Capital Markets & Advisory Off-cycle Analyst Program (January 2025 for 6 months)

ING Capital Markets & Advisory Off-cycle Analyst Program

Corporate Finance / M&A ~ Acquisition Finance ~ Debt Capital Markets ~ Ratings Advisory ~ Loan Syndication ~ Loan Sales

Application closing date: 29th September 2024

Expected start date and duration: January 13th 2025 for 6 months

Summary:

Opportunity to join the 6-month off-cycle Analyst Program in ING’s London Capital Markets & Advisory Group, within one of its departments (Corporate Finance/M&A, Acquisition Finance, Debt Capital Markets, Ratings Advisory, Loan Syndication or Loan Sales), to support on key initiatives and execution of live deals.

Please make sure you review each team overview below to understand what they do. Then when applying, select your top three choices. By doing this, we can make sure your application is seen by the relevant teams.

Corporate Finance / M&A

ING Corporate Finance team comprises over 200 professionals worldwide and it provides financial advisory services on a wide range of M&A deals including buy-side, sell-side, buy-outs, and capital raise transactions. The London team, comprised of c.30 professionals, primarily covers the EMEA region across various sectors including Energy, Commodities & New Technologies, Transport & Infrastructure, TMT, and Financial Institutions.  The London team also covers other industries selectively when it comes to advising private equity clients of the bank such as KKR, Blackstone, CVC and others.

Notable recent deals announced by the London team include the sale of Abellio Germany by NS Groep, IPO of CVC, acquisition of HES Hartel by Impala Terminals, equity raise for Carbon Recycling International, carve-out and sale of Puma Energy’s Infrastructure division, and the sale of first colo by Emeram Capital Partners.

Main tasks include carrying out market and industry research, preparing company profiles and marketing materials, conducting financial statement analysis, forecasting business and financial performance of target companies, and preparing simple valuation models (DCF, relative valuation).

Acquisition Finance

ING’s Acquisition Finance team was established in the 1990s to support Private Equity (financial sponsors) clients by providing debt financing solutions for Leveraged Buyouts and recapitalisations, and is ranked among the top five banks in the European financial sponsor-backed Leveraged Loan market (source: Bloomberg, as of Jan 2024). The team works with businesses across a wide variety of industries and is responsible for originating and executing transactions for some of the world’s most sophisticated investors, as well as monitoring the portfolio companies for which the bank has provided financing. The Acquisition Finance team lends ING’s own capital and also works alongside capital markets colleagues to structure and underwrite transactions covering loan and bond solutions. Clients are covered by ~100 professionals in offices based across Europe, North America and Asia – the London team covers clients in the UK and the Nordic and Central Eastern European regions.

Main tasks include: 1) identifying and tracking new and potential business opportunities, creating one-pagers / company profiles when requested; 2) contribute to company, market and valuation (debt and equity) analysis; 3) assist in the preparation of pitch books; 4) review due diligence reports and summarising / presenting key credit issues; 5) preparing LBO models and related financial / sensitivities based on discussions with the deal team; and 6) contributing to the preparation of credit papers including detailed financial, business and market analysis.

High Yield Debt Capital Markets

Learn about Leveraged Finance with a specific focus on High Yield Debt Capital Markets transactions and origination. Develop knowledge of different bond structures, pricing, the primary and secondary market, execution of transactions, interest rates, swaps and other money market instruments. Key activities include:

• Deal execution for refinancings, corporate M&A and leveraged buyouts. This will include preparation of investor presentations to shape clients’ credit stories, structuring deal terms, guiding on bond documentation and liaising with clients, lawyers and other banks

• Advising clients and pitching bond transactions, while always shaping ING’s advice in the context of clients’ broader capital structures

• Preparing market and pricing updates to keep clients abreast of changes in the macroeconomy, primary and secondary bond and loan markets

• Undertaking relevant analysis and identifying relevant comparables

• Liaising with other teams on new opportunities, identifying HY opportunities and educating ING counterparts on the product and current market environment

Ratings Advisory

ING Ratings Advisory focuses on providing in-house corporate ratings expertise, primarily by making recommendations on potential ratings outcomes for various financing structures under consideration. External ratings – typically those produced by the ‘big-3’ rating agencies (S&P, Moody’s and Fitch) – increasingly represent the key facilitator of a corporate’s ability to access and optimise non-bank (and in certain cases bank) capital sources. For example, issuing a corporate bond very likely requires an external rating to allow institutional investors to participate.  

The team consists of 8 professionals based in offices across London, Paris, New York and Singapore. Our role is to effectively act as an internal rating agency – simulating and predicting the potential rating outcomes of the ‘big-3’ rating agencies. The team consists of ex-rating agency analysts who have extensive experience in rating companies, leading analytical teams, chairing rating agency committees and writing criteria.

At it’s core, rating analysis is fundamentally credit analysis. As such, this role would provide any applicant with an excellent grounding in the fundamentals of credit risk – a skill which has material cross-over in many areas of banking, investing and finance. It is one of the primary professional building blocks.

Main tasks: include helping to produce analysis of rated peers (core to forming a ratings view); producing ratings specific content for client presentations, as well as supporting senior team members with various aspects of live deal execution

Loan Syndication

The Loan Distribution Group is a dedicated distribution platform for all of ING’s financing activities in the primary and secondary loan markets and also covers the insurance market as risk and/or capital distribution tool. The London team, comprised of over 25 professionals, covers the EMEA region across Leveraged Finance, Real Estate, Corporate and Financial Institution-related transactions from a capital markets perspective and supports the wider Sector & Lending teams from a loan sales and insurance market perspective. ING is a consistent top-5 bookrunner in EMEA and the Loan Distribution Group plays a central role within ING’s capital velocity strategy.

Main tasks include assessing transactions, performing key credit analysis, preparing syndication advices, reviewing legal documentation, following loan market dynamics, preparing market updates, investor and comparables analyses, and/or looking after all transaction management aspects during syndication or the binding of insurance coverage.

Loan Sales

The Loan Sales team interacts on behalf of ING with the global loan investor market for all debt transactions where loans and loan-based products are distributed to the wider investor community, be this other banks, insurance companies, pension funds or investment managers. Types of transactions include primary loan syndications or secondary loan sales across a wide range of origination sectors including Energy, Commodities & New Technologies, Transport, Infrastructure, TMT, Leveraged finance and Corporate finance.

The Loan Sales team is located across 5 global hubs (London, Amsterdam, Brussels, New York & Singapore). We work closely with our internal partners taking ownership of the sales strategy and execution of these transactions as well as providing them valuable market insight during the structuring and distribution process.

Main tasks include assisting in the primary syndication process from launch to closing (including internal checks, preparation of the dataroom and the syndication materials), the preparation of pitches, liquidity analysis, league tables, market overviews and reports for both primary and secondary loan activity, working with different Loan Syndicate teams and understanding the dynamics in the different sectors, assisting the secondary loan desk with both internal and external secondary loan market enquiries

Values we look for:

With over 57,000 employees across 40 countries, there’s no predefined template for an ING employee. What unites us all is a set of shared behaviours and expectations that are part of our value system, the Orange Code.

Initiative and ownership: You take it on and make it happen

We seek people who keep their promises and take ownership of tasks, projects, and their team. Who have the ability to listen, ask questions, and speak up. Who strive to bring ideas to life and embrace challenges. People who are flexible and consistently go the extra mile.

Teamwork: Help others to be successful

We prefer big thinkers with small egos. Collaborative by nature, ING people are eager to see others succeed as much as themselves. We operate in cross-disciplinary teams with a flat structure. Mutual respect is not just an expectation, it’s the only way to get great work done.

Forward-looking: Always a step ahead

We value people who question the status quo and pose creative approaches to problems. People who can think on their feet and respond to change with aplomb. Our industry’s moving fast and we’re leading the charge. If you can adapt to new challenges as quickly, ING could be the place for you.

Essential Requirements:

• Availability of 6 months

• Preference for candidates in their final year of study, with an excellent academic track record and on course for 2:1 or higher

• Prior experience through internships is of added-value but not a pre-requisite

• Strong interest in at least one of the areas covered above

• Excellent English verbal and written communication skills

• Highly numerate

• Looking for candidates with a strong eagerness to learn and who thrive in fast-paced environments

• The successful candidate must, by the start of their employment, have a right to work in the UK

• Foreign languages are advantageous but not a pre requisite

Application to include:

• CV

• 1 page cover letter with your top 3 team choices included within