Week 2- Life of an Investment Banking Internship in India

Welcome to blog 2 of Pranay’s investment banking internship.

This week has been equally as insightful as week one for our intern, though arguably more challenging, as Pranay has had to get to grips with a lot of new material, as he has delved further into the wonderful world of investment banking internship. So brace yourselves, here we go guys!

Week two has been exciting, as it has thrown me into the deep end of the interning world this week.

The first task involved tying up all the loose ends of week one’s tasks, i.e. finishing off typing up all the research on the shipping ports in India. The project had extended itself over the weekend as I realised that I wanted to include more information on my report than I had initially anticipated. After collating and compiling all the details, and logging the information into an Excel Spreadsheet, I reviewed the information and then finally submitted my report. After learning a bit about the ports in India, I was confident that I could move onto a new assignment, as I was ready for a new challenge.

The second task of the week was a much bigger one, which involved a more specific research method, but also different subject skills. Since the office was really busy this week, I had ample opportunity to get stuck into finding out more about the company, and more specifically, looking at the sort of cliental that the company receives. Firstly, I was asked to research all the key mergers and takeovers happenings this week, and then was asked to investigate projects which had been undertaken in recent months. The reason I was asked to do this mainly centred on understanding which companies use the services that my company offers, but also to track the progress of certain companies to see if they were returning customers and if so, why they returned. Having done some research on the takeovers and key mergers from over the last six months, I decided to make a report on my findings. I used news stories and client records in order to make the report, with some additional support and guidance from certain individuals who worked alongside me.

I really enjoyed the independent nature of this task, as I was able to pursue a project on my own, but to also get to the crux of the company, in terms of it being a major service provider. The great thing about this week too, is that I have gained a more refined knowledge of a specific branch of the investment banking industry, and also gained new research, evaluation and writing skills. Although the research was at times demanding, I was pleased that there were numerous sources that I could get information from, but also that help was always at hand.

As I passed the mid-week mark, I found that Thursday was to mark the beginning of a company specific project. Thursday brought with it the mighty task of creating a detailed document on Mitsui & Co., Ltd, a Japanese company which pursues a number of different projects ranging from worldwide logistics and financing to the development of major international infrastructure. Since its establishment in the 1930s, the company has come a long way and now has 148 offices in 67 different countries, and employs over 6000 staff. (If you are  interested in reading more about them, check out their website ) Since the company is international, this made for an interesting research project, as there are so many areas of interest to their ever expanding business.

As can be seen just by this brief description, Mistui & Co. pursues a number of different projects, so it was important that I was given a particular branch of the company to research, to ensure that my time was spent productively. I was therefore assigned the task of researching the type of markets that Mitsui & Co. is in, beginning with the steel manufacturing and trading aspects of the company. I decided that it was important to introduce the company in my report, to find out what Mitsui & Co. actually do, but to write briefly about the key projects which were taking place in each market area. After this, I decided to look at costs, profits and sales and sought to investigate which aspect of Mitsui’s company makes the most money and why, which is the most influential and what the company’s main business in. These are all factors which contribute to the successful running and expansion of a business. I decided to head into this direction because it was important for me to understand the logistics of a large corporate company during the course of my internship.

In terms of the social aspect of the internship, I didn’t really get much time during the week to socialise as I usually have very busy days and only get home at around 9pm. However, the weekend called for celebration and relaxation, so I played golf and also went to a shopping centre called The Palladium. The Palladium is a fantastic place, and it’s full of amazing shops- both designer and high street and also comes equipped with a cinema and Hagen Daaz Café. Needless to say, I enjoyed an ice cream here, as I am a bit of a fan of Hagen Daaz. The weekend also brought with it a pub visit, to a local place The Irish. When I visited, it was karaoke night, but I decided not to join in! I am saving myself for a big finale at the end of my internship!

Hope you’ve enjoyed round two of Pranay’s internship, and we look forward to keeping you updated on his travels and experiences.

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