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2/3/4. Culture is definitely extremely competitive. Small market, hence very little FO positions. To just be an analyst, you need your MBA and grad from extremely competitive schools (schools with 99% cutoff in a country as big as India). So no, you cant join as an associate directly (or its extremely rare). My own path is probably the most unconventional, because I made analyst and even associate, without an MBA. More than cut throat its more common kissing your bosses ass. You make associate after the standard 3 years (Boutiques however have no rules).
IB is kinda sad in India all in all, but the buy side is a different story!
The most active foreign banks in India are MS (especially for tech/internet) and CS. Moelis has decent deal flow too. The rest (GS/JPM/UBS/Barclays etc) don't matter and might do a deal every now and then.
The reason is because most of the deals are $100Mn and given the cost structure of foreign banks, such deals don't make economic sense. Therefore in league tables Indian banks (Kotak, ICICI, Avendus, KPMG, Arpwood etc) are over-represented.
Also most deals (counting only advisory deals, not capital markets deals) in India are financing deals (raise funds from PEs and VCs essentially private placements), and not M&A deals as India is still in the 'growth stage' where firms can grow organically and don't need necessarily need M&A to grow, unlike in the mature economies of the West. These financing deals require a different mindset and are smaller ticket size which many BBs don't want to do for aforementioned reasons.
Disagree. Apart from Mumbai, no other city in India is even remotely good for finance jobs - by which I mean IB/PE/VC/Funds, and not corporate finance. Bangalore has VC firms and a couple of investment banks (DCS Advisory being the top) but it's a definite distant second to Mumbai. Cities like Hyderabad just don't count. NCR has a few VC funds as well. But if you want to be someone in finance in India you need to be in Mumbai.
My credentials to comment: I went to one of the top 3 IIMs and worked for 3 years in FO at one of the top banks mentioned in the thread.
Does anyone know how exactly the IB structure works? Ie BBs Vs EBs vs Boutique vs Big 4. heard fees are tight and banks do left led deals for just the position on the tombstone. find that hard to believe but sounds like too many cooks for a small pie. lastly, how strong are PE firms in India? In US, PE firms are huge and banks are usually bending over backwards to win deals. Heard PE hasn’t developed too much in India cause businesses are still family owned. trying to understand the landscape there.
India is an over-banked market. Too many banks chasing too few deals driving down the fees and increasing the stress levels for senior bankers.
Interestingly, PE in India is also an "over-invested" market. As you mentioned most of the companies are founder/family driven (or "promoter driven" in Indian parlance) and most of them have huge corporate governance issues. Therefore there are not too many 'investible' companies in India which drives the multiples up for the few that are. Hence a PE fund needs to overpay to win deals.
Exits in India are also not that great - the M&A eco-system in underdeveloped coupled with the fact that because of the above, the asking price is far too high. Therefore you can exit mainly through IPOs in bull-runs, which obviously don't happen on a consistent basis.
Hence Indian PE as an asset class hasn't performed too well, apart from a few firms that stand out and are able to raise new funds consistently.
I really appreciate the fact that you are taking out the time to help people out. But honestly, most of what you have shared here is factually inaccurate. I don't mean to demean you in anyway, but please stick to advising people on boutiques and not comment on things like BB recruiting and salaries because it doesn't seem like you know what you're talking about. Saying stuff like Oxbridge or NUS grads get great opportunities in India because their degrees are relatively valued higher is absolute shit. The only foreign University grads who are truly given priority in India come from top tier US universities. The folks who can afford such expensive education generally have better connections with senior bankers and that's why you see the occasionally NUS/Oxford grad pop up here and there.
Boutiques in India are also varied in nature. There are quite a few decent ones in Bombay and 1 or 2 in Delhi, and they generally focus on hiring CAs. The ones who go beyond hiring from SRCC/NMIMS/Christ are generally absolute shit and aren't worth looking at. Besides this, I have idea how could you even compare Bombay and Bangalore for finance (?????). I can't think of a single non-vc firm that even has a front office in Bangalore besides the super tiny GS team (like 5 odd people).
GS is nowhere near the top of the table in India and barely wins any business here. They also don't do the biggest deals or anything of that sort. The do a cross border m&a deals once in a while and it's generally sourced from their international offices.
US salaries are nowhere near 5x of what they are at Indian banks. The higher up you climb in the quality of banks, less is the difference. Banks such as Citi and MS pay about 60 lakhs on average to first year analyst. Besides that, I noticed you said going from Indian m&a to US MF PE is possible. This is partially true. There are a few MBAs from M5 schools who definitely get in, but all those jobs are in growth equity. Indian m&a, even at MS and Citi, don't really train you for LBOs since they aren't legal in India. PE firms such as KKR generally have to focus on Controlled buy outs in India. Because of this, no banker with m&a experience in India has been able to break into MF PE for LBOs atleast for the past 5 years even from M5 schools.
The ass kissing part to get promoted is only valid for BO jobs/ jobs at shit banks. Having received a full time offer from a top tier boutique in India, that's really not the case at places like Avendus, Citi, MS, JPM, Kotak, Moelis, and Axis to say least.
It's definitely okay to have a difference in opinion, but please get your basic facts checked before misguiding folks on the internet. Best of luck.