For most students in Groningen beer is a topic they never seem to get enough of. But have you ever thought about how a deal like the USD 103 billion take-over of brewer SABMiller by its peer Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2016 was financed? I am pretty sure such a thing would not have crossed my mind when I was studying Econometrics in Groningen, or at least not during my bachelor. Fast-forward six years since my graduation in 2011 and I can tell you a thing or two about debt-financed M&A transactions, be it from the investor point of view.
As a portfolio manager at the Asset Management division of Kempen, it’s my job to analyze companies in the Chemicals, Media, Oil & Gas and Technology sectors and decide in which corporate bonds to invest. The analysis entails reading news articles and research reports, discussions with colleagues and analysts from other investment banks, meetings with company representatives and running through the numbers in annual reports. But it does not stop there. As a portfolio manager I need to put a price tag, or in the case of corporate bonds, a required yield on a prospective investment and decide whether we want to buy or sell.
So what does it take to end up in a job like this? Most importantly, you need to have a genuine interest in investing. Possible ways to show this during an interview are through a membership of a student investment team on your resume or by giving examples of investment cases you have prepared for your own investment portfolio.
Want to know more about a job like this? Feel free to contact me!
Sipke Moes
sipke_moes@hotmail.com