you have some spare time!

 

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