We have discussed the different types of buy-side firms in an earlier post. Some of these firms are huge conglomerates with offices around the world. The institutional sales force looks at these clients in terms of the broker vote. A buy-side firm may interact with the bank at different desks. For example, Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM) may have separate desks in Frankfurt, London, Milan, Madrid, Paris, New York, Tokyo, etc. and each desk would have their own vote. Each product line may have a different organization. Using DeAM, the vote for US stocks may be split between New York, Europe and Asia; the vote for European stocks may be split between Frankfurt, London, Milan, Madrid, Paris and New York.
Each firm may interact at different levels depending on the role. For example, Trust Company of the West may have offices in New York and San Francisco. The two branches may have different portfolio managers handling separate funds but have one trading desk. The salestrader would prefer to see this as one client. The research salesperson would prefer to see this as two clients.
There are advantages to appearing as a larger, combined client such as preference on calls, more available resources and better allocations on IPO's.
Finally, there are specialist trading firms such as Williams Trading and Morgan Stanley Execution Services. They handle trading for a number of small hedge funds and gives them the size and scale to get the attention of a broker/dealer. On their own, the hedge funds are too small but, when their assets are aggregated, they appear as a larger fund.
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