One interesting bit of feedback I received from my survey the other week was that my Day In The Life posts were among your favorites. Whether its the worst day or best day, everyones interested in
what bankers actually do.</p>
<p>In the spirit of those previous posts, this week Im posting an entire Week In The Life Of An Investment Banker. Today Ill cover Sunday and Monday (what, you thought we had weekends off?) and each day Ill cover another day of the same week.</p>
<p>Sunday</p>
<p>12 PM - Wake up late. Was up late the night before at a friends birthday (fun, but no models and bottles). Find food and get ready for the day.</p>
<p>1 PM - Head to gym. While there, run into another friend at a different bank and talk about plans for next year (one of the most popular discussion topics among Analysts) and why neither of us is at the office currently.</p>
<p>3 PM - Relaxing near the pool post-workout when the dreaded email arrives. Client A, a sell-side M&A client, has reviewed a presentation we sent yesterday and has changes. I have to run to the office at 4 to discuss the changes and then revise the presentation.</p>
<p>4 PM - While on a call going over the changes, I get bored and begin internet surfing in the background. Most of the edits involve wording and font sizes on graphs through 100 or so slides. This is going to take some time to finish because of the sheer volume of changes.</p>
<p>10 PM - I finish up with the revisions and the Associate sends out to client. Meanwhile, Client B, a public company being sold to a larger public company, has sent over revised projections and we need to update our merger model.</p>
<p>A merger model (also called accretion / dilution model or combo model) is used to analyze the impact of an acquisition. The output is generally the change in EPS (Earnings Per Share) - how much the acquisition raises or lowers it by - and the most important inputs are purchase price, form of consideration (cash, stock, or debt), and the buyer and sellers financial profiles.</p>
<p>11 PM - Finish updates and head home.</p>
<p>This was a fairly standard Sunday - some time for fun, some work, and being in the office for at least part of the day.</p>
<p>Monday</p>
<p>9 AM - Arrive at work and chaos is unfolding. A standard Monday morning.</p>
<p>Were working on further revisions to the presentation for Client A, and the Director in charge of the deal is quite persistent with the Are you done yet? questions.</p>
<p>At the same time, were also multi-tasking between that and getting NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) executed for Client C, a large public company we are selling to several private equity firms.</p>
<p>(Yes, this was back in the day when Leveraged Buyouts were actually happening)</p>
<p>Getting NDAs (also called Confidentiality Agreements (CAs), among other terms) executed involves sending the document back and forth between legal representatives of the buyer and seller until they reach agreement. Its somewhat of a joke because theres no way to enforce an NDA, but both parties want protection so that their secrets and employees wont be stolen if nothing comes of the discussions.</p>
<p>In this case the Associate is handling most of the work.</p>
<p>2 PM - CFO of Client C (the private equity deal) sends updated financials and other information that we need to incorporate into our own models and into the materials were sending to the buyer(s). VP informs me this is needed ASAP.</p>
<p>5 PM - Finish up updated model and the VP sends it to Client Cs CFO so he can review it and sign off on it. Just as Im finishing, learn that I am being staffed on an upcoming Fairness Opinion for an M&A deal that is set to be announced soon.</p>
<p>A Fairness Opinion is just an extremely rigorous valuation that is prepared by a bank for legal reasons (to prove that a deal price is fair). Its a bit silly because no bank is ever going to say that a price is not fair, and theyve become formalities.</p>
<p>A perfect example is the controversy caused by the Bear Stearns deal back in March 2008. Lazard, its financial adviser, issued 2 Fairness Opinions, one for the original purchase price of $2.00 per share and one for the revised $10.00 per share price. Both prices were deemed fair, raising questions over what exactly these Opinions prove.</p>
<p>8 PM - Head to the Conference Room to eat dinner quickly with other Analysts and then go back and try to wrap up an Offering Memorandum and presentation for Client A. The Associate is side-tracked on other projects all night so I have to handle this work.</p>
<p>An Offering Memorandum (or Information Memorandum (IM) or Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM) ) is a long document with an overview of a company, including its products/services, customers, management, history, and financial profile that sells it to potential buyers. As an Analyst or Associate you spend a lot of time working on these.</p>
<p>12 AM - Head home.</p>
<p>This was a typical Monday - 15 or so hours of work, some chaos in the morning and a decent amount of actual work at night.