Equity Capital Markets > Undergraduate/Master

Business Description

We have designed these sections to aid you in your understanding of what Equity Capital Markets is, the services we provide to our clients and how we are structured in Asia Pacific. In the subsequent tabs we have asked for input from our Analysts and also the recruiters describe the type of person we are looking for as well as the recruitment process.

What is Equity Capital Markets (ECM)?

Equity Capital Markets helps companies to grow. By advising our clients about raising capital through the equity markets, they can acquire other companies and invest in new machinery or technology. Our core business consists of the origination, structuring and execution of IPOs, follow-ons, and convertible securities. We also provide our corporate clients with secondary trading assistance, such as real-time market insight, hedging strategies, and investor relations advice.

Equity Capital Markets professionals specialize across a range of sectors and products. In addition, an integral part of ECM's service is the Corporate Equity Derivatives team, which uses tailor-made derivatives products in the equity markets to find new value for our clients

What product/groups do we cover?

Equity Capital Markets:

• Consumer/ Healthcare/ Industrials
• Financial Institutions Group/ Real Estate
• TMT (Telecoms Media & Technology)
• Corporate Broking
• Structured ECM Solutions including Equity Linked and Corporate Equity Derivatives
• Equity Syndicate

What service do we provide to our clients?

We provide our clients with real-time market knowledge and technical structuring expertise that allows them to make optimal capital raising, hedging and risk-management decisions and manage the relationship with their shareholders. We are experts in financial instruments ranging from money market products, investment-grade and high-yield corporate and sovereign bonds, high-grade and leveraged loans, preferred securities, convertibles, equities and equity-linked securities to currencies, swaps, options, collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), asset-backed securities and structured new products.

Our massive global platform and depth of experience, combined with our institutional and retail distribution, top-ranked research, product innovations and capital commitment, has consistently produced a leading flow of business from both domestic and international corporate clients. And a reputation that few firms can compete with.

Why Work in Equity Capital Markets (ECM)?

ECM sits between the Investment Bank and the Equities Sales & Trading businesses. ECM professionals have a unique perspective: we are plugged-in to both the short-term dynamics of the market and the long-term strategic vision of investment banking. Our work involves daily interaction with bankers and salesmen or traders, and since we tend to work in small teams there is a high level of contact with our clients, to whom we often talk on a weekly or daily basis about the markets. We work under pressure, with very short deadlines (often minutes and hours rather than days).

Roles of an Analyst

To give you a better understanding of what you can expect if you join the Equity Capital Markets division, we asked for some input from our Analysts. Here they describe the main tasks they undertake as well as their career progression and an insight into an execution project.

A Day In The Life of A Citi Equity Capital Markets Analyst

7:30am - Arrive to the desk. Login and look over markets and read news on Bloomberg/Reuters and any new Citi research for your respective industry coverage.

9:30am - Print out the investor list of an IPO that we priced the night before and head down to the Sales & Trading floor with my industry origination head and the syndicate deal captain. Stand with the trader as he matches buyers and sellers and opens the stock for the first time. The deal was well received by investors and the stock opens and trades up – lots of shouting and excitement! Return to desk. Receive an email from an investment banking Vice President for one of my coverage industries informing me of a pitch to client in two days for a convertible offering. I need to put together a presentation on the convertible market, determine pricing terms, cost of capital, and EPS impact for the pitchbook. I call down to my Debt Capital Markets counterpart to get the appropriate credit assumptions for various maturities. I put together initial pricing terms based on several variables and show to a convertible coverage officer, who makes some slight changes and sends back to me. I build an EPS model to analyze the impact to the company of issuing the convertible and create an analysis of the cost of capital for the company. I send the presentation to the investment banking group. The whole team (investment banking, ECM , DCM) has an internal call to discuss before sending the book to the client ahead of the meeting.

12:30pm - Walk across the street with another Analyst and two Managing Directors in ECM to grab a sandwich to bring back to the desk.

1:00pm - Catch up on some emails. Send an investment banking Associate in one of my coverage industries a market update for a discussion with a client tomorrow. I read an article in the WSJ online about new equity hybrid securities.

1:30pm - An ECM officer comes over to my desk to catch up and outline some pages for a follow-on pitch the next day. He gives me an idea of what he is looking for, but lets me take the first crack of the presentation on my own. I start putting a shell of a book together including market conditions, precedent transactions, sizing recommendation for the company, execution considerations, and Citi's underwriting and distribution qualifications. I do an analysis on the company's shareholders and outline a recommendation on which institutional investors Citi will target marketing the offering to. I create a new page comparing our strengths to our competitors and show it to my coverage officer. He thinks it’s great and wants it added to the book! I send the draft to the investment banking Analyst.

3:30pm - Things have quitted down and I am back on Bloomberg/Reuters looking at the markets. The S&P 500 is getting crushed due to a run up in oil. All of a sudden my origination officer yells over to me “ABC Corp will be executing a $300 million block trade this afternoon and we are being asked for a bid….we're meeting in 10 minutes in the Head of ECM's office.” I race to pull together a quick analysis of the offering to present to the Block Trade Committee, which will be used to determine what price to bid. I get the data together and run into the office that is filled with senior Capital Markets and Sales & Trading professionals. They discuss the situation, arrive at a price, and we bid that price to the company right after the market closes. We win the trade!

6:00pm - I put together a one-page case study on the block trade and send it out the entire team.

6:30pm - The desk all orders dinner together (sushi again!) I follow-up on some of the comments I have received on the two pitches I was working on earlier in the day. I finish incorporating the comments and send revised drafts out to the different transaction teams.

9:00pm - Work is done for the day. Time to get to the gym before heading home.

Our Programs

Equity Capital Markets (ECM) in Asia has two programs you can apply for:

• Full Time Analyst Program
• Summer Analyst Program

We are currently recruiting into:

• Hong Kong

Full Time Analyst Program

Equity Capital Markets professionals specialize across a range of sectors and products. In addition, an integral part of ECM's service is the Corporate Equity Derivatives team, which uses tailor-made derivatives products in the equity markets to find new value for our clients.

Our core business consists of the origination, structuring and execution of IPOs, follow-ons, and convertible securities. We also provide our corporate clients with secondary trading assistance, such as real-time market insight, hedging strategies, and investor relations advice.

The Full Time Analyst Program commences mid July with a four week training program in New York. Once you have successfully completed this, you will be assigned to a team within ECM.

Your formal training begins with orientation and induction sessions providing an overview of Citi and specifically Citi Markets & Banking. You will also have plenty of opportunities to meet representatives from the teams that make up the ECM Division. The aim of the orientation and induction is to provide you with a solid understanding of the Division.

You will then complete a four week program of extensive classroom training, with skilled external corporate training consultants, supported by selected internal instructors from within Citi. This comprehensive program is designed to cover the following fundamental aspects of the Analyst role:

• Enhance confidence when extracting and assimilating financial information
• Build robust financial models
• Fundamentals of equity valuation
• Become familiar with the standard Citi financial models
• Understand key roles in the financial markets
• Obtain an overview of the most important financial products

Summer Analyst Program

We also offer a Summer Analyst Program for undergraduates in ECM.

After the initial training you will then be assigned to a team within ECM where you will be allocated a project / projects to work on.

Throughout the summer we will continue to provide you with training and networking opportunities to help you gain an in depth knowledge of the whole of Citi. These events include networking opportunities with senior managers and various intern-wide social events. A mentor and a buddy will also be allocated to you to give you advice and support network over the summer with us.

During the program, we will be evaluating you for a full time position for the following year. We do this through a mid term evaluation and a final term review. Remember that this is a two way process – it is an opportunity for you to evaluate whether this is where you want to take your career as well.

Who we are looking for

We asked our Equity Capital Markets recruiters to describe what makes a good candidate and what specific skills they are looking for:

Successful professionals in ECM share many common traits. They include:

• Creative in solving problems
• Intellectually curious
• Hard-working and diligent
• Enthusiastic
• Quick-thinking
• Able to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously
• Confident and comfortable with clients
• Articulate in oral and written communication
• Cooperative; focused in achieving the group and client objectives
• Detail-Oriented

Their specific skill-sets may include:

• Quantitative Analysis
• Financial Modeling
• Writing and Editing
• Computer Modeling
• Foreign Languages

Recruitment Process

We open for applications on September 3, 2007

The application deadlines are:

Full Time Analyst Program:       October 12, 2007 (US Schools); October 26, 2007 (All other schools)

Summer Analyst Program:       December 10, 2007

Please apply early. Our interview process for the full time programs will commence in October 2007, for summer internships it will commence in December 2007.

Below is an outline of the recruitment process (full-time program and summer internship program) from application received to offer:

Stage 1:    Application is reviewed by Graduate Recruitment and the Business

Stage 2:    First round interviews: One to two 1:1 competency based phone interviews with junior managers in Asia

Stage 3:    Second round interviews: One to two 1:1 competency based phone interviews with senior managers in Asia

Stage 4:    Final round interviews: Three 1:1 competency based interviews with Managing Directors and Directors

Stage 5:     Offer extended by Business; follow up by Graduate Recruitment