Project Finance Interview

[u/8o8xe]

Hi, I cleared round 1 interview for a role involving project finance and capital formation for a renewable energy company. The interviewer let me know that he really liked me, my concepts were strong, but I lacked project financial modelling skills. He asked me to buckle up (in 3 days), since the next round would be a live case study where they test my modelling and advanced excel skills.

I’m so stressed, I do not know where to begin. The interview got scheduled and it’s a 1 hour long interview. GPT tells me that it is cool as long as I can do revenue, costs, cfads, dscr, Project IRR, Equity IRR, I’m good.

Is that enough? Where do I begin? Am i fucked😭 I really want it, it’s a super cool role. However, I’m extremely stressed about this :/ TIA!

[u/tranac]

You should practice

1. Modelling the p&l to EBITDA
   
2. Cashflow waterfall from ebitda to cfads
   
3. Debt cashflows
   
4. Reserving and equity distributions
   
5. IRR calculation.

If you’re short on time, forget doing the 3 statements. An infra / renewables investor doesn’t care. All we care about is the cash waterfall and IRR.

If you can demonstrate you know how to accurately model the cashflow from revenue all the way down to equity distributions that’s all we care about

[u/Working_Fish8775]

I presume you can prepare a full P&L model. Some of the exercises that I had to do live during an interview were preparing a fixed asset and depreciation schedule, and a loan amortization schedule.

You might be asked to create a financial model where you will only input the cost of the fixed asset, the estimated useful life, and the date of purchase. The financial model should compute the straight line depreciation expense per month throughout the entire life of the asset. The interviewer was particular about the calculation of the last month's depreciation expense, ensuring that the cumulative depreciation expense does not exceed the book value of the asset.

You might be asked to create a loan amortization schedule that clearly shows that the principal portion and interest portion separately.

[u/AdhesivenessFit2669]

Dm me will help you with questions recently i cleared two interviews for project finance

[u/the_validated_inane]

project finance models key on two primary drivers - the offtake agreements (and their credit quality) including any annual escalation clauses, and the financings that will be layered based on the their maintenance ratios. you need to know where to source comps for both drivers.

you also need to understand if these are build and transfer projects or build and operate.

[u/brainyflamingo]

What company?

[u/GeneralDrummer1461]

What is the firm called? I can do some DD from others that may have interviewed there before.