australia

The Excel model audit team of Corality is based in Sydney, Australia. Most people appreciate that Sydney is one of the best places to live (in particular at this time of year - December - when Europe is not looking overly attractive and we have +28 degrees Celsius and sunshine) in the world but that is only one of the advantages of locating our financial model audit team here.

The model audit (model review) process of an Excel financial model

A typical model audit, or model review, of a financial model for a PPP/PFI/Project Finance transaction involves an initial spreadsheet review and an analytical review followed by additional iterations to resolve all outstanding spreadsheet issues satisfactorily. Typically in a bid tender process there are 3-5 Excel spreadsheet iterations in the model review process and the last two are often very minor.

Late nights of financial modelling for a bid tender process in PPP/PFI/Project Finance

By the nature of the high pressure environment of bid process in a PPP/PFI/Project Finance transaction the financial modeller in the deal team will be working on the financial model up until the very minute he leaves the office to go home a get a few hours well needed sleep. By that time the Excel project model is sent via email to the model auditors. This is obviously not a great structure from a bigger picture financial model risk perspective, but that is a different story.

The time zone advantage in using an Australian model audit company for European project finance/PPP/PFI projects

Unless you are working with a model audit team with seriously disturbed sleep patterns they are unlikely to be waiting at their desk at 1am waiting to potentially receive a new model…. (They probably would do this on the bid date, but not for the initial iterations). Should you work with an Australian model audit team then this would not be an issue. 1am in London is 11am Sydney time so we could get started straight away and complete the next model review iteration of the Excel financial model by 9am when the deal team modeller gets back to his/her desk to start the new day on the PPP/PFI/Project Finance model..

We have now had an accepted offer for the role of Associate - Financial Model Audit and are now looking to further expand the team by taking on two financial modelling analysts.

The financial modelling analyst role description will tell you the whole story but I thought I would expand on it slightly here.

We are trying to find two people with the following attributes

• Willing to put in 110% to become the most respected financial model audit team in the world
• Numerically and technically exceptional and combining this with a consultative and professional approach
• Love the challenge of global projects in infrastructure, utilities, power, mining, oil and gas, renewable energy
• Enjoys the challenge of understanding every singe detail of some very complex transactions and financial models
• Interested in working globally - we have clients all over the world - Germany, Saudi, Singapore, Vietnam, Norway, United Kingdom…

We are offering AUD 60k + super + bonus for this role and can see that a successful new joiner should be able to increase that significantly relatively quickly. A quarterly bonus structure makes sure that hard work is remunerated without having to wait a full year on it…

If you think you are our person, please let me know, and if not - tell your friends!

Since the launch of the brand Corality in Dec 2008 (post the spin-off from Navigator Project Finance) we have seen a big upswing on financial model audit mandates and we are now recruiting to get us ready for busy years ahead.

The last few months have been quite busy for the team mainly in the infrastructure/water/utilities space and there has been limited time to focus on recruiting. We are now overdue on filling the role as Senior Associate and will be conducting interviews over the coming weeks.

If you are interested in a new challenge in the field of financial model audit then please give me a call on +61 2 9222 9222 for a confidential discussion.

Key attributes for a Senior Associate in Financial model audit

In short, we are looking for someone who has significant experience in auditing financial models in a range of industry sectors and who would be comfortable in further developing our already leading processes and to train and coach junior team members. Based on this it is quite likely that you have a background in one of the accounting firms or in one of the more specialised model audit/actuarial firms.

Financial model audit outside the big accounting firms

Working in a specialised, non-accounting, firm has many advantages

• Have a direct and immediate impact on the business
• Flexible working hours and arrangements
• Less admin and reporting
• A more direct approach to implementing improvements
• Closer interaction with clients
• Instant recognition for good work and a quarterly bonus scheme
• A global client base

How do you know if this is right for you?

This is pretty simple question to answer for the right person. The infrastructure sector is, and will, be quite active for the coming years. If you can answer ‘yes’ to the following questions then I would very much like to have a chat with you.

Have you….

• Performed financial model audit on +10 infrastructure projects of USD/AUD/GBP +100m
• Trained and coached junior team members in the art of financial model audits

The job is based in Sydney, however if you are located somewhere else but would be interested in working in a fantastic city, live by the beach and enjoy the most comfortable climate on the planet then we could probably work something out to get you over here.

Salary expectations for this role

Getting the right salary is important for motivation. We have a pretty good understanding of how much the competition is paying and I am confident that we can give the right person a very good incentive to move away for your current role. This is all made even more attractive by a quarterly bonus scheme which makes the sometimes very intense work more enjoyable.

If you are worried about the salary, we could have a chat about your expectations early on in the interview to make sure that we are on the same page before getting more formal in the interview process.

I was born in Stockholm, Sweden and lived there until I moved to Australia in 2003. Coming to Australia was like travelling back in time in regards to the “internet” used in Australia. Ads on TV still compared “broadband” to dial-up, a concept I couldn’t believe anyone was still using.

Going from Napster (it feels like a long time ago now, doesn’t it..?) on 10 Mb/s in my bedroom to Australia where the most used site on the web was the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s NetBank which doesn’t allow you to use the ‘back’ button for ‘security reasons’ and looks like it has been designed by the guy who invented Lego was nothing short of a shock .

Kevin Rudd’s national internet infrastructure project

Finally, as a positive spin to the global financial crisis, the Australian government has decided it is time for Australia to see the light and to upgrade the national internet infrastructure to a decent standard. For a thorough analysis on this see BuddeComms analysis of the situation.

What outcomes can we expect of the infrastructure investment?

The Swedish investments in solid internet infrastructure have resulted in many fantastic internet solutions including Skype, Spotify and Pirate Bay. A successful delivery of this massive project (AUD 43 Billion) will put Australia on the map as forward thinking and potentially open up new sources of export now that resources seems to be of everyone’s mind for a bit….

I really hope that Rudd’s project will increase the Internet awareness in Australia which may result in

• more cross-border collaboration (via applications like WebEx and video conferencing via Skype),
• more efficient corporate infrastructure (using offsite storage and cloud based applications like Salesforce , the Google suite of corporate tools and DropBox)
• Better use of outsourcing of non-core tasks (RentACoder , Amazon Mechanical Turk )

When I was working with Navigator Project Finance we needed a new website. As a solution we hired a Mexican Developer in Sinaloa, Mexico through GetAFreelancer.com at the cost of US 300 using OpenSource Joomla compared to our best Sydney quote of AUD 12,000 (~USD 10,000) using a very second rate in-house CMS.

Most people found that very strange but what is really so different with a consultant in Mexico compared to someone at the other side of your own home town. Most tasks can be done with no face-to-face interaction.

How does Internet Infrastructure impact Corality?

At Corality we are constantly evaluation ways of working more efficient with clients all over the world. Only this week I have been liasing with clients in Kuwait, Saudi, Holland, United Kingdom and Australia (Sydney, Perth and Adelaide).

Out of these clients I have only met two face to face. Sure, for certain tasks one has to be in on site but 95% of all project related work can be performed from our Sydney offices. We are currently experimenting WebEx-based long-distance training catering for the US and Africa in particular.

Working with a global client base

With such a wide-spread client base I welcome all new solutions that can improve long-distance collaboration. We have over the years tested many tools including

• Blackberries (of course)
• Skype (voice, chat and video)
• WebEx (with great success)
• Remote Desktop (can’t live without it)
• VPN (useful but dull)

and more recently

• Google spreadsheets (very exciting!)
• LinkedIn (fantastic networking tool but unfortunately underrated by many professionals)
• Twitter (I still don’t get it..).

So, let’s just hope this project gets delivered sooner rather than later. No one would be happier than I too see some serious speed in our Internet infrastructure.

The current financial crisis has resulted in many investment bankers stepping our of the protected world of a global investment bank to set up a boutique companies providing services to their existing network of bank and sponsors.

Rock Financial Modelling in Sydney, Australia

The most recent example is Rock Financial Modelling founded by Emma McPherson who is an ex Director of BNP Paribas. Emma will be using her network of bankers and resources companies to provide services in financial modelling and advisory based on her 10+ years of project finance and leveraged finance experience with BNP Paribas.

Financial modelling consultants offering more choice for project developers

Rock Financial Modelling and other boutique financial modelling consultants are often an attractive solution for project developers who find services from banking team being sub-standard when it comes to financial modelling. Australia has an abundance of financial modelling consultants, ranging from individuals doing it as part of a lifestyle choice to very sophisticated transaction modelling teams going head to head with the investment banks on global financial modelling mandates.

Project finance modelling and general financial modelling consultants

Below is a snapshot of some of the more active Australian boutique financial modelling consultants

• Navigator Project Finance - Project finance modelling and training courses (clearly my facourite out of this list as I used to be part of Navigator Project Finance)
• BPM Financial modelling
• StreetWise - Myriam Savides (I can’t recall the website)
• Plum Solutions -  Danielle Stein Fairhurst - Very web 2.0, check her out on Twitter!
• Access Analytics - Jeff Robson & Co - Previously known as ‘MailBarrow’ (Changing the name and website was a great improvement in my view!)
  
• FinAnalytics - Tracy Kudelka (Ex BPM and Macquarie Bank)