In China, a Bull Market for Bankers August 31, 2007, 12:02 pm If you know what “Ni hao” and “Ebitda” mean, you may be well on your way to landing an investment banking job. Reuters reports that financial firms, expecting a wave of cross-border mergers both into and out of China, are desperate to hire bankers that are familiar with the nation’s culture and its official language of Mandarin. One chairman of a Chinese investment bank, who was not named, said his firm was “one-third short of staff at associate level and now have to pay a bigger premium in luring execution people from other banks.” Many global financial firms, concerned that the recent market turmoil will slow deal-making, are considering pulling back on hiring. But when it comes to China, the mood is quite different. HSBC, UBS and Goldman Sachs, three Western banks that are especially active in China, would not comment on their hiring strategies. But one British man described being approached by a former classmate at Goldman, who told him the firm was “basically desperate for anyone who spoke Chinese and had a remote interest in banking.” China is widely expected to begin using its more than $1.3 trillion in foreign currency reserves to buy overseas companies. Its state-run investment arm recently took a large stake in the Blackstone Group, and there have been unconfirmed reports that a Chinese bank was considering a minority investment in Bear Stearns. A proposal to end the ban on foreign acquisitions of Chinese brokerages could also fuel more deal-making in the country — and the need for more bankers to help arrange them.
“Ni hao ma?” “Wo hen hao, ni ne?” “Hao.” First lesson in Mandarin; a very difficult language for germanic/latin-based speakers. Where is this article taken from?
It is taken from Dealbook from NYT. Orginal article is written by someone that works at Reuters.
mni Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > In China, a Bull Market for Bankers > If you know what “Ni hao” and “Ebitda” mean, you > may be well on your way to landing an investment > banking job. I couldn’t find “ebitda” in my mandarin dictionary. Is it cantonese ?