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👔 Intro to Generalist IB

What is Investment Banking?

Investment Banking (’IB’) is the advisory business of helping companies, governments, and institutions raise capital and execute transactions — most notably mergers & acquisitions (M&A) and capital markets deals — in exchange for fees.

• A ‘generalist’ IB profile means you are not tied to a single sector or product; you sell yourself on core execution skills (modelling, valuation, materials, process management) that transfer across any deal.
• Unlike the buy-side (PE, VC, HFs), banks don’t invest their own capital into the outcome — they are a sell-side advisor paid on execution and closing, not on carry or fund returns.
• IB is the classic ‘first job’ that opens the most doors: it is the feeder into PE, growth, corporate development, HFs, and startups. The vocabulary, discipline, and deal reps are the currency everything else recruits against.

What Bankers Actually Do

• M&A advisory → advising a buyer (buy-side) or seller (sell-side) on acquiring, merging, or divesting a business: valuation, structuring, negotiation, and running the process end-to-end.
• Capital markets → helping clients raise money via equity (ECM — IPOs, follow-ons, rights issues) or debt (DCM — bonds, loans, leveraged finance).
• Restructuring (RX) → advising distressed companies or their creditors on balance-sheet repair, refinancing, or insolvency processes. Countercyclical — busy when M&A is quiet.
• Day-to-day for a junior: building financial models (DCF, comps, LBO, merger models), drafting pitch books and information memoranda, market/industry research, and supporting due diligence.

🗺️ The IB Landscape

Bank Tiers

The street is loosely organised into tiers. There is genuine disagreement at the edges, but the shape is well understood:

• A European note