Answers

Search

Post your resume

Back

Print

Finance Departments @ Bluechips : New trend ??

During recent times I´ve seen ads in the press asking for Finance Dtors who also must have CF / M&A skills. Some people say that bluechips are trying to have a mini M&A dep inside cause Top Tier Banks are very expensive. What do you think?

Asked by Jcmoron

Posted in Switching Sectors and Accounting

15 Jul 2008

Answer this question

Answers (7)

  • It is good practice for bluechip companies to have inhouse experience to evaluate, understand and act on the proposals sent to them by the investment banks. They shouldn't just accept advice from the banks. And, I'd hope that the companies themselves understand their industry better than most banks so should have insight to add to whatever the banks propose. So it isn't just that it is cheaper! Is this something that you are interested in doing? Bear in mind that it is going to be harder to move from a corporate to an investment bank than the other way around. So if you are junior and don't know what you want to do longer term, then starting in an investment bank (or in consulting) will give you greater flexibility. If you think you are giong to want to work in industry, then starting at the corporate is fine. Several larger corporates have in house training programmes for people that they think will be successful / that they want to invest in which will include rotations not just in Finance but also in Marketing, Production, Strategy etc.

    former MD at a major US investment bank 15 Jul 2008

    RECOMMEND Recommended 1 time | Alert Moderator

  • I completely agree in two points: 1. Companies know better its industry / environment than IB. Actually it is said that Models are usually made by juniors during the night. 2. It is easier to move from IB to a Corporate. I´d like to be in a corporate due to the fact it is less cyclical. However, I wonder if companies will keep this inhouse M&A dep or if it is just a trend.

    Jcmoron 15 Jul 2008

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • You misunderstand the role of Corporate Development and IB advisory services. They are vastly different functions, yes vastly different. There is a reason the like of the Mittals / Vodafone go to GS / UBS when transacting (Mr Mittal is arguably one of the best dealmakers of this generation but he knows when to bring in the experts...and yes these Corporate Development teams are staffed by seasoned ex M&A senior bankers at the top).

    BeenAround 15 Jul 2008

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • Yep i second that, beenaround!!!

    Nav 16 Jul 2008

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • Well, but you are referring to Mega Deals which require mega teams ,and those mega teams can be found at mega banks, such as GS, Morgan Stanley, JP, UBS... A bluechip may hire ex M&A Bankers but I guess the 70% of its development activity will not be focus on large acquisitions or mergers but on how to implement a strategy, project finance issues, cost cutting...

    Jcmoron 16 Jul 2008

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • Again Jcmoron, you misunderstand the roles. Banks dont just bring a team of 2 or even ten people to any transaction, you bring the franchise. e.g. you want to acquire a company that is 10% of your EV and they are not keen on it. 1. You bring ECM to conduct the dawn raid 2. Corporate Broking starts the conversation with the major holders of your target 3. DCM looks at the financing options (together with refin of the current obligations 4. A Vice-Chairman (extremely senior banker) in the target country starts a conversation with the regulators/government in that country 5. Target country head get together a team to deal with local issues 6. Generalist M&A bankers devise plans to counter the defense plans from the target, etc, etc When you see a transaction being announced, there is a lot going on in the background. The more simplistic way is: the Consultants look after the strategy, cost cutting and M&A bankers look after what is termed the "corporate action" Its not just for mega transactions, when I was in M&A, I worked for key clients on transactions less than 100m for free (or they will just give us a token fee)...they require a certain level of execution even on small one

    BeenAround 17 Jul 2008

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

  • this web site certainly needs to encourage this type of discussions!

    mor 19 Jul 2008

    RECOMMEND Recommended 0 times | Alert Moderator

Answer this question

* Mandatory

You have 1200 characters left

Enter the code shown here or sign in / register to skip this step. (What is this?)

Answer question

eFinancialCareers does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any answer on Answers.
See disclaimer.

Col3
Col4
Col5
Col6
bottom

Site Information

eFinancialCareers is a Dice Holdings, Inc. company. Dice Holdings, Inc. is a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (Ticker: DHX)