What's driving an exodus at Deutsche Bank's vaunted credit desk
Welcome to Wall Street Insider, where we take you behind the scenes of the finance team's biggest scoops and deep dives from the past week.
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Goldman Sachs exec Ram Sundaram has solidified his position as a senior leader in the firm's mighty markets division. Sundaram, named sole head of the currencies and emerging-markets team last month, is also responsible for a structured credit group known for much of its history as Principal Funding and Investments.
Dakin Campbell took a look at why the elevation of Sundaram — and what some see as his eat-what-you-kill Wall Street mentality — came as somewhat of a surprise to insiders who see Goldman marketing itself as a kinder, gentler investment bank.
You can read the full story here:
Inside the rise of Ram Sundaram, the leader of a secretive Goldman Sachs desk that's minting billions by designing some of the bank's most imaginative — and controversial — trades.
Alex Morrell was breaking news left and right on trader moves this week. A senior credit-trading exec Wells Fargo hired just one year ago is out. And Bank of America shook up its global equities division — twice. As part of a slew of changes, the firm elevated Soofian Zuberi to cohead the group alongside Fabrizio Gallo, the division's sole leader since 2011.
Take a look at our latest org chart for Bank of America's equities division.
Over at Deutsche Bank, plenty of traders have been saying their goodbyes. That includes the bank's head of investment-grade credit trading, who left just this week. The departure adds to a long list of exits in the firm's credit-trading unit this year.
Buy now, pay later startup Affirm announced this week that it will power Shopify's Shop Pay Installments, which is set to launch later this year. The deal brings together two of the hottest e-commerce players, and Shannen Balogh explained why it's a big win for both sides. She also mapped out Shopify's power players, and you can see the full list here:
More below on the hottest B2B and B2C fintechs, Neiman Marcus' exit from Hudson Yards, the empty space WeWork is marketing in New York, and a roundup of top credit execs and new hires at Apollo.
Enjoy the weekend,
Meredith
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WeWork's long list of empty space
WeWork is awash in vacancy in its biggest city, Dan Geiger reported. And the coworking giant's availability rate in New York, which includes spaces that are empty or will be in the coming months, far exceeds that of the overall market.
Read the full story here:
20% of WeWork's New York space is sitting empty. Here's a look at key vacancies the city's biggest office tenant is trying to fill.
Apollo power players
Apollo Global Management has been quietly building out its credit team as the pandemic rages on and investors await a flurry of deal activity.
Recent hires have come from Bank of America and PointState Capital, and Casey Sullivan also learned about several others in the works. He took a look at Apollo's credit lineup, including senior execs who will be pulling the strings behind lending deals, and those who Apollo has tapped to help bring its credit investments to the next level.
Read the full story here:
13 Apollo execs, rising stars, and new hires who are propelling the firm's massive push into credit investments
60 fintechs set to take off in 2020
The world of fintech moves fast, with no-name startups turning into fintech darlings with billion-dollar valuations seemingly overnight. Dan DeFrancesco and Shannen Balogh polled 27 fintech investors to find out which startups are on the cusp of breaking out.
The submissions were wide-ranging, touching on everything from personal finance to bill pay to data management.
You can see the list of B2Bs here:
Investors say these 38 fintechs are the next generation of breakout B2B stars, following in the footsteps of Stripe and Plaid
And a roundup of hot consumer-facing fintechs here:
22 fintechs that VCs and big investors say are on the brink of becoming household names
Everybody's a macro trader now
At the beginning of the pandemic, the market fell with each new update on infection numbers — and alternative data firms were quick to roll out new indices and markers to track the fallout.
But with the S&P 500 almost back at its February highs, hedge funds trying to make sense of it all have had to reimagine the way they use their alt data. And as Bradley Saacks explains, just about every money manager is thinking big picture and looking more like a macro investor.
Read the full story here:
Hedge funds are overhauling the way they use alt data as even quants are being forced to think like macro investors
Neiman Marcus exits Hudson Yards in Manhattan
Neiman Marcus' surprise exit from the one-million-square-foot mall at the Hudson Yards not only knocks out the glitzy retail project's headline tenant — it could also unravel profits for the remainder of the space.
As Dan Geiger reports, developers The Related Companies and Oxford Properties had used Neiman's presence to attract other retailers to the 7-level property known as The Shops at Hudson Yards — and many of those tenants have co-tenancy clauses in their leases.
Read the full story here:
Neiman Marcus' exit from the Hudson Yards strikes a blow to the $25 billion mega-project. Here's how the departure could unravel the 1-million-square-foot mall.
Real-estate earnings preview
Analysts are predicting one of the most bruising quarters in recent memory for major real-estate firms such as CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, and JLL, which are scheduled to report earnings in the coming weeks.
The companies depend heavily on transactions such as sales and leasing that evaporated as the pandemic stalled the economy. But while it could take years for their earnings to rebound, real-estate services companies have also diversified their revenue since the last recession, which could help guard their bottom lines.
Read the full story here:
Wall Street analysts say this earnings season could be a bloodbath for big real-estate firms like CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield, with a Great Recession-sized hit packed into just a few months
Careers
- How to use cold emails to land a gig working on Wall Street, according to a JPMorgan banking analyst turned VC who did it herself
- Top management-consulting salaries, revealed: How much Bain, BCG, and McKinsey consultants make, from entry level through partner roles
- Wall Street is starting to return to the office — but not everyone is heading back. Here's which finance jobs are the most likely to remain virtual.
- Charles Schwab will offer half of its virtual interns full-time jobs in the coming weeks. From what to wear to how to stay organized, a talent exec at the brokerage giant shares ways to impress remotely.
- One of the most powerful women at Bank of America explained how to defeat racial inequality at work: 'It's one thing to say Lives Matter. It's another thing to say, with clarity, Black Lives Matter.'
- Law firms like Kirkland & Ellis and Jones Day are delaying their first-year associate classes. Here's everything you need to know.
- New York's bar exam is cancelled. Here's why calls are mounting for the test to be canned completely.
Wealth Management
Deals
- 4 charts map out why private-equity dealmaking and fundraising is poised for a rebound, with more firms on the hunt for deals and execs embracing virtual meetings
- WeWork rival Knotel just told staff it's looking to raise $100 million as it faces a turbulent office market and a host of unpaid bills
Real Estate
- Logistics startup Bond has teamed up with SoftBank-backed REEF Technology to bring nano-warehouses to parking lots across the US. Here's how they're building the distribution hubs of the future.
- Wells Fargo is ditching a 750-person WeWork space, while Citi inked a deal with the flex-office giant far from a big city. Here's a look at how financial firms are retooling their real estate.
- The $98 billion cold-storage sector is at a tipping point, and investors are piling in as online grocery deliveries surge
Hedge funds
- These 5 slides from a small hedge fund's pitchdeck were at the center of a legal battle with Ray Dalio's Bridgewater — and it shows the lengths the billionaire will go to protect his firm's trade secrets
- A $400 million activist investor returned 44% in the 2nd quarter — and now it's urging one of the drivers of its performance, airport WiFi provider Boingo, to sell itself
Payments
- The CFO of Visa maps out 2 areas it's investing in beyond cards to keep up with fintechs that are transforming the payments game
- eBay will manage its own payments now that its 5-year agreement with PayPal has expired, and its head of payments is eyeing $2 billion in new revenue
- Inside JPMorgan's $500 million bet on healthcare payments: the CEO of InstaMed says it's seeing record sales since being acquired by the Wall Street giant
Startups
- SoftBank-backed fintech Kabbage is making a grab at small businesses disillusioned by big banks' PPP rollout by launching its own checking accounts
- Compass and Latch investor Corigin Ventures just pledged 15% of its portfolio to Black and LatinX founders in a bid to bring diversity to tech and old-school industries like real estate
- Read the 24-slide pitch deck that 'data janitor' startup Trifacta used to land $100 million from backers including Google and BMW