Setting Up a TAS (FDD) Team for a Top US Investment Bank

The Goal

The bank needed resources experienced in Financial Due Diligence who could provide end-to-end support, including creating a full-fledged FDD databook and report. It wanted to create a team of industry experts who could help in all phases of the deal lifecycle and support multiple offices based out of the US, to bring in efficiency and standardization.

The Problem

The bank’s high deal flow created the following four core problems it sought to resolve:

  1. Setting up a team of experienced TAS professionals
  2. Ability to hire the right talent with transaction advisory experience
  3. Resource crunch during peak deal flow
  4. High cost of hiring locally
  5. Longer turnaround time

Scope of work for Financial Due Diligence Team

Dedicated team for a Leading Investment Bank

Basic Analysis

Trial Balance Processing
Creating trial balance database with mapping and creating IS, BS & Cash flow schedules as per client specified formatting

QofE, NWC and Net Debt
Creating basic setup for QofE, NWC, NWC metrices and net debt. Also, identifying definitional adjustments and creating graphs for NWC metrices

Sales & Purchases Analysis
Creating a master database of sales / purchases and then working on various cuts such as sales by customer, sales by product, etc.

Agings
Creating AR or AP aging schedule by entity to understand credit terms with customers and vendors

Databook and Report Rollforward
Roll-forward entire databook and report by updating supporting tables, charts, report section, references, etc.

Quality Check – Databook & Report
Detailed QC of report or databook such as text sense check, references verification, table calculation check, graphs verification, etc. 

Advanced Analysis

Flux Analysis and Supporting Tables
Preparing questions for management based on flux analysis, working on meeting agenda and creating supporting tables based on GL details

Potential Adjustments and Supporting Schedules
Identifying adjustments based on management meeting notes and creating supporting schedules for calculation of EBITDA / NWC impact

New, Lost & Existing, Price-Volume, Stratification
Working on insightful analysis specific to the industry such as NLE, price-volume analysis, stratification, bridge charts, etc.

Employee Analysis
Analysis such as headcount, wages & benefits by department, accrued payroll and bonus adjustment, bonus normalization, etc.

Proof of Cash
Match deposits and withdrawals in all the bank accounts of the target with cash movements in the financial statements on a monthly basis

Report Writing
Working on the report which includes working on disclaimer, engagement letter, procedures, glossary, adding tables, writing key observations, etc.

Solution

Evalueserve was able to quickly ramp-up a team of 10 resources with domain expertise on TAS. The team was able to provide end-to-end support to the client and worked on a team extension model. It also helped the client by bringing in process standardization across sector teams and higher quality standards.

Benefits

  • Efficiency improvement: Bring in overall process efficiency through resource optimization which reduced turnaround time by ~40% with US overnight support.
  • Cost savings: Immediate cost savings of 40–50% compared with a similar talent in the US.
  • Experienced Team: In-house capabilities to quickly set-up a team of analysts with dedicated staffed resources to support multiple sector teams such as Industrial, TMT and Healthcare
  • Technology Deployment: Ability to quickly bring technology such as Customized Excel add-ins for process efficiency and ResearchStream for workflow transparency and real-time resource management

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