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- 📚 Reflections of a Banking MD: "20 years of 70-90 Hour Weeks; 6 Million Air Miles", Fed Cautious on a Rate Cut Case, Barclays' £2BN Cost-Cutting Program
📚 Reflections of a Banking MD: "20 years of 70-90 Hour Weeks; 6 Million Air Miles", Fed Cautious on a Rate Cut Case, Barclays' £2BN Cost-Cutting Program
PLUS: I Was a Hedge Fund Billionaire’s PA. It Nearly Killed Me, Asset Management: Berkshire’s Days of ‘Eye-Popping’ Gains Are Over, and More...
Afzal Hussein
February 26, 2024
Brought to you by Career Guides - guides that get you into finance. Fast.
In this issue:
Commercial Awareness Update
Career Conundrum
COMMERCIAL AWARENESS UPDATE
Today’s Topics
Investment Banking: Reflections of a banking MD: "20 years of 70-90 hour weeks; six million air miles", Barclays' £2bn cost-cutting program will hit people in the investment bank hardest, and more
Global Markets: U.S. investors retreat from equity funds on rate cut uncertainty, Fed cautious on a rate cut case that has yet to be made, and more
Asset Management: Global equity funds see big inflows amid stock rally, Asset Management: Berkshire’s days of ‘eye-popping’ gains are over, and more
Private Equity: PE firms are upbeat about 2024. Here’s what their companies think, The top 10 largest private equity firms in the world, and more
Hedge Funds: I was a hedge fund billionaire’s PA. It nearly killed me, Hedge funds ditch US stocks as Wall Street slides, and more
Venture Capital: With liquidity rare, VCs may get creative to return investor cash, Google gives Android the AI treatment, and more
INVESTMENT BANKING GET THE 100-PAGE GUIDE HERE
Barclays explains its intention of cutting £2bn in costs between 2024 and 2026, of which £700m will come from the corporate and investment bank. £340m of the £2bn will come from cutting headcount, and £188m of the £340m will come from cutting people in the CIB in particular.
Chipmaker Broadcom is nearing a $3.8 billion deal to sell its business that allows users to access desktops and applications from any device to private equity firm KKR. The potential deal represents an effort by Broadcom CEO Hock Tan to streamline the company's portfolio after completing its $69 billion takeover of software maker VMware in November.
Reflections of a banking MD: "20 years of 70-90 hour weeks; six million air miles" (EFC)
Barclays' £2bn cost-cutting program will hit people in the investment bank hardest (EFC)
Broadcom nears $3.8 billion sale of remote access unit to KKR (RT)
Ant Group outbids Citadel for Credit Suisse's China unit (RT)
GLOBAL MARKETS GET THE 107-PAGE GUIDE HERE
U.S. Federal Reserve officials, facing economic conditions they say lack any clear historical parallel to guide them, continued pushing back this week against a near-term start to interest rate cuts, instead building the case for caution before making a move they are struggling to justify.
A run of high-profile speeches on Thursday added emphasis to the previous day's hawkish readout of January's policy meeting that bundled together have further shaken investors' confidence that borrowing costs will fall soon.
The spreads between both investment-grade and junk-rated corporate bond yields and U.S. Treasuries have fallen to their narrowest level in more than two years, in a sign of overall investor confidence growing.
India's growth likely slowed to 6.6% last quarter as agriculture lagged (RT)
Fed cautious on a rate cut case that has yet to be made (RT)
U.S. investors retreat from equity funds on rate cut uncertainty (RT)
China expected to take gradual approach to prop up economy further (RT)
Credit spreads over US Treasuries fall as market gains confidence (RT)
CAREER CONUNDRUM
Stay or Take a Chance and Leave? 🤔
Reader: Male | 27 | Frankfurt | Consulting | 6 Years Experience
Question: "I've been offered a new job opportunity at a different company, but I'm torn between staying at my current job, where I have stability and familiarity, and taking a chance on something new. How do I weigh the risks and rewards of making a career move?"
Share your advice by replying to this email and the best responses will be featured in the next issue later on this week.
ASSET MANAGEMENT GET THE 71-PAGE GUIDE HERE
ESG may be a dirty acronym to some institutions these days, but one endowment is going all-in on it. The California Endowment, a private non-profit focused on expanding access to affordable and quality healthcare in the state, is expected to announce that it is planning to move its entire $4 billion in assets under management into mission-aligned investments.
The U.K.'s Department for Work and Pensions has proposed reforms for investing pension assets, including for local government pension schemes and allocating more assets to U.K. private equity. The consultation covered well-funded pension plans, and the potential to generate surpluses that can be shared between participants and sponsors. It also covered smaller plans, primarily those unlikely to be able to secure an insurance buyout, which could be consolidated into a new public consolidator run by the £32.5 billion ($41 billion) Pension Protection Fund.
PRIVATE EQUITY GET THE 127-PAGE GUIDE HERE
HEDGE FUNDS GET THE 116-PAGE GUIDE HERE
VENTURE CAPITAL GET THE 122-PAGE VC GUIDE HERE | AI | CRYPTO
BEFORE YOU LEAVE
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That’s all for today. I’ll see you in the next one!
Afzal
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