SPRING 2016
Learn everything about
Algorithm Trading and the
increasing of its usage!
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P
Mergers, Investment Banking
Club competitions and more:
Get up to date with the club’s
activities and research!
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Dear MUTIS Members,
We hope that your exams went well and that you are looking forward to yet
another semester with MUTIS.
Autumn 2015 has been a successful time for our Society. We have
cooperated with our sponsors in organising plenty of career events and
networking opportunities for our members and other university students.
Moreover, we had the opportunity to welcome several great speakers and
industry professionals during our Annual Finance Conference – you can read
the full report from the conference on page 4.
Throughout the semester and continuing on to this year our Investment
Banking Club and Macro fund have attracted many of you. We truthfully
hope that you found the information and experience gained during those
meetings interesting, motivating and helpful in your applications. We would
also like to thank all of you who contributed to the content of those
meetings.
Last but not least we are exceptionally happy to say that throughout the
semester a substantial amount of our members have managed to secure
spring weeks, internships and graduate roles with some of the most
prominent financial institutions. Congratulations! For those of you yet
looking for a position, we would like to wish you the best of luck and remind
you that MUTIS is always here to help you. Therefore, do not hesitate to
contact anyone in our Committee if you need support or have any questions.
We wish you best luck in your studies in semester two.
Yours faithfully,
Zuzanna Olczak Egidijus Bertulis Danish Yasin
President Chairman Vice President
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Algorithmic Trading 1
2015 MUTIS Finance Conference 4
The Investment Banking Club
The $6 Billion Fat Finger
Pfizer and Allergan $160bn Merger
Western Digital’s $19bn acq. of SanDisk
Investment Banking Competition
7
8
9
10
12
Macro Investment Fund Report 13
Break into Investment Banking: Learn from the people who
did
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W Contents
1
Algorithmic trading (automated
trading, black-box trading, or
simply algo-trading) is the process
of using computers programmed
to follow a defined set of
instructions for placing a trade in
order to generate profits at a speed
and frequency that is impossible
for a human trader. There are two
advantages to algorithmic trading
over human traders:
It can react to the event
on the market much faster
than people.
It executes certain
algorithms, set of rules or
model without emotional
influences
The algorithms are used in more
and more areas in financial
sectors and they can help with all
aspects of financial markets: from
market making, placing orders,
determining market clearing
opening prices to regulating
market. Historically,
computerisation of market started
at the New York Stock Exchange
with computerisation of order
flow in the early 1970s. Later this
computerisation expanded to the
other areas of the stock exchange.
Computerisation of the stock
exchanges allowed the use of
algorithms to monitor and
evaluate market movement and
suggest trades. One of the greatest
encouragements for the adaptation
of algorithmic trading came with
IBM’s paper in 2001 where the
researchers evaluated two
algorithmic strategies and showed
that these two strategies could
consistently out-perform human
traders. Since then, the amount of
algorithmic trading has constantly
increased. It is estimated that
algorithms perform between 70%-
80% of transactions in US and
European stock exchanges.
As we previously mentioned,
algorithms can do multiple actions
on a stock market and monitor
different elements in order to
evaluate whether to trade or not.
Algorithms can perform quite
simple evaluations such as buying
certain amount of stock when its
50-days moving average goes
above the 200-days moving
average. This is a fairly simple
example, however, programs that
execute this could be quite
complex, as they have to monitor
all the stocks on the stock
exchange in real time and
calculate moving averages. Also,
Algorithmic Trading
2
programs need to have access to
stock exchanges in order to place
orders. There are also a number of
other challenges regarding
computations, network access,
data access, security, etc.
Furthermore, this program needs
to be well tested in a sandbox
environment where the market is
simulated, before the program can
start operating with real money. It
is interesting to mention that a
glitch in the trading algorithm of a
hedge fund caused the 2010 Flash
Crash where in a few minutes,
one trillion dollars of market
value disappeared. Luckily, in 36
minutes markets recovered.
A special case of algorithmic
trading is high frequency trading.
High-frequency trading is a type
of algorithmic trading
characterised by high speed, high
turnover rates, and high order-to-
trade ratios that leverage high-
frequency financial data and
electronic trading tools. High-
frequency traders move in and out
of short-term positions at high
volumes and high speeds aiming
to capture sometimes a fraction of
a cent in profit on every trade.
Positions in high-frequency
trading can be as short as one
millisecond. In order to achieve
fast transactions, without any
latency, companies move their
server and data centres as close as
possible to the stock exchange. In
order to connect with stock
exchanges, they use fiber cables,
which can transfer data in a speed
of light. Strategy of moving data
centres close to the stock
exchange in order to have
minimal latencies is called
colocation. This kind of trading is
more risky than buy and hold
strategies. Although there is a
high risk, Virtu Financial, for
example, reported that during five
years the firm as a whole was
profitable on 1,277 out of 1,278
trading days.
With the advances of machine
learning and artificial intelligence
field, there are more opportunities
to build models that can evaluate
and predict future prices and
movements of the market. These
models can even adapt to market
changes. There are already a
number of machine learning
papers in academia that show
successful use of machine
learning in predicting price and
market movements. It is also
indicative that Goldman Sachs has
Algorithmic Trading
3
more than 25% of employees in
the technology sector and
Goldman Sachs Chairman and
CEO Lloyd Blankfein stated for
Bloomberg that Goldman Sachs is
a technology company. Other
firms are also moving more and
more towards technology, which
indicate that they have seen an
opportunity to benefit from the
technology and algorithmic
trading. The role of quants whose
job is to create new algorithms for
trading is becoming more
important than ever.
By Nikola Milosevic
Algorithmic Trading
4
The trend over the past few
decades has been towards greater
financial globalisation. In other
words, the ties between the
economies of different countries
have grown stronger over time in
markets for goods and services, as
well as those for financial assets,
have been liberalised to greater
trade. Cross-border financial flows
have increased tremendously,
bringing with them benefits in
terms of growth from new
investment and export
opportunities, as well as potential
costs in terms of increased
uncertainty, financial market
volatility, and possibly even a
greater probability and size of
crises. The MUTIS annual
conference has brought together
leading experts that discussed their
professional fields to provide
narrative to issues of commercial
awareness and new ways to
interpret financial and economic
events.
The Conference was held at the
opulent venue of Marriott Victoria
& Albert Hotel, and by 9:30, with
everybody seated and anxious, our
Chairman Egidijus Bertulis was
ready to give the Official Launch
speech. After some minor
technical problems we were ready
to start.
The first speaker of the morning
was Mrs. Burlac. She is Director of
Corporate and Financial
institutions at Barclays. She joined
Barclays shortly after graduating
from Manchester in 2006, when
she said that the markets were very
predictable and boring. Since the
Financial Crisis everything is more
challenging and interesting at the
same time. She talked about how
Barclays has a big share in the US
market after buying the North
American part of Lehman Brothers
in the aftermaths of the crisis, and
that’s why Barclays is therefore
one of the best banks to do deals
between USA and Europe. She
later on described what Risk
Management Policy and Hedging
was by showing some slides with
real world examples, from
Mexico’s Oil Hedging Program, to
some Polish government financial
decisions. Many learned that a lot
of countries hedge when issuing
bonds and the risk they undertake
comes primarily from the
exchange of the different
currencies and actually less than
half from possible changes in the
Interest Rates.
2015 MUTIS Finance Conference
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After this wonderful intervention
we had a quick networking event
to meet other MUTIS members
and have a chance to chat with
some of the speakers. By 11 am it
was time for an event we had
anxiously been waiting for, the
Investment Banking Discussion
Panel.
We counted on the presence of
four distinguished professionals.
Kristy Grant (Seedrs), John
Breheny (Deloitte), Richard
Pulford (DC Advisory) and Ben
Shapiro (B7 Ventures). They spent
one hour faithfully answering the
questions asked by Tom, one of
our committee members.
They argued and commented about
what models they use to value
companies, what their expectations
are for the future interest rates and
the problems middle companies
face when they want to raise
capital. To the question of “Is the
slowdown in growth of the
Chinese economy going to impact
(have an effect in the) on M&A
deals”? Richard Pulford, with
more than 15 years of experience
was quick to answer- “YES”
Just a few minutes before taking a
break for lunch, our speakers gave
tips on how to network and what
they are actually looking for when
hiring people.
Lunch was great, with a large
variety of dishes to choose from. It
was brief though, as we could not
wait to listen to the second speaker
of the day. It was Tom Boardman,
from Equity Capital Partners at
Barclays. He started by throwing
this question to the audience. “Is
Africa one of the big players in the
market at the moment? - No, right?
- Well, It might be in the next 30
years and Barclays is already there,
looking for a long term presence in
the continent.” He talked about
IPOs, Right Issues, Accelerate
Deals and Derivatives of Equity.
He later on, before rapidly
finishing to catch a train, talked
about his Market Updates and
expectations where he stated that
most companies are undervalued at
the moment. Just like Richard
Pulford, he believes that a weak
growth in China and emerging
markets is the biggest risk to
markets over the next 12 months.
Our third speaker for the
conference was Mohammad
Farrukh Raza, founder and
managing director of Islamic
Finance Advisory and Assurance
Services (IFAAS). He travels
around the globe educating
2015 MUTIS Finance Conference
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6
governments and businesses about
Islamic finance. We learned how
the methodology of doing business
differs from the conventional way.
Instead of “lending” money, the
bank goes into business with its
clients. “Allah has permitted trade
and prohibited riba (interests)”
Quoran 2:275
After having listened to these two
wonderful speakers we had the
chance to network with some
employees from our sponsorship
companies before getting ready to
make the most of the last two
speakers.
William Nicoll, Co-head of
Alternative Credit at M&A
Investments, who had already been
talking with the attendees during
the networking session, started his
talk by saying he was going to
destroy the way we think of Asset
Management. He showed how
forecasting is almost an impossible
task, even for central banks. “In
this industry you have to trust
nobody but yourself” he said at the
end of his speech. He hung out a
little bit longer to answer some
questions we might have had.
The last speaker of the evening
came from HSBC from Mr James
Pincus, who is a Managing
Director in M&A. He explained to
the audience how the crisis had
affected the industry and that,
whilst the prices of the deals had
gone up, the actual number of
deals is much lower than in 2006.
He says that strong equity markets
favour M&A deals because it gives
CEOs the confidence needed. and
concluded his talk by spending the
last 30 minutes talking about the
work done by “activist
shareholders”.
After a great day learning about
finance and getting to know a lot
of people, our president Zuzanna
thanked everybody for coming and
encouraged everybody to make
this conference the first out of
many.
By Andres Bujosa
2015 MUTIS Finance Conference
nce
FinanceFinanceConConference
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The MUTIS Investment Banking Club aims to prepare members for a
successful career in investment banking by helping them develop essential
skills and an advanced level of knowledge about the industry. If you would
like to get more involved in the community, you can write an article for our
newsletter, present a deal you are interested in to the group or participate in
one of our competitions.
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MutisIBClub/
Google Drive: https://goo.gl/gpKzMX
The Investment Banking Club
8
The $6 Billion Fat Finger
Deutsche Bank, which claimed the
title of being the largest foreign
exchange dealer in the world in
2009, also claimed the headlines
on the 19th of October 2015.
Deutsche Bank’s foreign-exchange
unit had erroneously sent $6
billion to a U.S. hedge fund client
in June this year as revealed by
Financial Times. The junior
banker, whose boss was on leave,
had mistakenly processed the trade
using a gross figure rather than a
net figure, which led to the
immense payment. This mistake,
which was recovered a day later,
has affected bank’s reputation
which is currently under the
regulator's inspection. The
institution, which is currently
under a massive restructuring
scheme, is struggling to restore its
reputation and profitability after a
period of different scandals and
corruption alongside with missed
performance targets.
The term ‘fat finger’ is used to
refer to a typing error done on a
trade order.
This is not the first time this ‘fat
finger’ trade has happened. Japan,
for example, is no stranger to this
expensive fat finger trade. In 2006,
Mizuho Securities in Japan had
mistakenly placed a short-sell
order on a stock, which had cost
the firm 40 billion yen (£218
million). Also, last year, a
stockbroker had mistakenly placed
an order for shares worth 67.78
trillion yen (£380 billion), which is
worth more than size of Sweden’s
economy.
This type of mistake can seriously
affect a company’s credibility and
these incidents have highlighted
the cost of human error. Although
recoverable, financial institutions
seek solutions to mitigate the ‘fat-
finger’ error or the cost may be
incalculable.
By: Robert Andrei Paunas, Ilhan
Memet & Yi Jing Suah
The Investment Banking Club
9
Pfizer and Allergan $160bn
Merger
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which
manufactures Viagra, is set to
acquire the Botox producing
company Allergan to create a
super-conglomerate, which will
dominate the pharmaceutical
market. At $160bn, it is the third
biggest M&A deal of all time and
will create a company with
revenues of around $65bn,
overtaking Johnson & Johnson as
the market leader. This price is a
premium of 30% over Allergan’s
undisturbed share price. Goldman
Sachs is the main advisor to Pfizer
while Allergan is working with
both JP Morgan and Morgan
Stanley.
Other than the usual synergies that
come out of M&A deals there is
another benefit that is driving this
agreement; it will allow Pfizer to
take up Allergan’s Ireland-based
headquarters as its own. In doing
so, Pfizer’s corporate tax rate will
be able to fall significantly from
approximately 25% in the US to
around 17% in Ireland, saving
billions of dollars in tax expenses
every year. The proposed plan
however hasn’t been met with
investor confidence, as seen in
both Pfizer and Allergan share
prices, which fell by 2.7% and
3.6% respectively, following
announcements of the deal. This is
because inversion deals of this
nature always come with
controversies.
Investors are
nervous at the
likelihood of
the deal
coming to
fruition, as the
deal requires US regulator’s
approval to go ahead which won’t
be easy to get. There has been a lot
of opposition to the deal in the US;
Democratic presidential
nomination front-runner Hillary
Clinton has said she would ensure
there were “specific steps to
prevent these kind of transactions”.
This is because the US will not
only lose billions of dollars of tax
revenue every year, but it could
potentially lead to an even higher
price of prescription drugs for US
citizens - something that is already
a debated issue. If US regulators
do not allow the deal to take place
it will have to be restructured as a
reserve merger. In this instance,
Allergan will technically be
buying Pfizer so US approval will
not be needed.
By Ben Shrewsbury
The Investment Banking Club
10
Western Digital’s $19bn
acquisition of SanDisk
On the 21st October 2015 Western
Digital announced a successful
takeover of SanDisk for $19bn.
This comes as no surprise in a year
of consolidation across the
semiconductor industry, which is
battling high competition since
China entered the market as well
as increased margin pressure from
some of their largest customers,
such as hardware makers Apple
and Samsung.
Both companies are headquartered
in California and offer a very
similar range of products. Their
main line of business,
manufacturing and selling storage
solutions, was once a high-growth
pursuit and enabled SanDisk to
reap profit in the US market and
likewise Western Digital globally.
The deal consideration in cash and
stock values SanDisk at $86.50 per
share, a 40 per cent premium to the
share price prior to the deal
announcement.
The summary of financial date
highlights some interesting points
of the deal; most notably that
SanDisk has a larger enterprise
value than Western Digital. This is
unusually in acquisitions, but it
partly due to this deal being
contingent on a Chinese hardware
manufacturer Unisplendour taking
a 15% stake in Western Digital for
$3.78 billion.
(Note that lower value is generally
more attractive for both ratios – it
can highlight how undervalued a
company is)
Western Digital hired BAML,
JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse
and Rothschild as advisors and
Goldman Sachs advised SanDisk.
WD SanDisk
Mkt Cap: $15.5
bn
$15.7 bn
EV: $12.8
bn
$16.4 bn
LTM
Revenue:
$14.6
bn
$5.8 bn
LTM
EBITDA:
$2.9
bn
$1.5 bn
WD SanDisk
LTM EV /
Revenue:
0.9x 2.8x
LTM EV /
EBITDA:
4.4x 11.1x
The Investment Banking Club
11
Stephen D. Milligan – Western
Digital CEO
“This transformational acquisition
aligns with our long‐term strategy
to be an innovative leader in the
storage industry by providing
compelling, high‐quality products
with leading technology”
Sanjay Mehrotra - SanDisk
President & CEO
“Joining forces with Western
Digital will enable the combined
company to offer the broadest
portfolio of industry‐leading,
innovative storage solutions to
customers across a wide range of
markets and applications”
By Jack Piggott
The Investment Banking Club
12
Investment Banking
Competitions
On the 11th and 25th of
November, the Investment
Banking Club successfully
delivered two case study
competitions to provide its
members with a more practical
experience in IB.
The first exercise was a Case
Study competition, testing each
team’s ability to work together and
complete a PowerPoint
presentation whilst under a strict
time limit. The main objective was
to present solutions to DonMedia
Plc.’s problem of acquiring its
competitor for £300m. Each team
had to look over DonMedia Plc’s
Income Statement and current
cash, equity, and debt levels before
they were able to calculate how
much of each would be used to
plug in the funding gap. Most
challenging was calculating
DonMedia Plc’s EBITDA, but
each team was able to present their
solutions with conviction, and left
with a better understanding on how
to calculate the EBITDA and
working under pressure.
The Valuation Challenge gave an
insight into the complexity of
valuing a company from both the
buyer and seller perspective.
Teams were split into the two
sides, and were all given the same
firms’ incomplete Financial
Statements, DCF, and Comparable
Comps to complete to reach a
valuation figure. Buyers and
sellers then had to settle on a share
price; and with different valuation
figures this led to heated debates
on what the company was worth.
Overall, members learnt how to
value a company thoroughly under
a strict time limit.
By Lily Zhong
The Investment Banking Club
13
What a year has been so far! It is
hard to summarize everything the
fund and its analysts did
throughout the first semester as it
ranges from introductory lectures
done by the fund’s Co-Heads to
developed equity portfolio creation
as a result of the analysts’ hard
work.
During the first weeks, Valentin
and I gave quick introduction to
the immense and intricate world of
finance by focusing on recent
trends, news and developments in
the markets. In particular, we
focused on central banks’
involvement into the global
economy and the effects of that on
all developed markets. Also
discussions about past events in
commodities, equity markets and
currencies were held at the end of
the meetings which goal was to
quickly immerse the fund
members in a real-life experience
of what working in the financial
sector would be.
Following these more example-
based meetings, there were a
couple covering the basics of value
investing and short-term trading.
These meetings were the building
blocks of members’ knowledge of
fundamental and technical
analysis.
After reading week, Valentin and I
decided to add even more real-
world experience into the fund
meetings and we did that through
several activities. First, an all
equity portfolio development
started which required members to
actively participate and do stock
pitches in front of everyone and
should the fund agree on their
stock pick, then it was added into
the virtual portfolio created using
Google Finance. That not only
engaged everyone to be proactive
but also provided an opportunity
for member’s to showcase their
knowledge, practice their
presentation skills and idea-
generation thought process.
Since the fund was also short-term
trading oriented, we held a one
session of trading competition
during which analysts traded in
real-time using demo accounts in
MT4 and the feedback received
from them regarding that was very
positive, hence proving that adding
more exercises like that is to be
sought in the future.
Macro Investment Fund Report
14
Briefly going over the fund’s
current portfolio performance, I
have put the corresponding table
and chart below.
Since last
change to
portfolio –
07.12.2015
1
month
Portfolio
Performance
(%) -2.2 -1.8
FTSE 100
Performance
(%) -5.0 -3.4
*Values rounded to one decimal
point and calculated using in-
house methods. Values may vary
depending on valuation methods.
The benchmark (FTSE 100) is
chosen just for good exercise as it
is comparable to the portfolio to
some sense as they are both all-
equity comprised. It is easily seen
that the 1 month and since last
stock addition, the portfolio has
outperformed the index. From the
graph representing the continuous
returns, one can infer that the fund
portfolio (in blue) is less volatile
than UK equities as it dropped less
from 12-14 December but it also
gained less in the following weeks.
As the portfolio holdings comprise
of limited number of different
assets and still in development, it
is very early to talk about definite
performance. The goal is to add
quite a few new holdings in the
second semester as to diversify the
risk and if there is time and
interest, to include bonds into the
picture.
We are all looking forward to what
2016 will bring and would
definitely work hard throughout,
developing ourselves and our
knowledge!
By Hristo Terziev
Macro Investment Fund Report
15
Break into Investment Banking:
Learn from people who did.
The finance industry is a
competitive one. So competitive
that getting into its top firms is
harder than getting into world’s
top universities. Therefore, while
relevant previous experience is
beneficial when applying for
graduate jobs in general, it is
almost a prerequisite for jobs in
finance. Apart from building your
CV and developing the
professional and transferable
skills, doing an internship is a
great way to effectively test-drive
the career you’ve chosen.
During your time at university, the
most important experience-gaining
opportunities will be the summer
internships that are open for
penultimate year (2nd
of a 3-year
course) students. If you are a
fresher, do try to get into a “spring
week” - these are the programmes
most companies organise as to
provide students with a glimpse
into their business. If you
demonstrate your qualities and
interest for the industry, next year
you might find yourself fast-
tracked to the assessment centre,
the last stage of the rigorous
internship recruitment process.
This interview will provide you
with insight into the very first
steps in investment banking. Our
two interviewees will answer the
same questions; from their answers
we can draw the basic traits of the
two kinds of programmes
mentioned above and compare the
experiences.
Talking about his summer
internship in Citi’s Global
Markets, we have Yann
Schuermans, who spent a year of
his studies at the University of
Manchester, and made a strong
impression in the MUTIS
community. Jack Piggott, 3rd
year
Mathematics student and this
year’s co-head of MUTIS
Investment Banking Club will talk
about the spring weeks he
completed in M&A departments of
Credit Suisse and Lazard.
By Milica Misic
Break into Investment Banking
16
How did you prepare for the
interviews and assessment
centres?
Yann: The preparation process
was slightly different from how I
usually prepare for interviews as
this was for a Hong Kong based
position. Beyond the usual “Why
Citi”, “How are we different from
other banks”, etc. - they wanted to
know why that specific position in
Hong Kong as opposed to London
or New York.
I tend to approach the process for
each interview by learning the
basics of the firm and the
department I am applying for. I
then move into how my motivation
and personal fit overlay with
recent new stories and strategic
vision. I then tend to research the
specifics of that department and
notable feats of recent months. For
Citi in Hong Kong this was easy as
this was at the very outset of the
Hong Kong-Shanghai stock-
connect initiative and Citi was
spearheading it.
The assessment centre is purely
about how you can handle yourself
in group situations and present
complex ideas in a simple format.
To prepare for this I ran through
several different examples
available on the internet and also
prepared myself for working with
a variety of people. For instance, I
knew exactly how to handle
someone who emerged as a
dominant and loud character
during the group activity.
Jack: When I first began preparing
for interviews/assessment centres,
I found a list of the type of
questions which could arise in the
finance industry. I originally
focused on the technical questions,
which later proved to be a mistake
as the interviews at the spring
week level were mainly
competency based.
I was slightly anxious about the
assessment centres and specifically
the group exercise as I hadn’t
really done anything like it before.
I found a lot of preparation
material online covering different
sorts of group exercises which
could arise, and fortunately the
group exercise in our ACs were
similar to what I had read about
online.
Break into Investment Banking
17
What skill or knowledge did you
feel the company was putting most
emphasis on during the
recruitment process?
Yann: They did not focus heavily
on technicals. Instead, I was
probed on my general capital
markets knowledge, ability to
synthesise macro events into
factors that may impact the firm,
and being quick on my feet. Fit
and motivation are extremely
important as they hire people into
internships only if they think that
these people can convert into
analysts. A recruiter once told me
that the process is very similar for
interns and analysts as the firm
wants to give as many full-time
offers as possible in the end.
Be comfortable with the stories
you want to tell about yourself but
don’t slip up at the last minute by
being oblivious to obvious facts
about the firm or recent news.
Jack: This varied from firm to
firm, but in general I think most
interviewers were trying to assess
if you’d work well in their team,
i.e. looking for interests outside of
academia/finance, easy-going
personality etc. From my research
confidence also seems important
as although you’re unlikely to have
much client interaction in the early
years they need to be able to rely
on you to represent the firm well
before clients/customers if the
opportunity does arise.
What exactly did you do during
your summer internship/spring
weeks?
Yann: I worked in two different
roles; the first 5 weeks were
focused on the securities services
part of the business, which was
then heavily involved with the
stock connect project. I worked
closely with various product
groups to make sure that the
Global Custody processes were
streamlined ahead of all the
changes taking place in the Asian
region. The other role was in
Capital Markets and was rather
client facing. Here I used Spanish
and Portuguese to link institutional
investors across Latin America
with opportunities in APAC.
Notably, I developed all of the
LatAm pension fund intel that was
subsequently used to bring
FDI/pension portfolios to Asia
through Citi’s product channels.
Jack: Both of my spring weeks
were very similar in content. They
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18
mainly consisted of an
introduction to the investment
banking industry, brief training
sessions on valuation methods,
group exercises, speaking exercise,
many networking sessions, and
also drinks events to socialise with
other interns.
What aspect of the programme did
you find hardest to deal with?
Yann: The two roles sometimes
overlapped and the hours were,
therefore, quite long. Being in Asia
and at the mercy of clients in
South America also meant that I
needed to be available throughout
the evening/night.
Investment banking is very
competitive and this is accentuated
for interns. We are all competing
for the offers and want to put in as
much face-time and effort as
possible.
One aspect that is also challenging
is that bulge-bracket banks often
pool interns into different roles,
where they stay throughout the 10-
12 weeks. If an offer is issued at
the end, it is sometimes difficult to
get into a different department if
you interned elsewhere.
Jack: The thought of being
watched/reviewed at all times was
a little daunting before the
programme started. However, it
soon became apparent this wasn’t
the case, while the HR team
supervising us did a great job at
making you feel comfortable.
What was the atmosphere among
your fellow interns like?
Yann: We were competitive but
we also became battle-hardened
together. They became partners in
crime and also friends outside of
work, since we spent so many
hours together. We stayed in touch
to this day.
Jack: The atmosphere was great, I
was expecting a lot of
rivalry/competition among the
fellow interns but I couldn’t be
more wrong. Everybody worked
well together and we went for
meals most nights so we got to
know each other pretty well.
Can you tell us about the
relationship you had with your
supervisors?
Yann: Investment banking is not
for everybody, and the people who
have stayed there for 20-30 years
Break into Investment Banking
19
are extremely resilient and
fascinating. Granted, there is the
occasional cut-throat executive, I
found the vast majority of VPs,
directors and MDs to be really
down to earth and open.
I was lucky to have two
supervisors and several senior
team members that watched over
me. In the Capital Markets team, I
am still in touch with the MD and
VP, who both became great friends
and mentors. We speak often and I
was even invited to the VP’s
wedding.
A word of caution – this is still a
sharp-suit and black-shoe world
and people expect formality and
respect in the work place. These
open relationships develop over
time and no one should expect to
have it at the start.
Jack: We were mainly supervised
by 3 or 4 members of HR
throughout the week. They were
great and were able to answer any
questions about the
company/recruitment/spring week.
They worked well to get to know
all the interns and were able to
address all of the large group by
name very quickly.
Did you feel your MUTIS
experience helped you win your
place on the programme?
Yann: I was lucky to meet several
driven people who took part in
MUTIS events. They were very
proactive and created momentum
for both learning about finance/
capital markets and also on the
job-hunting front. This definitely
made me more “switched-on” and
helped me perform better during
the recruitment process.
Jack: I joined MUTIS towards the
start of my second year. I attended
the M&A and ECM discussion
group (now the IBC) which was a
great opportunity to meet with
like-minded students who were
also interested in the industry.
Specifically through meetings I
learnt about the Thompson One
database the university subscribes
to which was useful for interview
preparation, and also some of the
basics of the valuation methods.
How did this experience affect
your career plans?
Yann: I liked the world of banking
but decided that I did not want to
stay in that department and in
Hong Kong. Consequently, I
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20
began to search for positions in
London for consulting or banking.
After a few successful rounds, I
decided to accept an offer from the
London Stock Exchange and to
pursue a broader career in finance.
I have now spent 18 months here,
and have learned more than I could
have had I started on the sell-side.
I am now in the process of going
back into banking. I recently
accepted an M&A position at an
elite boutique in London and I am
excited to be stepping back into
this world with a broader
understanding of the financial
landscape. My internship
experience opened many doors and
exposed me to several people who
were monumental in facilitating
this.
Jack: Most people have a
preconceived idea of what it is like
to work in an investment bank, so
the spring week programmes were
a great opportunity to confirm
these expectations. The
opportunity to network with
analysts who were in our position
a few years ago was incredibly
useful in dispelling some of the
myths about the industry which are
circulated online. Most spring
weeks also offer the opportunity to
be fast tracked to the summer
internship, which is a great
opportunity to avoid the whole
application process in September.
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21
The information and material provided at MUTIS is for educational purposes
only and does not constitute financial product advice. The views of the
authors are their own and not those of MUTIS. MUTIS does not represent or
warrant that the information or material is complete or accurate. You should
consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial
decisions. If you are seeking advice (including a recommendation or
opinion) about a financial product you should consult a certified financial
advisor. To the extent permitted by law, no responsibility for any loss arising
in any way (including by way of negligence) from anyone acting or
refraining from acting as a result of the information or material is accepted
by MUTIS.
© Copyright 2015 MUTIS. All rights reserved 2015.
Credit to: Zuzanna Olczak
Egidijus Bertulis
Hristo Terziev
Ciprian(Chuck) Paiusi
Taksh Shah
Milica Misic
Jack Piggott
Robert Andrei Paunas
Ilhan Memet
Yi Jing Suah
Ben Shrewsbury
Andres Bujosa
William Nicoll
Milica Misic
Camille Duprez
Lily Zhong
Diana Pascu
Important notices
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