Senior Equities Research Analyst at Standard Bank Group

Job Details

Our international team provides trading, sales, structuring and risk management solutions for our clients across global financial markets. This includes FX, commodities, equity, credit, fixed income and debt instruments. We also offer market insight, trading services, analytics and new financial products across a number of asset classes.

Job Purpose

The main purpose of the equity analyst function is to advise institutional investors on the investment and divestment opportunities. A successful execution of the job steers client trade and a commission stream via the dealing platform of the broker. This advisory function is fulfilled through regular publication of investment ideas, company and sector updates, marketing of ideas and the organisation of conferences and other corporate access activities. In addition, we anticipate that an analyst builds a network of executive contacts and, within the global regulatory framework, generates insights, business ideas and leads that may assist the primary capital teams of the bank.

The role involves stock coverage across the telecommunications, media & technology sectors across the frontier market of East-, West- and Southern Africa. The role could be extended to include selected coverage of industrial stocks and so called ‘specialist sales’ responsibilities for consumer stocks in East Africa. The role resides within Global Markets/Equity Research at SBG Securities in Nairobi and services institutional investor (asset managers) clients of Standard Bank across key capital markets in North America, UK/Europe and Africa. In future, this client base maybe expanded into the broader Frontier Markets such as Middle East and Asian regions. The main purpose of the role is to establish and maintain a leading equity research franchise for coverage of TMT sectors in frontier markets across Sub Saharan Africa. The coverage universe will consist of about 8-10 stocks. The following shares are envisaged to be part of the primary coverage domain: Safaricom, Vodacom Tanzania, Sonatel, MTN Nigeria, MTN Ghana, Airtel Africa, Moroc Telecom and Helios Towers. This will likely grow since the primary capital pipeline across TMT is extensive. In addition, it may become beneficial that the analyst provides a ‘specialist sales’ service on EA consumer companies to execution desks and the local EA client base.

Key Responsibilities/Accountabilities

Key responsibilities

• Establish and grow a leading research franchise across relevant industrial sectors
• Facilitate the monetisation of the sectors under coverage
• Liaise with several stakeholders to optimise the impact of research.
• Assist in developing commercial and differentiated team product
• Contribute sector knowledge, ideas and leads to broader stake holder groups across the bank (e.g. wealth function, CIB Coverage, and IB)

Responsibilities to implement and execute

• Assist in organising conferences and corporate access calendars.
• Initiate coverage of relevant and commercial number of stocks in the allocated sectors.
• Write insightful and impactful research that results in a product suite that encompasses sector and company notes, thematic and periodical publications, commentary on news flow and the impact on share valuations. Market the investment ideas to domestic and offshore based global investors. Marketing consists of roadshows, videoconference calls, tele-marketing ‘pod-casts’ and ‘vlogs’ when suitable etc. Since our local presence is a differentiator, we expect the Analyst to take advantage of such local knowledge and business networks. For example, via product that covers price studies, industry questionnaires and interviews with key decision makers.
• Provide corporate access to link executives of corporations and other decision- and opinion-makers to investment managers. Corporate access can consist of conference calls, exclusive small-scale management meetings, conference organisation, investor tour organisation, reverse roadshows (offshore investors visiting region) and non-deal roadshows (NDRs e.g. whereby the bank organises an investor roadshow for management). Such activity benefits the analyst franchise and showcases the “execution abilities” of the bank.
• Complete and respond to bespoke and ad-hoc client requests.
• Inform and work with Sales & Trading, within the compliance framework, to optimise the marketing and execution of investment ideas.
• Pass interesting and commercial ideas within compliance framework to counterparts in CIB for instance in ECM, DCM, M&A and broader corporate finance functions. These ideas can include but are not confined to capital raising, debt restructuring, buy-backs, mergers, consolidation and other deal ideas, balance sheet restructuring, forex solutions, structured solutions, etc.

Preferred Qualification and Experience

• Educational qualifications for this role can be varied but tends to include any of the following; MBA, Masters in Finance or Economics. Chartered Accountancy, Honours degrees, and CFA charter holders. MBAs and CFA charter holders preferred.
• Leverage off Sell side, asset management or industry experience expertise gained

Knowledge/Technical Skills/Expertise

The seniority of the role (based on required impact on corporate executives and portfolio managers) will require at least three years of Equity Analyst experience.
Regional or global experience in broking would be a benefit.