Wells Fargo Flashcards
Tell me about yourself
- I’m a second year at LSE Studying Economics and Economic history
- Heavily involved with and leading charitable groups working for years in the UK and so far in Africa through loans to hospitals and microfinance to the community.
- Both taken an interest in the healthcare industry working at the HQ of MACC Care a popular care home provider, Healthcare department of Downing an investment firm in London. Provided me with technical and interpersonal skills but for me it lacked the immediate impact that banking presents.
- Confirmed this through my internship this summer at Avington, a boutique that specialises in luxury hotels, where I worked on multiple different deal mandates from underwriting a $220 million refinancing of one of Europe’s most prized luxury hotels to securing a mandate for an advisory role on an $8 billion sale. Enjoyed the steep learning curve and responsibilities of a boutique style bank with sector specificity.
In my spare time, as mentioned before, I work a lot in the charitable space as I serve as an advisory role to previous organisations I led and I now run an organisation called Sherpa Mentors, a west-midlands based mentoring group that has mentored over 120 mentees from low socioeconomic and underrepresented backgrounds. Enjoy football too but even more so from the important financial perspective, following deals such as Chelsea as well as upcoming sagas like Friedkin and Everton.
Why m&a
Ever since I’ve looked into the ways that large financial companies such as Wells can influence impact through their expertise. I’ve found M&A to be an amazing way to do this since the synergies of bringing 2 companies’ assets and power together for the same goal can have such profound effects even greater than just a loan.
- Kibaha, amazing experience –> microfinance loans to women in struggling communities–> women with husband who left her–> food and fruit stall to get back on their feet –> Even able to then go and send her kids to college, they’re now working in the hospsital close by. - link to multiplier effect.
- Essentially the way that finance can have such an impact on communities, especially the impoverished.
For example: the Eutelsat and OneWeb deal brought together GEO (geostationary orbit) and LEO (Low Earth orbit) for the first time as well as the incumbent Eutelsat access to non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) which according to the Eutelsat CEO will make up 50% of the market in the future
What is M&A
M&A is the process of merger and acquisition. Process of facilitating a company to acquire another, merger is similar while acquisition of less than.
M&A in often split into generalist M&A which give tactical insights and strategic advice to all M&A transactions, whereas sector groups utilise their specialised knowledge to build specific modes and advice.
Why Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo resonates with me and my professional experience in major ways: huge us firm combined with boutique, CRE focus.
Big US Firm and Boutique:
- Small deal teams and much more exposure and responsibility as an analyst. Helps you develop as an analyst such quicker
- While also got the resources of a huge bank + exposure e.g. speakers, rohan mentioned.
Wells fargo centrebridge private credit partnership
24k employees, only 1k london
Speaker sessions with coo of banking vs only speaking to uk ppl at other firms
CRE:
* Large passion for RE, enjoy the RE Banking.
* Second biggest cre lender in the uk
insert deal from RE banking
what did you learn in your last internship
I learnt a combination of technical, interpersonal skills to thrive in a high pressure environment. For example:
On the technical side I expanded my standard equity modelling to learn Hotel USALI modelling and exit transactions. This modelling was used to underwrite a $220 million luxury hotel in Europe.
In terms of soft skills, I adapted my interpersonal skills to be able to understand both client and senior relations. Particularly the when and how of asking for help, standards for deliverables and knowing when to challenge seniors with your own research viewpoints to add on value.
From these I feel I have a solid base to perform at PWP but also have space to learn more in a much larger financial institutions while maintaining the principles that let me thrive.
what do you expect from this internship
I expect to start off with performing basic tasks and hopefully being able to talk to seniors about their experiences and learn from them. I hope to use my resourcefulness and research to find ways to add value to my tasks and prove my competency. I hope to be able to then deliver on tasks above what was expected by committing myself to spend extra time with seniors to learn more.
What are the day to day of an analyst
○ hey usually start the day at 9AM and come to the office responding to emails from clients and their coworkers who want a status report, presentation, or an update on a financial model they built. But if there is a fire drill, which is an emergency where an analyst has to produce something in under 30 mins to an hour then they work on that first. Then from 9:30 til lunch they work on company analysis and make adjustments requested by the senior bankers who made these comments already last night.
○ Then lunch comes in for about 45 minutes unless there is a lot of work where they can’t eat. Then they come back to comments that were made on their models and presentations by the associates that they need to go over and revise.
○ In the afternoon, the analyst would then focus on the one deal their team was assigned which is usually the live deal and of course they have to be very careful on the little details when working on that deal since you are dealing with millions of dollars.
○ And towards the evening after dinner, analysts and senior bankers go over more revisions on material which add more compilation to the pitchbook. They spend 2-3 rounds in this revision-comment-correction cycle until it is past midnight.
What is a boutique
Boutique is a bank that is purely focused on its investment banking division or also lacks divisions such as financing and a large balance sheet that may bias it in its advisory. As a result these banks often have smaller deal teams.
○ Boutiques are firms that are independent and strictly focus on M&A or restructuring and don’t do financing to deals. They work on smaller deals that are consistently under a 100M in value and usually focus on a specific product group or geographic area.
○ Elite boutiques are different in the sense that they advise on much larger and more complex deals. They do any deal above $1B and sometimes advise on similar deals to bulge brackets. And then there are mid market boutiques that advise on up to 600 mil.
○ Boutiques have smaller and leaner team size which allows senior bankers to be more accessible to juniors and also allows new bankers to take on more responsibility and play a more prominent, and challenging, role in deals. And because boutiques don’t provide financing for deals, they focus more on advising without any conflict of interest.
Why IB
Investment Banking provides the unique opportunity to be part of the largest deals and needle moves in the world from undergraduate. This interest came from my experience in Kibaha –> microfinancing –> allowed to set up local markets and livelhoods. Made me wonder what helping facilitate larger capital would do. Internship at Avington, securing an advisory mandate for an $8 billion deal, made me confirm that I not only enjoyed being part of this impact but also the high-pressure and steep learning curve within a boutique investment bank.
Talk about a deal from Wells Fargo
Really excited by the Viavi Solutions $1bn acquisition of Spirent
–> combining 2 complementary testing and network solutions portfolios of a incumbent with a new innovator in Viavi solutions –> Wells gave the acquisition financing of $800 million –> allowing for innovation in 5g + 6G components, and cloud computing
What is the current market trend within M&A
M&A Market:
- Surge in Deal Activity: The UK M&A market has shown a recovery in 2024, with overall deal values rising sharply in the first half of the year. The transaction value reached £85 billion in H1 2024, more than doubling the figure from 2023. This is largely driven by an increase in megadeals (over £1 billion), where foreign investors, particularly from the U.S., have taken advantage of lower UK valuations.
- Private Equity’s Growing Role: Private equity (PE) continues to dominate a significant portion of the market, accounting for 40% of deal volume. PE firms, with dry powder totaling $2.59 trillion globally, are becoming increasingly involved in joint ventures, minority stake acquisitions, and continuation funds.
- Sectoral Focus: High-growth sectors such as technology, media, telecom (TMT), and healthcare are seeing more activity, with life sciences in particular benefiting from demographic shifts and post-pandemic investment. ESG-driven M&A is also growing in importance, with regulatory pressures prompting companies to focus on sustainability as part of their deal strate
UK Equity Capital Markets (ECM):
1. ECM Recovery: The UK equity capital market has bounced back in 2024, with IPO activity increasing across sectors, supported by London’s Listing Rule reforms. These reforms aim to make the city more competitive globally, with key IPOs like SEGRO’s £900 million equity raise highlighting the market’s recovery
Positive Sentiment for 2024: Surveys show a strong confidence in the ECM, with many UK corporates expecting transformational deals and larger transactions in 2024. Cross-border activity is also expected to increase, as foreign investors eye UK assets
Tell me about a time you had to show resilience
Charity committee founding and planned this big flagship event for months. Covid and week before nearly cancelled —> calmed everyone down and took a positive and practical outlook —> created more marketing tools with the extra time such as BTS trailers and auctions of VIP tickets —> extra week allowed us to break the school record for fundraising, setting up our future success of raising £35,000 in our first year and receiving congratulations from the King and Minister of Education .
What 3 words would your friends use to describe you?
Leader - I have a history of forming multiple successful organisations using my friends and network such as the Charity Committee and Sherpa Mentors
Curious - I sought out a unique and risky degree with the lowest acceptance rate at LSE rather than taking the safer choice. With my career I’ve also looked to pursues my passions and curiosity rather than purely talking the ‘prestige’ or popular choices. I believe such diverse perspectives and curiosity that diverges from the mainstream gives me a unique and diverse opinion and input.
Discipline - To achieve my aims in academics and extra-curriculars required time management and discpline to do hard work and not crumble under pressure. I teach this to mentees at Sherpa Mentors.
Tell me about a time that you resolved conflict
CC elections —> zayn problrm with others —> others angry, I wanted to give him a second chance —> came up with a solution where he could come up with and put on a successful event then he would be let in —> we put on a unique multi-faith iftar event, the first of its kind, and it was an amazing success —> proved competency and helped us spearhead future success
How do you keep up with news and trends
Job at Avington and Avingstone keeps me up to date on both confidential and breaking news as part of my job is forming a weekly deals newsletter
Apart from the standard Financial Times and Economist, I utilise podcasts such as In Good Company, newsletters such as Pari Passu which give an in depth look into specific companies and topics.
I’m also integrated into the main societies at LSE who bring in their own networking events, as well as regularly attending SEO with over 100 hours in events, lunch and learns, and masterclasses.
