Top groups at UBS London - need help choosing a group

Hey,

I am an incoming analyst and have to choose a group at UBS London. What are the strong groups at UBS London? I am mainly interested in exiting to PE so how does the lev fin at UBS London stack up against other banks? I also heard that the TMT is strong but what about the other product groups? Im French so pardon my English btw.

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UBS Lev Fi and HY has always been somewhat second tier in Europe, not because of overall lack of talent but more because of the lack of a balance sheet and inability to compete with the bigger banks in Europe in the LBOs. As a result UBS has typically been "on the right" and not led so many deals and been at the bottom of the league tables. I'm sure you'd still get decent experience though as they are active. And the M&A advisory side in Europe is top-notch for UBS so you'll get dealflow (or at least ops and co-manager roles) on account of that.

Also heard that the new CEO in London has been hiring "his guys" and even pushed out some of the old US team there so seem like it's going towards a more Euro-centric team/style.

In terms of hours I think it's sort of "work hard during the week, weekends mostly off" but that was a couple years ago and with the new leadership could have changed. I left UBS awhile ago and have slowly lost touch but that is my two cents hope its at least somewhat helpful.

 

Their ECM team are one of their strongest, but might not be what you're looking for in terms of exit ops. Their UK coverage team seems quite fun with good hours but v focused on relationship management - probably won't place in PE/HF. TMT is probably their strongest in London due to the relationship they have with Vodafone (and with consolidation expected in this sector they will be well placed).

 
unistudentI personally found the executions the most interesting part

That's an interesting line of work!

unistudentWould you say it is better to work in a small sized industry team and benefit from exposure to senior staff, or go for the large product team and build up execution experience?

I prefer working for an industry team... mostly because I enjoy following a particular industry, getting to know all the firms, etc. I also think it's more useful to learn about an industry rather than a product if you want to move into private equity.

 

Interned at UBS in London. PM me any specific questions you may have. But in general UBS M&A is considered to be more prestigeous in Europe than it's lev fin groups.

Just my 2c.

__________ Just my 2c.
 

UBS TMT used to be one of the best team in the City (Telcos especially was handling almost all the sellsides in Europe at some point) but the place really went downhill since 2008. I would still recommend you pick TMT though as its still better than other teams and I think they can still have some of the legacy relationships. Also TMT as a sector trains you well and is good for placing people into PE/VC.

Avoid Sponsors/LevFin and Healthcare which have a very bad rep. Heard Industrials is OK due to the bank's relationships with the German-speaking world

 

The Equity Trading division is very reputable. Other than that, much talent has left the bank, since they are about to considerably downsize their IBD division, so difficult to answer your question, since much talent is not there anymore.

 
acs_londonIf this thread was on dealbreaker you'd already have about 10 'UBS sucks' here. I was wondering why UBS gets so much hate from everyone, it doesn't seem to be doing that poorly in the league tables. Could someone shed some light?

I'm not sure why either. Dealbreaker is the worst with it, but I would take their flaming more seriously if they were to ever (god forbid) flame on an american firm (MS for example). Its a very US centric website full of some of the biggest douches on the internet.

 

FIG is very strong (and big group ~60 people in M&A FIG, + FIG DCM), with good presence across all industries (they did the capital raising for DB last summer, are regularly advising RBS, Santander...) + all the M&A is done in-house (no implication of the M&A group in FIG deals so great experience for modelling) for the sweatshop, kind of true, but TMT and GIG are as bad as FIG

Overall, great group MP for more details

avoid healtcare, dealflow is not great

 

all the big hitters are in NY. If it's a large deal it is usually run out of NY. The M&A team is good, but I think in the ranking UBS barely scrape top 10 in UK/EU. Dress is not business formal, you don't need to wear a tie, most people wear a suit with no tie, or smart trousers and dress shirt. In terms of analysts, if you're good you get great deal flow. My friend hated the team, as it is something of a star culture, but really, it's like any other team in the bank.

 

Ummm, I might have to slighly disagree with LdnMezz, UBS places in the top spots for M&A banks in Europe, they have a solid franchise in both US and EU market, and I would even tend to say that they are stronger in the UK.

For some cold number go check out Thomson, you will see that they are at the top of the league tables for a lot of things.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Remember, you will always be a salesman, no matter how fancy your title is. - My ex girlfriend

 

I should really put a disclaimer saying when I worked there. In reality, in all of our internal docs, we were ranked at least in the 2nd half of the top 10 in Europe, but i left a little while ago. All I can say without doubt is that UBS is excellent in Asia and Australia.


Are we talking about general corp fin encompassing equities etc or only m+a advisory by the way?

 

i agree with disjoint...checking out the thomson, they r ranked top 3 in investment banking revenues in europe, and and m&a advisroy....where they have leaped up a lot of places from seventh to second.....i m just wondering is this a one year wonder or is it a more consistent shift?

what do ppl who r based in london think??

 

I heard they're good, like top shelf good, but if LDNmezz worked there, that's always interesting insight (unless of course he's bitter - which is posisble given the shit these banks put us through)

 

Its really very good at M&A in europe, and in the UK prob even better (first this year i believe in the rankings, without massaging them)

Dress code is no way smart trousers, its suit and no tie, and i agree there is a star culture in m&a, but that applies to almost every team of every bank..

 

 LdnMezz - Does UBS take interns from the US for their London office or do these spots fill up with kids from EUR?  I'd really like to work in London and have been applying to all the BBs there, but I feel like I'm wasting my time.  Any thoughts?

 
 

if you could come over and do a year abroad here at university. That way there is a more natural synergy in terms of interviewing you. There was one canadian guy in my year who went to Queen's commerce which is an excellent undergrad business program, he was brought over to interview. I would never say never, but it will be a lot tougher, you could try calling up HR after you submit your application explaining your situation and why in particular you want to work here. Once you've done one app surely you can ctrl c/ctrl v your way through the others so give it a go, you never know what in your CV may appeal to them.

sa4hire

 LdnMezz - Does UBS take interns from the US for their London office or do these spots fill up with kids from EUR?  I'd really like to work in London and have been applying to all the BBs there, but I feel like I'm wasting my time.  Any thoughts?

 

I know UBS London very well...

1)There is no CEE FIG, just one large FIG team (50 or so) that covers the whole of Europe. There is a small CEEE country coverage team so you might get put in there but most of the Russian Coverage is done by the Moscow Office rather than London. Languages play a major role in SA allocation. They allocate on the premise that most of you will be converted so, for example, if you speak Russian and M&A don't have many Russian speaking analysts, there is a high chance you'll be put in there. Same applies with the sector teams and ECM. You'll just have to see what you're given. You can't give a preference...

2) About 50-60%

3)Look at the deals that UBS are working on. Try to understand the main principles of how deals are done and maybe know how to do BASIC DCFs, mergers models etc and comps. There are loads of resources out there.

4)Totally depends on the team. Most of the interns in our team where doing book after book after book i.e. putting it all together and checking it through. However I know interns who were modelling, doing comps and even meeting clients.

5)Not much really - read up as much as you can but it depends more on your skills than knowledge.

 

From memory i.e. when I did my internship (summer 2005).

M&A 6 GIG 5 FIG 5 Telco and Media 4 ECM 3 UK Coverage 3 Tech 2 Healthcare 2 Leisure 2 Infrastructure 2 Leveraged Finance 2 Financial Sponsors 2 Consumer and Retail 2 Utilities 2 CEEE Coverage 2 Dutch Coverage 1 Energy and Power 1

There is probably more but that is all I can remember. Bare in mind it will probably be a lot less in each team now.

 

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__________ Just my 2c.
 

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__________ Just my 2c.
 

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