Best Groups in Hong Kong for Buyside Recruiting

What are the best banks/groups in Hong Kong for recruiting for buyside positions in mainland/HK? Would also be interested in hearing where past analysts from the said banks/groups are headed.

 

BB - Nat Resources. Working at a hedge fund now

Traditionally M&A or Consumer/Industrial analysts have a better shot at breaking into buyside here. Recruiting process is not as structured as the US - i.e. there is no specific time period in which buyside shops run their processes. Recruiters kind of reach out as and when positions become available - so keep your eyes open and network with as many people

 

Dude buyside recruiting here is not like in the US. It's not group dependent - just be at a BB, and don't be in ECM/DCM. The rest is up to your experience. The amount of modeling analysts do here is very random - it is up to the person and circumstance not the group.

If you want anecdotes I know of multi PE exits from JPM industrials, BAML M&A, BAML consumer, BAML industrials, MS M&A, DB M&A, CS TMT, UBS Real Estate. In no particular order.

But some of these also happen to be some of the biggest groups on the street so again, it's not up to the group...

 

Depends on the bank and also the situation on how the model is split between M&A and industry groups. At my bank, strong industry teams will do most of the heavy lifting, and handle the entire operating model. But is there some sort of NY-esque street-wide consensus group ranking like (1) GS TMT (2) MS M&A (3) JPM FSG? Definitely not...

In any case, M&A anything will give you options to buyside for sure. This goes without say... But assuming we are talking industry groups, where most people end up, you have to realize that up until very recently asia BB deals kind of suck (with exceptions of course). A lot of focus on debt, equity deals in the past. You could go a 2-year analyst stint in an industry team without doing any models. There are usually only maybe a couple modeling heavyweights in a lot of teams. Even recently during the M&A boom, a ton of the M&A deals we get at my bank seem to be take-private fairness opinions, where really the only model "building" is excel skills - you have to build as close to the management projection case as you can. It is much better to go to a team where the analysts/associates like you, because if they are comfortable with you and feel like doing you a solid, they won't mind walking you through a model. Even if its for a non-existent deal, back pocket, or a pitch.

Tl;dr Pick based on the people. But if you are the type that needs to rank literally everything, M&A, and then failing that go for Consumer/Industrials/TMT. If you end up in an industry team, and you happen to get an M&A situation, be proactive and you will get modeling work. If not, there is no guarantee at all (unlike if you were in, say, MS M&A in NY - there is no way to do a 2-yr stint without dealing with a model there)

 
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