As’salaamu alaikum,
I was working in Leveraged Finance at an investment bank where our clients are essentially private equity firms who would come to us and say we want to buy company X. The deal is structured based on the interest rates in the market to determine the loan structure and different layers of debt the client will use to purchase the company, alongside a portion of its own equity. E.g. they’ll buy a company using 70% debt, 40% equity and the debt portion will be split across different tranches with different risk profiles and rates. Is this impermissible? And if so, please could you explain why as it would really help me with navigating my future career and avoiding anything similar In sha Allah.
I also previously worked in Mergers & Acquisitions, which was similar to the above except the debt portion wasn’t as large (typically <50%).
Most areas of banking use interest rates to determine prices - is this permissible?
In both cases, we didn’t get a say in terms of which companies we work on but they typically aren’t engaging in things like gambling, alcohol etc. due to the bank’s ESG policies.
I am currently taking a break from working until I can properly understand what I can and cannot work as, so any advice or guidance would be really appreciated. I would like to stay within the financial industry as that is what my background and interests lie in. Would working in sales and trading / asset management / wealth management / audit / consulting be acceptable?
Jazaak’Allah khayrun!