Alumni Spotlight Stories: Nicholas Tan

In NUS, Nicholas Tan excelled in both academics and co-curricular activities. He was a recipient of the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC Bank) Local Undergraduate Scholarship, served as Director of Human Resource and Administration for NUS Business Orientation Week (2012) and was also part of the faculty’s Basketball team.

Through internships at various banking institutions such as OCBC Bank and Standard Chartered, Nicholas accumulated experience in Investment Banking. He also gained valuable insights to the investment management space by working with private equity firms such as Oriens Investment Management and Hera Capital Partners. Post graduation, Nicholas worked with the investment teams at L Catterton Asia and Singtel, before moving to Delta Partners to start their first investment banking practice in Singapore, where he is currently based.

Q: Could you tell us more about your experience in investment banking and what a normal working day is like for you?

A little background on Delta would be useful before explaining what I do in a typical day. Delta Partners started as a consulting firm focused on the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) space. It is headquartered in Dubai with a global presence through offices in Johannesburg, New York, San Francisco, Barcelona and Singapore. The Singapore office was, for a long time, focused on the consulting practice before they realised the potential for corporate finance in this part of the world and decided to set up a team in Singapore to focus on the Asia Pacific opportunity. A friend introduced the opportunity to join and build up this team and it seemed like great to build up a new team in a new environment, from both development and exposure perspectives

On a day-to-day basis, my role consists of:

1. Managing transactions. I speak with different counterparties involved in the live transactions I’m working on and put together the prerequisite materials depending on the stage these transactions are at.
2. Originating potential deals. I reach out to multiple stakeholders in the ecosystem to see if there’s an opportunity for Delta to work with them on the buy-side or sell-side. We constantly generate ideas on how Delta can serve clients in various ways, which we can then put together in proposals if there is any interest.
3. Internal housekeeping. The usual admin tasks and internal processes.

Q: What made you pursue a career in finance and particularly into TMT investment banking?

To me, finance isn’t entirely about numbers – contrary to popular belief, it’s more weighted towardspeople, and at its core, it’s a relationship-driven business.Being able to translate human thinking into qualitative and quantitative insights is what makes finance interesting for me.

My first role was in private equity. For me, it was more of understanding how things came together – Putting together the facts and figures, forming an investment thesis, then looking back a few years later to see if it made sense.
While at L Catterton, I was focused on the Consumer and Retail sector, such as apparel and food and beverages businesses, and had the opportunity to play a role in the management of a portfolio containing key names likeCharles and Keith and Crystal Jade. Later on, I decided to shift into a more dynamic sector like TMT, first starting out on the buy-side and later moving to an investment banking role.

Q: What do you enjoy most about your career in investment banking?

I don’t think there was a single point in time where I thought that I was really enjoying a particular moment in my job. I would say the key thing I liked most throughout my job is the opportunity for exposure and gaining deeper sector knowledge. I think it is important to have intellectual curiosity. The highlight of my job is having the opportunity to learn about multiple areas, technical or otherwise.

Q: You have interned in various investment banking sectors such as private equity, M&A and risk management, what made you ultimately decide to choose to go into TMT Investment Banking?

My first internship was at OCBC. This was because I had a scholarship from OCBC, so I naturally did an internship with OCBC first. I worked with the risk management team, which was my first foray into banking. I had a boss who provided a lot of advice and guidance in banking concepts that were both relevant to the work I was doing as well as outside of it. Also, through the modules I took in NUS, I became interested in learning how to look at companies from a financial standpoint. When I interned at Hera Capital, a private equity firm focusing on TMT and consumer investments, I learned to assess the tech sector from a financial viewpoint. With that background, a role in TMT made complete sense.

Q: How would you advise current/fresh undergraduates who are seeking to enter the investment banking sector?

I would advise them to find out more about the sector first. They can try the Pathfinders network in NUS, which I had co-founded as a senior. Freshmen were coming in saying they wanted to do IB because it sounded very glamorous with the high salary. But a lot about IB isn’t understood upfront, for instance, the highly rigorous nature of the job. The purpose of the Pathfinders network was to give freshmen and sophomores access to mentors who can provide insights to the job before they decide to truly enter it. If they are interested in an area, they can consult these mentors about it and find out more. Undergraduates need to be clear on the sectors they wish to explore, and there are multiple avenues to gain a better understanding of these sectors from.

Q: Did you have a mentor starting out and do you think it is important to have a mentor?

I did not have a mentor whom I consistently sought views from. Nonetheless, I think it is important to have a mentor to provide guidance rather than just looking at what everyone else does. Looking back, this is probably something I would change.

A good mentor not only provides guidance at different parts of your career, but can potentially open doors to new and better opportunities as well, which will support growth in a much stronger way than going at it alone.

Q: What do you think are the essential tricks of trade for people who are interested in pursuing a career in investment banking? (eg. certain internships or degree specialisations)

Be more up-to-date and know the current happenings in the world. Give yourself an edge over just good grades and multiple internships. You can do this by having a very keen interest and on a particular area that sets you apart from the rest. With a keen interest in the subject, you will be able to give more meaningful insights to people around you, be it in job interviews or otherwise. Having a basic understanding of key financial concepts is important and perhaps paramount, but that alone is not something that can get you past fit interviews where people look towards identifying candidates who are more than just number crunchers or slide monkeys.