London 2017 IBD SA Offers - Nomura vs UBS

If you want to have more exposure to the Italian business world then go UBS. no brainer. they have very high profile Italians as heads. the CEO and Andrea Orcelli come to mind.

bump

both are crap - go with UBS

-

In London? UBS over Nomura.

UBS, the name gets you into more places should you need it

Weigh up London being Nomura's only European office vs. Europe + UK being UBS' home turf

I'd choose UBS. It seems Nomura's focus is shifting away from London (Europe) since it has culled its entire European equity research in 2016 (around 500 people) and exited most of its European equities business. I guess Nomura realized that they've overreached with the acquisition of Lehman's European business in 2008.

Where did you like the people more? Have you spoken to people who actually work at either of these places (excluding interviews obvs)? Have you thought about team selection? Maybe you have a connection at one of your preferred teams at one of the banks?

Once you get in the bank experiences can massively differ between teams (i.e. Nomura TMT has the longest hours - literally every single day until 3 am, do you know which teams at UBS are sweatshops?). You need to speak to people at both places who can share their honest views and then make a decision based on culture. What you learn will not be too different at Nomura or UBS.

PM me if you want any further info..

UBS. Also, the only exit op you should be looking at now is your final university year.

Are you talking about ft offer or internship?

Have had experience with both firms over the years and have friends working at both places.

UBS enjoys a better reputation given the successful restructuring Orcel and Ermotti did in 2013-2014, essentially exiting the FICC business. They've tried to rebuild the IB business as well and a number of very good bankers have left - Warshaw, Hartop, Reid, the list goes on. New people have been brought on board, but many have failed to impress and have since left or were let go...There is a lot of instability in the organisation and people are being let go all the time - from analyst to MD. TMT and FIG are probably the two teams where you will get excellent experience as an analyst and equally, these teams are known to be pretty hardcore. ECM is strong as well and you will have good dealflow, but your experience would be quite different from your peers in sector teams.

Nomura has had a number of tough years post Lehman, which culminated in the closing of Equities and ECM businesses in Europe last year. A large number of ex-Lehmanites have left over the years, yet plenty of them are still around. From recent discussions with a number of people there, it certainly feels that the business is performing well (both on M&A and LevFin sides) and is on an upward trajectory overall. Nomura's strongest teams are LevFin, TMT, Consumer & Retail, Financial Sponsors. Notably, Nomura has a much stronger LevFin franchise vs UBS (and, as a matter of fact, a number of other players on the Street). Again, experience would be quite specific and not directly comparable to that of your peers. However, exits from LevFin to PE are much easier than from ECM.

Your exit opps will depend on the team you will end up at and your own performance. On balance, comparing teams like for like, you would probably get marginally better chances coming out of UBS. Again, LevFin is probably going to be the only exception to this rule.

It is difficult to choose and without knowing the full details it is quite difficult to provide meaningful advice. For me it would mostly come down to the choice of the team (as per above some teams are much stronger than others).