Investment Banking interview preparation
Every question below is either traced to a named firm from a public candidate report, or tagged at desk level when we could not trace it. Answers are written the way you would actually say them out loud — answer first, then the mechanism, then the limitation.
100 questions, mapped to the firms that asked them
- Questions
- 100
- Traced to a firm
- 100
- Firms
- 46
- Updated
- September 2026
028Which company would have a higher multiple, an asset-heavy company or an asset-light one?BarclaysInvestment Banking · London · 2026
Say this
Asset-light, normally, on EV/EBITDA. It converts more of its EBITDA into free cash flow because it does not have to spend heavily just to maintain the asset base, and it can grow without proportional capital.
Then walk it
- Asset-light means low maintenance CapEx, so a higher share of EBITDA reaches free cash flow. Buyers pay for cash, not for EBITDA.
- It also means higher return on invested capital and the ability to scale without a matching balance sheet, which supports a growth premium.
- The mechanical wrinkle worth flagging: asset-heavy companies have large D&A, which inflates EBITDA relative to EBIT. So their EV/EBITDA looks artificially low while their EV/EBIT looks more normal.
- That is why comparing the two on EV/EBITDA alone is misleading, and why I would pull EV/EBIT or EBITDA less CapEx as well.
- The exception: an asset-heavy business with a genuinely protected asset, like a toll road or a regulated utility with a rate base, can command a high multiple precisely because the assets are the moat.
Where candidates lose it
Answering 'asset-light' with no mechanism. And missing the D&A point, which is the technically interesting half: part of the multiple gap is real economics and part is just an accounting artefact of EBITDA.
Expect next
- So how would you compare them fairly?
- How would you value an airline that leases its fleet versus one that owns it?
- Where does a toll road fit in your answer?
Reported by candidates at Barclays (Investment Banking, London, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.
Firm tags come from public, anonymous candidate reports on Wall Street Oasis: strong signal, not sworn testimony. Firms are named as the places a question was reported, not as partners of Fin Maverick. Answers are written for this page to show how to think out loud; they are not scripts to recite.