New Horizon Career Club (NHC) is pleased to invite Ruowen Liu, Associate Director of Global Loan Syndication in Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets, to give a speech on global loan syndication, and to share her own experiences and thoughts on Corporate banking and career development.
Time and Location: TORONTO, August 8th 2015
Topics to cover:
- Overview of Capital Markets
- Corporate Banking
- Loan Syndication 101
- Case Studies on a deal Ruowen has worked on
- Career Advice
- Q&A
Speakers’ Biographies:
Ruowen Liu
Associate DirectorGlobal Loan Syndications, Corporate Banking, Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets
Ruowen is the Associate Director of Global Loan Syndications Canada for Scotiabank. She joined the team in 2011. Before that, Ruowen spent over 2 years with another leading Canadian financial institution in a similar role. Ruowen worked on many syndicated transactions acrossa wide variety of sectors, including retail, O&G, mining, power, diversified industry, etc.
Ruowen holds a Master of Business administrative degree from University of Toronto. In her spare time, Ruowen enjoys spending time with her family and friends, reading, traveling, doing HIIT and savoring gourmet food.
Ruowen opened her presentation by asking the audience a question: “what is corporate banking”. Subsequently, she explained the role that corporate banking plays in the capital markets and explained the key difference between commercial banking and corporate banking. Generally speaking, corporate banking tend to serve bigger clients who also have needs for other capital markets products, such as M&A, bond and equity.
Next Ruowen focused her presentation on loan syndications. She walked the audience through the whole loan syndication process, from initial client pitching, to term sheet negotiation to the closing of the transaction. During the process, loan syndication team works with many partners, such as corporate banking, investment banking, risk management and other lenders to make sure the transaction is executed smoothly.
Attendees there were all encouraged to interactively participate in discussion sections, including the rationale of loan syndication from both the bank and the client perspective.
Why syndicated loan
In the simplest term, banks choose to syndicate a loan for risk sharing purpose. Generally speaking, no one lender feels comfortable enough to be the sole lender if the loan amount is significant. Borrowers choose syndicated loan because having one credit agreement that governs the single borrowing streamline the administrative burden.
How to choose the counterparty
Basically, the borrowing company will ask a “what can you do for me” question. Lenders’ industry expertise, product offering and geographic market capabilities are main factors to be considered in borrower’s decision making process. On the other hand, the bank would ask a “what can I get for you” question. The companies’ past and current financial performance, credit risk and future business outlook together with the overall return, are main points in client-acceptance decision.
A sub-topic in Ruowen’s lecture worth mentioning was syndicated loan investors: lender universe. In the discussion section, we learned that other than the big 6 banks in Canada, the market also have players from America, Europe and Asia, as well as some pension funds . Bank of America, Citi, JP Morgan, Raymond James, HSBC, Bank of China, BNP, Barclays, Soc Gen, Bank of Tokyo, Mizuho, Sumitomo are all involved in Canadian’s corporate banking market. Different bank’s industry expertise, geographic coverage focus, relationship with the client and product capabilities are all considered by the lead bank when choosing syndicate member for the company.
According to past 5-year data, Scotiabank is top 3 in the market share of Canadian syndicated loans. . In the case study section, Ruowen chose the largest Canadian grocery deal for us. She brought the case into life by sharing her own experience and her key learning.
Ruowen entered finance after the MBA program in Rotman School of Management. She talked about her career path and some interesting anecdotes. For those who dream to enter corporate banking, Ruowen offered some advice on how to break into this industry, how to continue your career once you are in, and what to expect after a few years. Young professionals are encouraged to show great attitude, work hard, work smart and add value.
In the final section, Ruowen generously spent an hour in Q&A. A lot of great questions were addressed, including:
- How to build self-confidence in career
- What is the right way of to network
- How to differentiate yourself
- Best advice that she ever got
At last, it’s worth mentioning that Ruowen recommended a book named Executive Presence. It could be a good starting point for us to learn how to act like a leader, how to communicated like a leader and how to carry yourself like a leader.
NHC thanks Ruowen sincerely for her time and wonderful -presentation. She showed great knowledge of her field, demonstrated great energy in her presentation. Audience really enjoyed their discussion and interactions with Ruowen. Ruowen is a dynamic speaker.
We also appreciate the contribution from our volunteers, and the participation and support from everybody attending our event.