So after 18 months we finally closed a sell-side + subsequent financing (>£8bn EV) and the fee was double digits as well.
We are now at the tombstone part and our back-office team does not want to sign-off on the numbers. They changed our policy to a max of 6 tombstones internally and only one per team. This deal had 7 teams working on it (Sectors, M&A, Sell-Side, LevFin, Rating, etc), so not even all MDs can get one, but in no case will a junior ever get a tombstone going forward. They only way you can get one is if you pay for it yourself.
Curious to hear if this is the case at other places as well (I am at a T2 BB (BAML/CITI/BARC)). The bill to get the tombstone for all juniors would be c. £2k, on a multi million fee, so seems insane that they ask us to pay for it no?
That’s fucked. Deal toys are sacred.
Don't let a salty back office ruin your fun. Go pay for that deal trophy and when you do take all cash and throw it in their face.
Had similar deal toy issues at DB. Firm limited the number for DB personnel and overall allocated a very small budget to deal toys, irrespective of fee size. Internal approval process was also painful.
First summers they refused to pay summers, now this. Seriously sounds like DB is under LBO.
Tell Karen to back the fuck off.
Absolute joke and just BO folks power tripping. Honestly only solution I see is other than paying out of pocket is to take it up with the MDs and have them push back given they'll be impacted too.
Put it with the MD and he agreed we should get them. I got some analysts in other teams riled up as well who went to their MDs. It has gone up the chain and now sits with the EMEA Head of Banking about a possible reversion of the policy as all Bankers agreed that juniors should get tombstones. Most MDs spend more in a week on travel than the tombstones would costs on a months long deal...
In my office the senior banker usually pays for the junior team's deal toys, might be worth floating around considering that they likely made a lot of money for themselves with the deal closing
A lot of companies take their status gongs very, very seriously and if you step out of line as a junior, it will be noticed and you will be tagged for termination. No joke.
I worked at Chase Bank before the merger and there was literally a 200-page book detailing what each of the 17 levels of executive could have as perks, down to stuff like the type of water jug on their desk.
+1 for status gongs. You should do an AMA, Prof. Especially since you worked in industry and now on the complete opposite side.
What is a status gong? I have a mental image, but it could be way off.
That's fucked. Sorry to hear, especially since a deal toy means a bit more to an analyst than an MD with thousands
Am I the only one who doesn't care about deal toys? Idk what to even do with them. They just take up space.
Yes you are literally the only one
LOL THIS IS GOLD
SEX TOYS > DEAL TOYS
such a great spot for a gif @AndyLouis
That’s unfortunate. Deal toys are getting rare these days but my bank (french IB) doesn’t have any restrictions - its up to the MD running the deal.
Can we all pray for the deal toy makers at this time? What if they go bankrupt and we have to make the deal toys ourselves? I'm not good at ceramics...
Saw this a while back and even though I'm an intern, can understand why people love them- it's a trophy/battle scar.
Seen at my BB they changed policy as they sent it round to everyone on mailing list- all internal deal toys have to be paid for as a personal expense... Hopefully it means you pay with it with a company card but if not that really is another L
Literally just ordered 16 deal toys, one of which was for the Assistant, and one for an intern. You really need a less stingy firm.
I managed to order 20 internal pieces in the end by utalising every loop hole I could think off. Basically made a separate project for every product delivered i.e. the M&A part, the financing part (both ECM & DCM), even the ratings part was it's own project. I then ordered the maximum internal amount of (the same) deal toys for each 'project'.
I got sign-off by the MD on how the allocate the fees per project, so in the end the procedure now is correct as basically the MDs will get the 4x the same deal toy and it is at their discretion to distribute it to juniors. Such a hassle to just get a deal toy whilst not breaking the rules... honestly I will probably just pay next time as this wasn't worth the effort of saving me 100 GBP or so.
Worth it to stick it to the man
pay them in pennies
dont have a single deal toy -- worked on an exclusive advisor: $3bn ipo and $1.3bn m&a deal :(
the only guy to ever give me a "deal toy" is the king kong banana trophy from Patrick... haha
On that note, how one could get the king kong silver banana?
Dumb question, what's a deal toy and tombstone? Sorry for being a newb!
This is going to sound a bit amateurish, but who pays for it? I never thought about my company's clients when I was in banking. Now that I'm in Corp Dev, I don't know if my bankers will send me one or if I need to order my own for the team.
Bankers pay for their clients. Just make sure you flag that you want one as they may restrict on purpose the number of people who receive it
I'm in Corp Dev and have seen the bank provide them, as well as having has to buy them myself. I've bitched to more than one senior banker that for x million in transaction fees I am disappointed to have to ask who is buying the bloody deal toys.
DB striking again... 😂
Clown move. Tell your MD.
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