Is Ireland cooked ?
Hello guys
Topic is a little bit clickbait. However
Couple monthes ago, I made my dream come true and went to Ireland from Portugal and currently chilling in Cork for a month from now
It is pretty expensive but fulfilling
Was searching for information about potential IB or PE vacancies (1 year in Portuguese IB boutique) and kind of surprised that only Barclays is hiring.
I know that in Ireland, a lot of "tax optimization" companies that are not operate usually like in USA or UK, but is it so bad with IB and PE opportunities ?
Because I was expecting GS, MS, JP and other BB to operate here actively, but now it's seems upside-down
LOL, region is set as UK automatic 🤣, sry Irelands
There is really no on the ground boots in Ireland for virtually all investment banks. Maybe you’ll find some local boutiques. Ireland is covered by UK&I IB coverage teams out of London. It’s just not economically efficient to run local teams with associated central / overheads when it’s 1h flight away and people speak English (so no need for localized presence etc).
You’ll find other advisors (eg EY etc) which theorically “compete” with their london offices but fundamentally cater to those processes where sponsors / founders want a cheaper service at expense of a bit of quality (sometimes they have mixed models with junior billable hours in Ireland and a few h of london partner hours). That doesn’t work with global investments banks given they have min fee thresholds which are standardised globally
Thanks for the detailed insight.
Out of curiosity — what about strategy or finance roles within local blue-chip companies or production hubs in Ireland?
If IB coverage is mostly handled from London, maybe there’s more potential on the corporate side? Or would it make more sense to look at similar roles in EU leaders like Germany instead, idk?
Because London is quite expensive for me, and obtaining a visa would be required, which I’d prefer to avoid.
It really depends what language you speak - for any continental Europe role you’ll have a hard time if you don’t speak the local language (eg German)
Surely there’s opportunities on the corporate side in Ireland, can’t provide much insight given it’s not really my focus. I would just map a little bit what you want to do and figure out who the local or international companies that have ops in Ireland and fit your skills are
No, not at all. You can easily cover Ireland from London, most banks have a 'UK&I' coverage team, (some banks even cover the Nordics directly from London)
I see, but currently I'm not in London, so it's a big disadvantage for me :)
Ireland is probably more insurance, consulting and Big4 services than pure play financing, M&A and securitization like London. Given the cultural and language overlap and how it's easy to fly from Dublin to London, most banks will cover it from London. No compelling argument to open an office in Belfast or Dublin. You'd get boutiques with Irish client relationships like Jamieson or Davy & Co but not many pure IBs there given the London coverage. This isn't to say Ireland isn't worthy of coverage, it is very lucrative and hot in motor finance, governments selling stakes in the big 3 main banks, plenty of mid-market healthcare and industrials deals going on there - it's just much better to cover from London.
some good feedback above. would also echo that the big 4 has a good presence there on the TAS side but again would view it as a stepping stone to london which doesnt seem like a long-term goal of yours. AIB and BoI has some interesting groups in the leveraged finance and infra lending side, with local teams there tending to both Europe and North American markets. The other angle i would point you to, is a healthy private credit and CLO footprint there. Many of the large PE shops have bought up CLO managers there and more recently have built out PC verticals.
Yep, the Dublin Big4 to London IB must be significantly underreported in net migration figures. Met about 5m Irish bankers (all from Trinity College and the same suburbs of Dublin) in London, the Irish mafia is real.
Jokes aside, big4 does have a solid presence in Dublin which is a good stepping stone to pivot into (mostly) middle-market IBs in London
Is big4 audit to London MM IB a realistic path? Which London IBs are open to ex-big4 / anyone with "non-traditional" backgrounds?
Would echo what’s been said above
Most domestic M&A is handled by Big 4 and boutiques such as IBI Corporate Finance (DC Advisory acquired them in 2023), Clearwater, Key Capital, Pegasus, as well as Davy and Goodbody (both of whom are more known for their wealth/investment management arms). All of the above are common stepping stones to IB roles in London after a few years. Big deals will be done from London by BB/EB banks
As someone else pointed out, there are quite a few good credit shops here including Blackstone, KKR and Guggenheim which all pay quite well. Bank of Ireland do some leveraged finance and DunPort Capital Management are well regarded for LMM private credit.
On the quant/trading side, there is Susquehanna and Virtu financial who will pay grads the highest salaries in the country (150-200k+ for quant trading/research roles I believe)
For consulting, McKinsey have an office here as well but can’t comment on how strong their practice is. The rest is handled by big 4
Tech is quite strong here with Meta, Google, Stripe etc having offices here.
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