投资银行相关[转贴]

goldenbinUID：31382

INVESTMENT BANKING

Overview

Investment bankers (sometimes referred to as "I-bankers") provide financial advice and services to corporate clients. They advise corporate CFOs and CEOs on matters such as whether to:

issue or back stock or debt
acquire other companies (and how much to offer for them)
sell part of their current company (and at what price)
Investment bankers' client companies may be large and established, or they may be new ventures that are "going public" -- that is, selling stock to the public in an initial public offering (IPO) to acquire the capital they need to grow.

Investment banks themselves may be large or small. Moreover, they may be either:

"full-service" banks, which offer financial advice and service to a wide variety of industries (such as real estate)
niche ("boutique") firms, which serve only a specialized part of the financial services market (such as the entertainment field or the high-tech industry)
Most investment banks are located in New York, London, or Hong Kong, and are called "money center banks." "Regional investment banks" -- some with excellent reputations in the industry -- are located in other cities throughout the world.

In investment banking, many people work 100 hours or more during an average week, which means working over evenings and weekends. Investment banking consumes their lives. These individuals make a lot of money, and in return they become "wholly owned subsidiaries" of the banks where they work.

But most investment bankers love finance and the fast pace that characterizes the industry. In fact, they love that speed so much that many of them would consider the three-to-six month time period of the average management consulting assignment to be too long!

Investment bankers typically start their careers with gathering and analyzing data (and proofreading documents to ensure the accuracy of every number). They then move up the following "rungs" of the career ladder:

preparing and helping to deliver presentations to clients
developing and maintaining client relationships
"selling" the bank's services
running the bank itself, or parts of it, such as the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) group. As you might imagine, successful investment bankers need a lot of personal polish, confidence, and a great handshake.