Leveraged finance · Mid-cap

You help mid-sized companies and their private equity owners borrow money, working out how much debt a business can carry and in what form. You are an analyst in the Leveraged Finance Middle Market team at JPMorgan in London, part of its investment banking business.

Leveraged finance is borrowing that leaves a company carrying a lot of debt compared with what it earns, most often to pay for a buyout, an acquisition or a payout to its owners. This team covers direct lending, where the bank lends straight to the company, leveraged loans, which are shared out among many lenders, and high yield bonds, which are sold to investors and pay a higher interest rate because the borrower is riskier. Middle market means the companies are mid-sized rather than the largest names.