My Internship Experience At DLM Capital Group

My name is Rotimi Babade, and I am 16 years old. I started at DLM Capital Group at the beginning of August, putting an end to my summer holidays. At first, I was nervous and excited because I wondered if I would fit into the environment, and pondered about the industry, as it could be a potential full-time career for me. If there is one thing I learned from DLM, it is that even though they participate in serious business in their respective subsidiaries like DLM Trust and CitiHomes Finance Company Limited, the work environment is open and welcoming to all. I came to DLM to get a better understanding of what investment bankers do, a place of work where my father participates. DLM Capital Group is the overall name but can be divided into 7 unique subsidiaries: DLM Trust, DLM Advisory, CitiHomes Finance Company Limited, DLM Asset Management, DLM FX Trading and DLM Securities Limited, and Sofri (Links Microfinance Bank).

My Experience

I started my internship with DLM Trust under the wing of the Ag. MD, and I can say that on my first day, it felt nerve-racking to ask questions. It was a new environment for me, and nothing like any I have experienced on past dates. In DLM Trust, the people there ensure that transactions happen safely, with a third party that holds onto the money until the transaction has been successfully completed. A trust can be defined as a legal relationship created by the settlor who places assets under the control of a trustee, for the benefit of the beneficiary. So DLM Trust controls the assets of a settlor, ensuring that during transactions their money is secure. DLM Trust acts as the trustee and ensures that your money is secured, and in the event of the death of the person who set up the trust, the assets are kept within the family.

Subsequently, I went on to DLM Financial Advisory. DLM Advisory helps clients manage their money by suggesting ideas about how they should manage their money and whether a firm is profitable or not. This is done by looking through financial statements and concluding how the client should proceed, for an affordable fee. This is done through financial analysis, which is simply interpreting and analyzing financial statements. This could either be external, internal, dynamic, or vertical. Outside parties that have no access to internal records conduct external analysis, while internal is the opposite. On the other hand, dynamic analysis is the financial data comparison over many years, while vertical analysis is similar but only during one accounting period.

Following this, I went on to CitiHomes Finance Company Limited. CitiHomes gives loans to firms and corporations to further improve their businesses. Clients tend to be small firms looking to expand, but have no funds to do so. These firms or corporations look for loans from firms like CitiHomes. Before they give out loans, CitiHomes looks at the clients’ backgrounds and sales to determine whether they could pay the money back, thereby reducing the likelihood of defaulting. If the clients are not profitable, it would be unlikely that they would pay back the money borrowed (principal) and the interest. This was one of my favourite places out of all the subsidiaries, because meeting with clients to discuss whether they should get a loan is amusing and interesting.

Furthermore, I continued my internship under DLM Asset Management. This subsidiary is closely interlinked with a Financial Advisory because they both help clients manage their money by helping with investment opportunities. But, instead of suggesting what clients should do, Asset Management invests on the client’s behalf to help maintain wealth, and help second-class clients gain wealth and move up into the band of rich people. The working environment in this subsidiary is excellent, and even though they lack numbers, they are becoming prominent and could overshadow the DLM brand in the future.

Afterward, I went onto the DLM FX trading and securities unit. This unit focuses on bonds, which are essentially documents that say ‘’I owe you’’ a certain amount of money. These documents are a form of debt security usually given by investors who are willing to lend money out for a certain amount of time.

The penultimate unit where I spent a couple of days was the Business Development department. I learned that this subsidiary focuses on bringing in clients for every subsidiary at DLM so that each subsidiary can make money. For example, CitiHomes needs the funds to give out large loans to people. Out of all the subsidiaries and units, this one piqued my interest the most, because it is a more practical aspect of investment banking, which involves going out to talk to people and giving them reasons why they should come to DLM’s services.

Conclusion

To conclude my internship, I finished with Sofri (Links Microfinance Bank). In Nigeria, about 70% of adults are not included in the economy because they earn under a dollar a day. So, this works to bring these people in to boost Nigeria’s economic activity, which would further increase Nigeria’s GDP. This subsidiary has a practical aspect, which involves convincing customers to save their money with them and take loans depending on whether they meet the right criteria. This helps reduce the chance of losing money through defaulting.

Overall, my 1-month internship at DLM Capital Group was a positive experience, and because of this, I have a better idea of what my potential career could be in the future if I decide to pursue investment banking.