Investing in Pudong

Monday, June 8 was my first day of work at Pacific Asset Management. I am working as an Investment Banking Associate in the financial capital of the world, Pudong Financial District of Shanghai, China.

On Monday morning, Absolute Internship staff took us to our first day of work. The interns split into three groups at 8:30 am in the lobby of the hotel/apartment complex depending on where each intern worked. The bus driver dropped my colleague, Kawosh (he’s from Sweden), and I off with Antonella (Absolute Internship staff) on Century Avenue in Pudong. Despite having the address of the office (Standard Chartered Bank Tower), Antonella, Kawosh, and I walked the city streets for over an hour in Pudong.

We came across the Dongchang Metro station, and I thought we should make a right at the intersection according to my map. I knew that the nearest metro stop is Lujiazua. I did not know at the time that Dongchang Road is the stop after Lujiazua. After walking in a circle, we ended up back at the bus. Antonella called my managing director, Mr. Mesaros, at 11:00 am to get the exact cross intersection. The buildings in Pudong are 100+ stories tall…except for the Standard Chartered Bank Tower, which is only 30 stories. This is probably why we couldn’t see the tower because it was hiding.

Kawosh and I got to work at 11:30 am – 2.5 hours late. Our managing director, Mr. Mesaros, explained what the other two interns, Patrick and David, were assigned. Patrick and David arrived in Shanghai the week before us. Both Patrick and David study finance and economics at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. At 12:30 pm, Mr. Mesaros took all of the interns to lunch at Blue Frog Australian Burger Grill in the World Financial Center Mall (across the street from the Standard Chartered Bank Tower). After lunch, David taught me how the investment banking process works. I have to do market research and analyze a company’s market capital to determine if Pacific Asset Management can offer the company a preferred investment. If the company meets our criteria, than I arrange a conference call between my managing director and the client company’s CFO. My working hours are 9 am to 6 pm but sometimes I either leave a little early or stay late depending on the project deadlines.

Monday night after work, Kawosh and I took the subway to People’s Square to then walk to Café de Stagieres for Happy Hour with the other interns. People’s Square subway station has 20 exits. Kawosh and I didn’t know which exit to take to get to the restaurant so we just picked an exit…which turned out to be a bad idea...I looked like a lost tourist in the rain with my big map. We ended up having to take a taxi to the café. I’m glad we did because Kawosh and I were seriously lost – not even close to the restaurant. At the café we shared our exciting stories of how each of us were late and lost to the first day of work and to the café.

A couple of us decided to go to dinner later in the evning at a restaurant across the street from our apartment that is open 24 hours. The menu at Sanbao is entirely in Chinese. Chinese restaurants usually have pictures of the food on their menus (probably to help westerners order), so we just pointed to the pictures of what we wanted for dinner. I ordered beef and egg porridge. It’s really good but comes in a huge pot so I wasn’t able to finish all of it.

On Tuesday, I woke up at 5:30 am to ensure that I got to work on-time. I wanted to leave for work by 8:00 am since I didn’t know if the metro would be congested. They say you only get one chance at a first impression…I needed to make a good second impression since I was late on the first day of work (even though Absolute Internship did notify my boss). On the second day of work, I began working on preferred investments. I use the screener on “Financial Visualizations (finviz)” to look at the top gainers and top losers from the previous day’s stock trading. Pacific Asset Management is an internationally recognized company, but the firm only invests in companies that are traded on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq stock exchange because they are required to publish their annual financial reports and SEC filings. My managing director is particularly interested in a company’s change in stock price, market capitalization, earnings before interest, free cash flow, outstanding shares, and shareholder information. On Tuesday, I spent most of the day arranging conference call meetings between my managing director and a company’s CFO or CEO.

I take an hour lunch break every day with Patrick, David, and Kawosh. My managing director is usually busy with lunch meetings or conference calls so he hasn’t joined us again for lunch. The four of us walk across Century Avenue to the World Finance Center (WFC) mall for lunch. There is a food court in the basement of the World Financial Building. My first experience ordering lunch wasn’t very pleasant…I found a nice English guy who was able to help me translate when I went to lunch on Tuesday. I said okay to fish not knowing that I was ordering fish head. I took a spoonful of the fish soup and quickly lost my appetite once the fish eye was on my spoon. I have found the most difficulty ordering lunch in the WFC mall. On Wednesday, I went to a restaurant for lunch and apparently ordered side dishes. I wanted pork with eggs but without soy sauce. I pointed to my Chinese-English cheat sheet card, and was brought two side dishes. That restaurant has been scratched off my list of lunch spots.

During my morning commute to work every morning, I walk 15 minutes to the metro station at Jiangsu and then take the metro 45 minutes to Pudong with Kawosh, Lukas, and Leo (Lukas and Leo both work in the World Financial Center). On Wednesday after work, I met the other Absolute Internship interns in Pudong at the Blue Frog Bar & Grille. We sat outside and chatted before going to Bar Rouge on the other side of the river. It is a roof top bar on The Bund that overlooks the Shanghai skyline. Bar Rouge is now one of my favorite bars – probably because of the view – so I definitely plan to go back before leaving Shanghai.

On Thursday, June 11 I worked on compiling market research presentations on the companies that accepted our invitation to a conference call with my managing director. The market research is not difficult; it is just time consuming. I have to gather information and analyze it from the company’s annual financial reports and SEC filings. I use my knowledge from my finance coursework to be able to calculate earnings before interest and free cash flow. I enjoy learning about the companies that Pacific Asset Management will potentially offer investment deals. It is also rewarding to compile information for my managing director knowing that I am the one who initiated the investment offer. Now only if I earned commission from the million dollar investment deals.

#Summer2015 #Internship #Shanghai #Pudong #Finance