Insights
Written from mandates, not from commentary
Each piece examines one mechanism that decides an outcome, at the level it is actually argued — and is intended to be usable on its own, without commissioning anything.
The Price You Agreed Is Not the Price You Receive Enterprise value is agreed in a room. Equity value is settled in a spreadsheet weeks later — and the distance between them is negotiated by whoever understands the bridge better. Read the article More in this series
- What a Private Equity Investment Committee Reads First An investment committee reads a memo backwards from the exit, and its decisive question is not whether the plan is good but what would have to be true for it to work. A memo that answers that question is assessed; one that argues for approval is tested until it fails.
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Board Papers That Survive a Governance Review A board paper is read as the record of a decision, not as an argument for one. What it has to support is a minute that shows the board understood the downside, the alternatives and the assumptions — which is why a paper that only argues for approval is itself a governance risk. -
What a Development Finance Institution Tests That a Commercial Lender Does Not A development finance institution applies the commercial tests and then applies several a commercial lender does not: additionality, environmental and social categorisation, a results framework with measurable indicators, and procurement standards. A bankable case can fail any of them. -
Documentation a Government Body Will Accept A public authority applies a compliance gate before it applies judgement. A submission that is complete, sourced, correctly formatted and easy to summarise reaches assessment; one that is not is returned without its merits ever having been read. -
What a Credit Committee Actually Does With Your Project Report A credit committee does not read a project report the way it was written. It reads an appraisal note prepared by a credit officer, in an order that starts with repayment and works backwards — and the difference between a return and a rejection is decided long before the meeting. -
Goodwill Impairment: The Deal's Verdict, Delivered Years Later An impairment charge is the accounting system stating publicly what the acquiring board already knows privately. How cash-generating units are drawn, and when the verdict arrives. - Quality of Earnings: The Number You Are Buying Is Not the Number Reported Reported EBITDA is a starting position. What survives a quality-of-earnings review — after add-backs are tested, run-rate adjustments are challenged and one-off items are shown to recur — is the number the multiple should have been applied to.
The practices this series speaks to
These articles are written by the advisors who carry the mandates. Where a question here becomes a live requirement, it usually sits in one of two practices.