European Finance Tour 2017

This year the destination of the European Finance Tour was Frankfurt am Main. During the European Finance Tour, internationally oriented students visited a financial city in Europe. In this activity report you can read about the workshops in the Netherlands, the company visits in Frankfurt and the sightseeing we have done through the week.

On Monday and Tuesday we participated in four workshops of Dutch corporate finance boutiques. On Monday we welcomed Finance Ideas and Hemingway Corporate Finance. In the morning Finance Ideas taught us some investing skills in the real estate sector. In the afternoon we did an M&A case with Hemingway CF. Partner Bob Ernst told us many things about the exciting business. On Tuesday Sincerius and Capitalmind came to our campus. During the workshop of Sincerius it was very nice to do a due diligence case, which none of the participants had done before. In the afternoon Capitalmind gave a workshop focused on the calculation of free cash flows and the practice of Leveraged Buy-Outs.

On Wednesday all alarms were set very early, since the train left at six o’clock sharp. As Capitalmind was the main partner of the European Finance Tour, we also visited them in Wiesbaden, a city close to Frankfurt. I think we were all quite exhausted from the trip, but since we learned some different things than the day before, like multiples, it was an interesting afternoon. It was also nice to enjoy some wines and bites. Of course we also wanted to explore the city, so after we changed our outfits in the hotel, we went out for drinks and had a nice party at Club Velvet. Although the average age was a little lower than ours, we enjoyed the sing along hits and were glad we did not have to wake up too early the morning after.

At 11:00 in the morning we were expected at the large PWC building to visit the Digital Experience Center of Strategy&, the consultancy department of PWC. We had an interesting presentation from a design thinking expert. Thereafter, we were guided through the center with all its technical gadgets and gizmos. In the afternoon we visited the Bloomberg office. It was nice to learn more about the work of the lobbyists, always working hard to obtain every news fact very quickly. After the presentation we also walked around the work floor, which was quite impressing. All the employees work hard to provide the world with the latest financial updates. It was also very cool to get in front of the camera to pretend to be a real Bloomberg news reporter! We finished the day with a drink at Prime Capital, a financial firm focused on alternative investments. Thursday being already the fourth day of the trip we were all a little tired, so after dining at nice Burger Restaurant, it was a good decision to get some rest for the last two days.

On Friday we had to wake up a little earlier, since we were going to perform a case study at NIBC. Instead of the many corporate finance cases, at NIBC we did a structured finance case. It was a nice insight to see one of the core businesses of the bank. After the case study we had a lunch, also with the Dutch recruiter and some colleagues from other departments. The last company visit was at the Deutsche Bundesbank. It was interesting to get an impression of the tasks of a central bank. None of us knew very much about this business and the presentation made it all very clear. After the presentation we also had an exclusive visit at the DBB Money Museum. It was a very nice exposition where you could learn all about the origination and history of money. Of course we also had to explore the nightlife a little more, so after we had dinner at an Italian we went out at Club Gibson. It was a night where not all of us will remember everything, and we can sure recommend going there if you would ever visit Frankfurt.

At the last day we had to check out at 10:00, but our train left at 16:00. Because we had not been seeing much of the city yet, we thought a boat trip would be the perfect opportunity to do so. Maybe you would not expect it, but Frankfurt is a beautiful city! We crossed the Main and got many nice views of several parts of the city. We left Frankfurt all very tired, but we can say it sure was an inspiring and amazing experience!