Alternative Careers for Former Wall Street Women

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istock_000007854714xsmall1by Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

Is there life after Wall Street? With unemployment rates at an all time high and the financial industry in turmoil as a result of the economic downturn, some Wall Streeters are considering major career changes. Opportunities exist as long as the former investment types are willing to think outside of the traditional career trajectory to new livelihoods – counter terrorism, for example.

Recently the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been recruiting ex Wall Streeters. The agency seeks economic analysts to assess illicit financial activities, including networks used by terrorist and criminal groups, financing and procurement of weapons of mass destruction, money laundering and corruption among foreign governments and companies. Backgrounds in international finance, banking, or business are part of the requirements. But displaced and discouraged workers can put their backgrounds to work in less dramatic ways too. 

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The Need for Women Leaders on Wall Street

Wall Stby Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

What if there were more women leaders on Wall Street? This is the question raised by a new report from The National Council for Research on Women, a network of 120 leading U.S. research, policy and advocacy centers. The report, entitled “Women in Fund Management: Achieving Critical Mass and Why It Matters,” takes a close look at the lack of women in leadership roles in fund management.

Today, only 16 percent of executive and board positions in the financial services are held by women and just 10 percent of fund managers are women. In fact, in 2008, women managed only three percent of the approximately $1.9 trillion invested in hedge funds. These low numbers don’t align with the number of women in the workplace, the number of women who own businesses, or the amount of wealth represented by women. Almost half of all workers in the U.S., and one third of all business owners, are women. And women comprise 43 percent of all Americans with gross assets of $1.5 million or more.

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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-up

Martin Mitchel of CTGContributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group   

In case you were too busy to have kept up with all the news, contributor Martin Mitchell has gathered some important market events from last week to help you start this week well informed:

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Mining company Rio Tinto agreed to sell part of its Alcan packaging unit to Bemis of the US for $1.2bn. Bemis will pay $1bn in cash and a further $200m in shares. The sale price represents 7.2x 2008 EBITDA and was structured to enable Bemis to preserve its investment grade rating. Bemis management said that if it had added more than $1bn in debt, the rating would have been in jeopardy.
  • AIG, the US government-controlled insurance group has rekindled talks with MetLife about selling American Life Insurance Company. The sale was first discussed earlier in the year, but broke down on the issue of price in difficult credit markets. However, with AIG owing the US taxpayer $100m and under pressure to speed up disposals, the sale talks have reopened. It is thought that the sale price could reach $15bn.
  • UK property company Segro is getting closer to acquiring rival Brixton in a deal valuing the target at around £107m. Brixton has net debt of around £862m and is facing a potential breach of a key covenant test in relation to loan-to-value on July 31st. UBS and JPMorgan Cazenove are advising Segro, Citi and Nomura are advising Brixton.
  • Owner of British Gas, Centrica has bid £1.3bn for North Sea oil and gas company Venture Production. Read more
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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-up

Martin Mitchel of CTGContributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group   

In case you were too busy to have kept up with all the news, contributor Martin Mitchell has gathered some important market events from last week to help you start this week well informed:  

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • UK mobile phone company Vodafone is exploring a bid for T-Mobile UK despite the risk of it being blocked by regulators. The combination of the two companies would control 40% of mobile phone revenues in the UK. Deutsche Telecom, T-Mobile’s owner has appointed JPMorgan to advise on its strategic options.
  • Apparently Spain’s Telefonica is also looking at bidding for T-Mobile UK. Telefonica already owns the UK’s O2 – which could lose its top position in the UK mobile phone market if Vodafone buys T-Mobile UK.
  • UK bus and rail operator National Express has rejected an unsolicited bid from its rival FirstGroup. However, National Express remains weakened as the UK government is going to re-nationalize the East Coast rail franchise – National Express entered into a contract to pay the UK government £1.4bn to run the franchise and struggled to make the commitment balance the revenue generated.
  • Anglo American, the mining company preparing a detailed response to a merger proposal from Xstrata, is sounding out potential investors for its Brazilian ore assets. Bahrain’s Gulf Industrial Investment Company and Japan’s Sojitz are thought to be interested.
  • Private equity house Candover has received a number of approaches for Ontex, its Belgian based diaper maker. Ontex was purchased six years ago for €1bn and needed a loan refinancing two years ago to reduce its debt burden from more than €700m.
  • The tussle between Volkswagen and Porsche intensified when Porsche rejected a bid from VW worth up to €4bn for a 49% stake. The rejection was for two reasons – because it would lead to the need to renegotiate a €10.75bn credit facility and because it had been sent to the wrong address! It was sent to Porsche’s chairman rather than the executive board. Porsche continues to struggle under debts of €9bn after its attempt to take over Volkswagen, and it is attempting to raise fresh capital from the Qatar Investment Authority, amongst others.
  • US regional airline Republic Airways moved to purchase troubled peers Frontier Airlines and Midwest Airlines. Republic has bid $109m for Frontier, which is currently in bankruptcy protection and $31m to buy Midwest from private equity owners TPG.
  • The China National Petroleum Corp is in talks to acquire YPF, the Argentinean oil company currently owned by Spain’s Repsol YPF.
  • US electricity producer Exelon increased its hostile all stock bid for NRG Energy by 12% to approximately $7.5bn. Exelon said the increase reflected the identification of another $1.5bn in cost savings. Read more
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Happy Summer! We’re Off to Watch Some Fireworks…

istock_000008169218xsmall1Since the 4th of July holiday is upon us in the States, we are taking an extra day or two to soak up some sun, sit on the beach, and get some much needed R&R.  We’ll see you all back here on Monday. 

But, for those of you not in the States  or who are wishing for  more of the good reads on The Glass Hammer, we hope that you will take some time to dig into our archives and read some of our more popular articles like these articles on work/life balance, career, professional development,  and networking advice,  news on women in the Fortune 500 and professional services, the effect of the current economic crisis on women, companies that “get it“, or any of our profiles of top women that we’ve done for our Voices of Experience series.

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Ask-A-Recruiter: Discussing Salary Requirements During Job Interviews

jobsearchContributed by Kunjal Tanna, Team Leader of the Huxley Associates New York Global Markets.

I am a trained lawyer who has been laid off from a bank during the economic shake-up. I had been with the bank for 10 years and during this time I have amassed a salary of almost $200k and an additional 10 days of vacation. I would like some advice on how I should handle the salary questions that will be asked at interview, I don’t want to sell myself short but I also don’t want to price myself out of the market. I would also appreciate some guidance on how to negotiate my vacation package.

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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-up

Contributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group   

In case you were too busy to have kept up with all the news, contributor Martin Mitchell has gathered some important market events from last week to help you start this week well informed:  

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • The adviser rankings for M&A activity in the first half of 2009 from Dealogic saw the following top ten (based on the value of deals advised on): (1) Goldman Sachs $363.2bn; (2)  JPMorgan $321.3bn; (3) Morgan Stanley $319bn; (4)  Citigroup $244bn; (5)Bank of America Merrill Lynch $198.9bn; (6) Deutsche Bank $193.6bn; (7) Lazard $182.7bn; (8) UBS $161.5bn; (9) Credit Suisse $131.0bn; (10) Barclays Capital $108.7bn
  • Preliminary talks commenced on a nil premium, all share ‘merger of equals’ between two mining giants. Swiss-based Xstrata proposed the link up with London-listed Anglo American. The market capitalisations of the two are similar, with Xstrata at £20bn and Anglo American at £21.4bn. However, Anglo American management labelled the offer ‘totally unacceptable’ arguing that its assets were superior to those of Xstrata. Anglo American is being advised by UBS and Goldman Sachs, Xstrata by JPMorgan Cazenove and Deutsche Bank.
  • German airline Lufthansa reached an out of court settlement over the future ownership of BMI British Midland. Lufthansa will pay a total of £223m for the 50% plus one share that was previously owned by BMI Chairman Sir Michael Bishop. Sir Michael and Lufthansa have been in negotiations for some months since BMI has been making losses and Sir Michael had a contractual right to sell his stake to Lufthansa for £298m. Lufthansa will now own 80 per cent of BMI and will offer to buy the remaining 20% from SAS Scandinavian Airlines.
  • UK real estate company Brixton has received a bid from rival Segro that values Brixton at around £107m. Segro (formerly known as Slough Estates) is being advised by UBS and JPMorgan Cazenove, Brixton is being advised by Citi and Nomura.
  • US retailer Office Depot is raising $350m by selling preference shares to private equity firm BC Partners. The preference shares will pay a 105 dividend and could convert into a 20% stake at a price of $5 per share. Office Depot shares are currently trading at $3.92. 
  • State-owned Sinopec, one of China’s biggest oil companies is taking over Addax Petroleum in a C48.3bn (£4.4bn) all cash deal. Addax is Swiss-based and has oil production interests in Africa and Iraqi Kurdistan. 
  • General Motors has invited a select number of investors to submit improved offers for its European operations. In an attempt to put pressure on preferred bidder Magna, GM has asked Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation, the Chinese carmaker and Belgium-based RHJ International to make improved bids. 
  • Private equity companies are circling Almatis, the German aluminium business that is owned by Dubai International Capital as it negotiates a $1.1bn debt restructuring. Blackstone and Advent International are amongst those interested in providing fresh funds as part of the restructuring.
  • Emaar Properties, the Middle East’s largest property company and the company building the world’s tallest tower in Dubai, is in talks to merge with three other property companies – Dubai Properties, Sama Dubai and Tatweer. The three are all part of the Dubai ruler’s Dubai Holding Group and Emaar is a listed company that is 32% owned by the government.  Read more
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Pride Month: Top 5 Ways NOT to Tell Your Co-Workers You are a Lesbian

You are a professional woman in finance, law, or business. You probably went to a great university, have paid your dues, and are making way up the career ladder as we speak. Yet, you feel incomplete. You are likely either:

(a) a straight woman reading this thinking its hard to find a decent man to live with/marry/have a baby with (delete as appropriate, ladies); or

(b)a lesbian reading this thinking its hard to find a decent woman to live with/get married to in Vermont (or some other same sex marriage friendly jurisdiction)/ have a baby with (including the endless conversations with your partner about who can father the child) (delete as appropriate, ladies).

But, if you fall into category (b), your challenges are different, especially if you are not yet “out” at work.

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From Big to Boutique: The Changing Face of Investment Banking

istock_000007272893xsmall1by Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

From UBS to Aladdin Capital; Merrill Lynch to Evercore Partners,  Lazard, and Greenhill; Morgan Stanley to Perella Weinberg – one-time Wall Streeters continue their defection from large investment banks to boutique banks following the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Boutique banks, which typically focus on smaller deals than the traditional big firms, garnered a lot of positive attention last year in the midst of the country’s financial crisis and the negative attention focused on Wall Street. Today, these smaller, specialized firms show no sign of slowing down. They are enjoying preferred status as the workplace of choice for some of the top talent in the financial services industry. There are several reasons for the attraction:

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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-up

martin1Contributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group

In case you were too busy to have kept up with all the news, contributor Martin Mitchell has gathered some important market events from last week to help you start this week well informed:     

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • The world’s second biggest cement maker, Holcim purchased the Australian operations of Mexico’s Cemex for A$2bn (US$1.6bn) in cash. Holcim will launch a SFr2bn (US$1.8bn) rights issue to finance the deal.
  • Anheuser-Busch InBev is looking to divest its central European operations to reduce its debt after the $52bn purchase of Anheuser-Busch. Private equity houses CVC Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and TPG are among those expressing an interest in the assets that include 11 breweries.  The sale is expected to raise €1bn to €1.5bn.
  • Troubled carmaker General Motors signed a memorandum of understanding to sell Saab to Swedish company Koenigsegg Automotive. Details of the price have yet to be revealed, however the Swedish government will guarantee some $600m of funding from the European Investment Bank.
  • Islamic investment group Arcapita sold Church’s Chicken, the world’s third biggest chain of fast food restaurants to Friedman, Fleischer and Lowe, a San Francisco private equity group for around $390m. The deal will see Arcapita double its investment after purchasing Church’s Chicken in 2004. Read more
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