The Industrials Group (Part Three): Maritime Shipping Investment Banking

Last time around, we looked at how you transport capital goods and products on the ground via trucking, railroads, and everything in between.

But sometimes oceans, or at least very large lakes and rivers, separate your cargo from its final destination.

Barring the ability to walk on water, you’ll have to use maritime shipping to transport your goods in that case… and just as banks dedicate groups within their industrials coverage teams to capital goods, transportation and logistics, and aerospace and defense, they also have dedicated teams for the maritime shipping sector.

Unlike road transportation, which depends heavily on the consumer / retail sector, or rail transportation, which is strongly linked to commodities, maritime shipping is much more global in nature because clients are often located halfway across the world.

Here’s what we’ll cover as today’s voyage sets sail:

• Who gets into maritime shipping investment banking
• What the maritime shipping sector covers, key metrics, and drivers
• Valuation, modeling, sector, and company analysis
• What exit opportunity port you’ll pull into after your cruise is over (NB: OK, this is IB, it’s more like a ride on the Titanic)

All Hands on Deck

Q: Maritime shipping is pretty niche as far as sector coverage groups run, so what’s your story? Were you always interested in this sector?

Transportation & Logistics Investment Banking: The Industrials Group, Part 2

When you hear “industrials,” your first thought might be manufacturing and mechanical equipment.

And then there’s aerospace & defense, which is really just another type of… very large mechanical equipment.

But after you get done manufacturing all this heavy-duty equipment, you still need to transport it to its final destination – and this is where transportation & logistics coverage comes into play.

The full name of the industrials group is “Diversified Industrial Goods & Services.”

The “services” delivered here aren’t so much consulting, HR, or changing font sizes in PowerPoint presentations, but rather moving goods from one point to another.

Here’s your map for today’s interview:

• How to punch your ticket and set your destination for transportation & logistics investment banking
• Walk through the lay of the land when it comes to covering transportation companies
• Circumnavigate the technical aspects of both financial analysis and industry analysis (NB: the sector is “industrials” and the industry is “transportation”)
• Discuss the more popular deal types, and where to go after you’ve clocked out of transportation coverage

All Aboard!

Sports Investment Banking: The Best Way to Own Manchester United AND the Miami Heat?

One of the benefits of working in a media & telecom group in banking is that you also get to work with sports teams and leagues: after all, what media baron would pass on the chance to own a few of their own sports franchises?

So you’ll see lots of sports teams and leagues owned by diversified media companies…

But sometimes, you need to skip all the media and telecom business and go directly to the source to advise sports teams directly. This is where finance and sports meet and what the sports coverage group is all about.

Just like how Aerospace & Defense is a cross between industrials and technology, sports coverage is a cross between media coverage and real estate (hospitality) coverage.

You’ve got media rights for sale to broadcast individual events or a series of events, and then stadiums (properties) that influence a team’s valuation.

This interview was inspired by the work of Robert Fuentes, Michael Dinerstein, and Daniel Fernandez from Stanford University, who taught a seminar on the business of baseball alongside the book Moneyball.

Here’s the play-by-play for today’s interview:

• Getting drafted as a banking professional in this area
• Covering the bases for what’s included in sports coverage
• Tackling technical topics such as sector drivers and valuation
• Finally, we’ll proceed to the post-game discussion and comment on the highlights and how-tos of exit opportunities

Now that we’ve played out the various sports puns, let’s:

Proceed to Games…

Q: What does it take to do well as a sports-oriented investment banker?