Arpwood Capital

Role: Investment Banking Role (Analyst/Internship)

College: SRCC (Mukund Mundhra)

Interview Date: Not Specified

Interview Type: On-Campus

Result: Completed Interview Process

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Rounds: 3 rounds (after CV shortlisting)

Topics Asked: Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Ability, Case Study (Auto Ancillary Industry, Porter's Five Forces), Financial Valuation (FCFF, FCFE, Beta, EV, Trading Multiples, DCF, NPV, IRR, WACC), Financial Statements (Cash Flow, Balance Sheet, Income Statement), Financial Ratios, Taxation, Economics (Anti-Dumping Duty, Interest Rates, Currency, Inflation, Fiscal/Monetary Policy), M&A Deals (Tata Steel UK Disinvestment, Idea-Vodafone), Behavioral Questions (Why IB, Why Arpwood, Internships, Failures, Future Plans, USP).

Experience:

The selection process for Arpwood Capital involved an initial CV shortlisting, followed by an Aptitude Test, a combined Case and Technical Interview, and finally an HR Interview.

Round 1: Aptitude Test
This round lasted approximately 30 minutes and consisted of 18 questions. The topics covered included data interpretation, logical reasoning, and quantitative ability, with specific focus on probability, permutation and combination, sequences and series, and equations.

Round 2: Case Interview + Technical Interview
This combined round was about 50 minutes long. The case interview involved a strategic business analysis of a firm in the auto ancillary industry, requiring the application of Porter's Five Forces and the generation of business insights and competitive responses specific to firms in that industry.

The technical questions were comprehensive and covered a wide range of finance topics:

• Free Cash Flow to Firm (FCFF) and Free Cash Flow to Equity (FCFE): Explanation with formulas.
• Beta: Its logic, calculation, and use as a hedging strategy.
• Enterprise Value (EV): Explanation with formula and types of companies valued using EV.
• Trading multiples for valuation: P/E, P/Sales, etc.
• DCF Model and topics related to startup valuation.
• Major difference between NPV and IRR, with a capital budgeting example.
• Calculation of WACC.
• Cash Flow Statement, Balance Sheet, and Income Statement related topics.
• Financial ratios: Formulas and explanations (liquidity, solvency, activity, etc.).
• Tax structure, long-term and short-term capital gains, and taxes on them.
• General economics questions: Anti-dumping duty, interest rates, currency movements, inflation, and fiscal/monetary methods adopted by the central bank.
• Discussions on current M&A industry events: Tata Steel's UK Disinvestment and the Idea-Vodafone merger.

Round 3: HR Interview
This round lasted approximately 20-25 minutes. Questions included a personal introduction, "Why Investment Banking?", "Why Arpwood Capital and not any bulge bracket IB firm?", questions about previous internships, "Biggest Failure", questions about involvement in the Corporate Communication Cell (Union) and work, general discussion about family business, and future plans. The interviewer also asked, "Why should we take you/USP?". At the end, the candidate was asked if they had any questions, and they posed a question regarding Arpwood Capital's expansion strategy.