SPRING 2016 - Manchester University Trading & …SPRING 2016 Learn everything about Algorithm Trading and the increasing of its usage! Page 1 P Mergers, Investment Banking Club competitions

SPRING 2016

Learn everything about

Algorithm Trading and the

increasing of its usage!

Page 1

P

Mergers, Investment Banking

Club competitions and more:

Get up to date with the club’s

activities and research!

Page 7

2

3

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

4

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

15

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

FinanceFinanceConConference

5

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



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


nce


7

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


https://www.facebook.com/groups/MutisIBClub/

https://goo.gl/gpKzMX

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


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


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


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


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


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.


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


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


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


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.


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

22

SPRING 2016 - Manchester University Trading & …SPRING 2016 Learn everything about Algorithm Trading and the increasing of its usage! Page 1 P Mergers, Investment Banking Club competitions

Documents