On Tuesday this week I had the pleasure of having a very pleasant chat with John Stroud from Digit Advisory. Digit Advisory is a partnership of two principals who are both ex Babcock and Brown and they are now (after an enviably long round-the-world trip) touring Sydney to broadcast their message of Digit Advisory - ‘Financial Modelling Expertise’.
At a first glance one could be led to believe that Digit Advisory is a pure financial modelling specialist firm with investment banking expertise but I think that in the long term the strong skills of the principals in leading a transaction will turn out to be their biggest selling point.
For transactions that are not quite at the stage where they need to appoint a global investment bank for financial modelling and execution of the transaction Digit Advisory looks like a very sensible offering.
I am yet to see one of their models but based on the high-level discussions I would like to think that Digit Advisory and Corality share a passion for simple, transparent and flexible financial models. I would recommend you to have a chat to John to find out more.
Ernst & Young financial modelling: London -> Sydney
John Stroud has interestingly enough a career path that is remarkably similar to my former colleague and business partner Nick Crawley at financial modelling consultancy Navigator Project Finance. Both joined Ernst & Young financial modelling in London and were subsequently sent to Sydney to boost the financial modelling capacity there. After joining from London they both left out of frustration within one year! John went to Babcock and Brown in Sydney and Nick to ANZ investment bank. Babcock and Brown are now a very quickly sinking ship and most people have moved on bigger and better things.
Hunter Street Sydney - Australian headquarter of financial modelling?
Digit Advisory have established their offices at 66 Hunter Street which further strengthens Hunter Street’s crowd of financial modelers. In the same building they have Bamford Partners (I haven’t met them yet but they appear to have a focus on financial modelling) and further down the street are Navigator Project Finance and Corality.
Recruiting financial modelers
Digit Advisory have big plans for growth and they are already looking to recruit two people to join the team. They are looking for people with about five years experience and who could comfortably work with and support top-tier investment banks with financial modelling, analysis and execution.
On a different note it appears that boutique financial modelling companies have survived the global financial crisis far better than then banking world. Corality have in July had three more people join the team and we are looking for one more Graduate to join in a few weeks. Navigator are also looking for two more Analysts and Financial Mechanics have also recently had a new joiner.
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