Advanced Project Finance Modelling

Master the advanced modelling techniques required to drive the analysis of complex projects and transactions across a broad range of industries. Successful execution of project finance transactions requires comprehensive modelling and debt analysis.

Advanced Project Finance Modelling enables you to extend your debt modelling capabilities in order to drive the transaction process. Bankers, sponsors and investors all benefit from the powerful techniques for debt sizing, covenant monitoring and development of financial statements. With a continuous focus on robustness and flexibility, and analytical techniques such as multi-asset modelling, this course is guaranteed to boost your project finance career and give you all the tools to reach financial close. You will learn the modelling principles and structured approach that are applicable across a range of industries including Mining, Oil & Gas, Power, Renewable Energy, Real Estate and Infrastructure/ PPP/P3.

This advanced project finance modelling course will enable you to

• Extend your project finance modelling skills to allow you to take a transaction from screening to financial close
• Develop required techniques for debt sizing, covenant monitoring and advanced debt structures including lock-up mechanisms and debt sculpting
• Gain a complete understanding of the modelling of Debt Service Reserve Accounts (DSRA)
• Extend your toolkit to include alternative debt repayment methods for increased flexibility
• Achieve consistent and accurate outputs with a proven best practice modelling approach – SMART

COURSE OUTLINE

Day one

Re-examine the main principles underpining SMART best practice modelling methodology.

Share insights into effective modelling of refinancing analysis for rapid and robust analysis

• Discuss the mechanics of a refinancing - amount, timing, fees and repayment
• Learn different ways to treat the refinance fee
• Discuss the concept of sequential refinancing

Learn powerful techniques for alternative repayment methods for debt sculpturing

• Understand how to effectively model debt sculpting
• Build in switches to allow different structures to be rapidly analysed
• Develop a Debt Service Reserve Account ('DSRA') from first principles

Understand critical concepts and techniques in debt sizing to support debt structuring discussions

• Single factor optimisation via maximum gearing or minimum DSCR to vary debt size to achieve target cover ratios
• Discuss dual factor optimisation to achieve target cover ratios and returns

Day two

Learn a structured approach to comprehensive depreciation calculations

• Remove the need for cumbersome tables
• Incorporate switches for multiple depreciation methods
• Easily replicate calculations for accounting and tax depreciation
• Produce geared and ungeared tax calculations to analyse the value of interest tax shelter

Understand how financial statements are constructed and how to identify common problems

• Master the structure of completed three way financial statements
• Learn how to continuously test and debug the integrated statements
• Incorporate all of the debt components into integrated statements

Use advanced Excel techniques for rapid and accurate multi-dimensional sensitivities

• Develop simple macros to avoid common circularities inherent in project finance calculations
• Use VBA to control data tables so they do not adversely affect calculation speed