High finance in Madrid
Hi monkeys, winter is coming to London which only means one thing - thoughts of going back to the motherland, where the sun shines and you can get a pint for less than 7 quid (8 in Mayfair), are starting to creep back in...
Was wondering if anyone had an updated view on the "high finance" landscape in Madrid. From my perspective:
- IB
- BBs / EBs: same pay as in London but confined to Spanish coverage, often with quite "vintage" cultures vs London (to put it mildly)
- Local boutiques: significant downgrade in pay and deal exposure, but still solid for Madrid's cost of living
- PE
- MFs: roughly same pay as in London, but very small teams with arguably little to no deal flow, also takes ages to promote and you are at constant risk of office closure from weak fundraising (except perhaps the more RE / infra focused players?)
- Local PEs: downgrade in pay (perhaps with the exception of Asterion?) and fairly standard deals, nothing too esoteric but will put food on the table, quite hard to get significant carry since partners will stay there forever
- HFs
- Balyasny used to have a tiny office in Pozuelo with one pod but have closed it earlier in the year (probably due to performance but who knows), no other MM in the city
- Other SM / LO funds seem to be more like actively managed mutual funds (with non-controversial strategies and low pay) rather than sophisticated HFs
Have heard of some people that manage to pull a hybrid setup where they work in London but live in Madrid (fairly sceptical of this to be honest).
Have I missed anything? What are the top firms for each bucket?
And ultimately, what does the Madrid "golden path" look like?
Following - similar boat in NYC…
following
I mean it is in your answer, go to a large international corporation paying you London wages but back home. Who cares about dealflow or getting fired, just with that you will sustain a kingly lifestyle and be back home. And you can find another job easily.
Agreed this is the clear answer, question is whether anyone has some insight on (i) IB vs PE vs HF, and (ii) whether you're confined to Spanish coverage or if you can cover EMEA more widely anywhere
Thoughts?
PE by default as HFs are non-existent. You will cover Spain/Iberia, but again who cares? The best coverage are the MF teams that don’t do shit but still collect the same comp and fund carry as the ones grinding 100h weeks (like TMT/Biz Services in LDN). Sure at some point your career will plateau but believe me no one was making partner anyway.
top BB regional offices like JPM get bumfucked in terms of hours. Wouldn't worry about the Iberia only coverage because you will be cross-industry working on all of the deals basically in the country. So still good exposure
Have heard similar things... Not sure if anyone has intel on which banks have the best / worst cultures (e.g. Laz has the reputation for being hell on Earth)
Its Madrid. Within finance the only realistic path to making $$$ is to be a career banker (as the PEs usually have dinosaurs on top who will only retire on their funeral). Similarly, it provides amazing money vs CoL
Put those two together and you have a lot of people willing to work long hours, meaning WLB is bad everywhere
Places that I know personally to be sweaty (in no particular order): Evercore, Lazard, JPM, Citi, GS, BofA, Jefferies - Might as well say all of them are…
There are seis-siete reasons why paris beats madrid for finance
What are the other decent local infra players? I’ve only heard of Asterion but curious to know more
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