Investment Banking Interview Questions
An investment banking is a financial service company or institution that provides credit facilities, security instruments, underwriting, and advisory services related to governments, individuals, and corporations. Investment banking roles are research, investment management, underwriting new stocks issues, and risk management. In this article, we have covered some important investment banking interview questions that you should know while giving an investment banking interview.
Investment Banking Technical Questions
To answers this question, you have to tell all the essential qualities that are required to become an investment banker.
- Having good communication ability
- Able to think out of the box
- Able to manage multiple project deadlines
- Strong quantitative and analytical skills
- Positive and never give up attitude
A company should issue debt when the rate of taxation is high or there is a huge market and the company does not have enough capital to meet the demand.
Some of the features that make a good financial model are:
- It describes all the functionality.
- Having clear inputs, working, output and results.
- The model is versatile.
- The model is well structured and easy to audit.
- The formula used in the model is most efficient.
The cost of equity is calculated by CAPM. CAPM stands for Capital Asset Pricing Model. Below is the formula used to calculate the cost of equity.
E(Ri) = R(f) + β[E(m) - R(f)]
where,
β = Beta of the stock.
E(m) = Market Rate of Return
[E(m)-R(f)] = equity risk premium.
R(f) = Risk -free Rate of Return.
NOTE: These are the most important questions to ask investment bankers during an interview.
This is the formula to calculate beta for a company.
ΔSi=α+βi×ΔM+e
where:
ΔSi =change in the price of stock i.
α=intercept value of the regression.
βi=beta of the I stock return.
ΔM=change in the market price.
e=residual error term.
The appropriate numerator for a revenue multiple is Enterprise Value.
A company that provides factors like a quality product, good services, and uniqueness and these factors helps to create good names and good reputation of the company in the minds of customers, bankers, and suppliers, etc when we try to value the good name and reputation of the business in terms of money then it is known as Goodwill.
Goodwill = P − (A+L)
Where,
A = Fair market value of assets
L = Fair market value of liabilities
P = Purchase rate for the targeted company
Investing in a company with a negative historical cash flow is generally a high risk. Cash expenditure on the equipment could be greater than the revenue coming in. By profit, and loss company you could value the company with its net profit.
The cost of equity is typically much higher than the cost of debt. As it makes you lose a part of the business to the equity investors. Debt is less expensive because its interest payment is considered as the expense.
| Commercial Banking | Investing Banking |
|---|---|
| Individual or small-sized companies. | Startups and companies. |
| Provides services to the public. | Provides services to corporations, investors, and governments. |
| A risk factor is low. | A risk factor is high. |
| Take deposits. | Don’t take deposits. |
| Provides loans. | Don’t provide loans. |
Questions to ask investment bankers
As you must be aware of the fact that the investment banking interviews are very much structured. In this area, we have created a list of all the possible questions that can be asked to the investment bankers in their interviews. This list is for the people who are already in the investment banking domain and have a high level of experience as investment bankers. So if you are experienced in investment banking and looking to change your organization or planning to apply for the bigger roles; so make sure you prepare the answers for the following investment banking interview questions.
- What are the three principal financial statements of a corporation?
- What factors would you need to consider in the merging of new data?
- If a company incurs $10 (pretax) of depreciation expense, how does that affect the three financial statements?
- What is the best method for startup valuation?
- If you Could Use Only One Financial Statement to Evaluate the Financial State of a Company, Which Would You Choose?
- What is WACC and how do you calculate it?
- What methods are used to value a company?
- How many times revenue is a business worth?
You just need to spend some amount of time studying them. Be confident with your answers.
Good luck!