Omkar-Florintree Advisors
Hi! I am Omkar Chavan, a thirdie pursuing B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Management. I am a national-level speedcuber (ranked 5th best in the country) and often travel to competitions nationwide (hopefully abroad soon). Apart from that, I am a huge cinephile (I sleep in movies I don’t like), a bookworm (on good days) and a foodie. I am interested in the field of Finance (and its many, many subparts)
Getting the intern:
So let me tell you about the 2nd year internship season. There were not a lot of companies in Finance coming through the PT Cell, so I started applying from outside. I found out that one of my relatives was working on a deal with a Private Equity firm called Florintree Advisors. So, I requested him to get me in touch with someone from the firm. Soon, I was exchanging messages with the firm’s Chairman, and he told me to come over to his place for an interview. The interview contained basic questions about what I liked and wanted to do and if I knew anything about finance, wherein I discussed my stock trading, which I had been doing for the last 3 years. Post that, we had a conversation about my previous internship in the Product Management domain (which would require another blog to digress). I found out later that my to-be boss was the ex-head of Blackstone India, and I felt super lucky to be working under him.
But what is Private Equity?
Equity can be broadly classified into 2 sectors – Public and Private. The stocks we usually buy and sell are traded on exchanges such as BSE, and NSE and are a part of Public Equity.
Private Equity is not traded on such exchanges and is directly bought and sold by the sellers to the buyers. The PE can then help the company they bought shares of to grow, and then eventually, they end up selling their shares in the IPO listing or to another PE firm.
The internship experience:
My internship started towards the end of May and lasted 2 months.
When I reached the office (the fanciest office I have ever seen), I was surprised to find out that there were only 6 employees apart from the Chairman of the firm. “Too many cooks spoil the broth” is the principle for this structure, and of course – the fewer the people, the more the share of profit is what I deduced. I was their first intern. I wore a simple t-shirt and jeans the first day, but seeing everyone wearing formal clothes, I bought them the very same day. On my first day, I was given a table and a few seconds later told to analyze the last sale of the company, which earned them 19x returns in 3 years! It made my stock returns seem like peanuts.
My work primarily consisted of analyzing firms I was told by doing market research, examining their Red Herring Prospectus (RHP) (more than 500 pages each), their annual reports, financial statements and sometimes even tuning in to their AGM (Annual General Meeting), making notes and presenting my findings. At any point in time, I was working on at least 3 firms in entirely different domains and coordinating with at least 2 analysts at a time. This multitasking helped me a lot later.
I was also included in the meetings between my firm and the other firms (usually, interns don’t get this experience), which were huge learning opportunities. I saw the firms presenting their company details and why they want us to invest, their models and even, at times, bargaining to sell their shares at higher rates (Mehenga Shark Tank feels). My role in the meetings was mostly writing notes and occasionally asking questions to the firm if the field they were in was related to technology. Some of the meetings were at the client’s offices, so we had to travel there. I remember the meeting on my 2nd day was at an office in one of the deco buildings we see on Marine Drive. I didn’t know there were offices there!
What I learnt:
In terms of soft skills, I learnt how to talk professionally and how just how important that skill is, no matter how overrated that sounds. In the end, I was also using fancy finance terms such as ‘EBITDA’ like it was nothing. I learnt a good amount of Excel and made charts and projections. Pretty cool, huh? The RHP includes an industry analysis section which adds to one’s general knowledge, which impacts my thought process till date. One of the firms whose RHP I read was in the PoS manufacturing business. The knowledge of how they work is impacting how I make payments (I use credit cards more now).
Conclusion:
The work hours were long- from 9 in the morning to 6:30 in the evening. The 4-hour travelling time always ensured that I was tired by the time I reached home. Sometimes I was even given a task just after I reached home! But the time post working truly felt precious; it made me respect my parents even more. The routine set in pretty well, and by the end of the internship, I started to feel as if this should go on and on, but sadly the sem was going to start, so I worked till 2 days before the semester began to satisfy myself. All in all, an experience like no other.
