q&a: private equity fund of funds - gp evaluation/ due diligence
to give you a bit of background, i work at a global private equity fund of fund as a senior associate. 6 years of experience, chartered financial analyst. work primarily involves gp sourcing +evaluation, due diligence, and portfolio monitoring.
alphacompounder: 
1. this can be an extremely long answer. i'll keep it short - the opportunity for exposure, meet and work with brilliant minds, put my analytical and logical skills to right use, $ increment from a big4 role.
2. over the years, the team members (10+ years each) have built solid connections in the industry. networking events (eg. superreturn)+ leveraging our personal connects to stay in touch with these gps. we also use databases (eg.
Anonymous A 

Hello!


When you say experienced hired, this can still mean 2-3 different tenures. Can you specify? Precisely the bonus is the part that changes most as you go up in the org. 


ME is rather frozen, but again, could you specify office?


Hope it helps!


Cheers, 


Clara Hi


In **consulting interviews** you may have **two types of M&A cases:**


1. Commercial due-diligence of the target company
2. Synergies calculation of two merging companies


There are **two ways to identify the exact type of a case:**


* The interviewer will tell you
* In the beginning, while asking clarifying questions you ask what is the objective and if we have any other company in the portfolio that can have potential synergies


**1. For commercial DD** you can use the following structure:


**Market**


* Size
* Growth rates
* Profitability
* Segments
* Distribution channels


**Competition**


* Market shares of competitors and their segments (see the next point)
* Concentration / fragmentation (Fragmented market with lots of small players is less mature and easier to enter from a scratch. Concentrated market is hard to enter but has potential acquisition targets)
* Unit economics of the players (Margins, relative cost position)
* Key capabilities of the players (e.g. suppliers, assets, IP, etc)


**Company** 


* Unit economics (Margins, costs) in current or target markets
* Brand
* Product mix
* Key capabilities


**Feasibility of exit**:


* Exit multiples
* Exit time
* Existence of buyers


**2. For Synergies Calculation** you can use the following structure:


1. **Revenue synergies** - here you calculate the synergies in price and quantity (depending on the case it may be new geographies, new products, new distribution channels, bigger share on shelves crosselling opportunities, etc.)
2. **Cost synergies** - typically you use a value chain structure tailored to the industry (e.g. supply-production-distribution-marketing-after sales support)
3. **Risks** - major risks that can decrease the synergies (tip: don't underestimate the merging companies culture factor)
4. **Total synergies potential** in $, adjusted by risk (probability of failure)


**In private equity interviews,** the cases will be much more detailed in financial part. Depending on the company you'll need to:


* Find the relevant information in P&L and Balance sheet
* Do the simplified valuation using NPV: calculate cash flows and make assumptions about growth rate and discount rate
* Do the valuation using comps - you'll have to explain which comps you will use and why


Good luck! ic data scientists get compensated very well at the top tech companies. probably more than directors at your company. there's no guarantee that any amount of internal advancement will get you into those companies from cpg. best bet is to get good at data science and apply as an ic at tech firms to break into the industry. typically even in an informal interview i will have reviewed a candidate's resume. so yes, to some degree, i will have learned about the candidate's occupation. the purpose of the interview will then determine how much detail i go into with the candidate on their occupation. is it the first step toward employment for an open job for which the candidate is qualified? is it a courtesy interview where i'm helping a candidate learn about a company? am i simply helping a student to polish their interview skills? the level of formality and explorations of one's occupation and related qualifications can change significantly based on the answer to many of these questions. i just finished the google it support professional certificate and am currently studying for the comptia triad (a+, net+, and sec+).

the courses of the google it support professional certificate (gitspc) are somewhat less in depth but on a wider variety of topics than the a+. at the end of the course, you'll probably know more about networking and server management than you'd need to for the a+, but not enough about specific connectors or ports.

the first course starts out much gentler than any a+ study materials i've seen, so if you're a beginner (like i was), i recommend at least looking at the first gitspc course to get familiar with some of the hardware before going too far in depth on form factors, standards, port names, etc. by the time you've completed all five courses, you have a lot of information under your belt, some of it applicable to the a+, but some of it beyond the scope of that exam. as the courses start with fundamentals and move on to more in-depth networking, os management, sysadmin/server management, and security, it provides a great foundation for a+, net+, sec+, mspc, rhsa, lpi, and more. i feel way more confident in my ability to work on and achieve those types of certifications now that i'm not floundering around and vaguely unaware of what those fields actually consist of.

tl;dr: the course isn't an a+ study guide, but it can definitely help you nail down some of the fundamentals. when you've finished it, you'll find that you feel pretty confident with a surprising number of the exam objectives for a+, net+, and sec+, which will reduce your total study time if you go after those certs. a) the ppp projects may be posed by the central ministries, state government or statutory authorities (like municipal authorities and councils), which own the underlying assets;.b) to be eligible for financing under the scheme, the ppp projects should be implemented, i.e. developed, financed, constructed, maintained and operated for the projects term by a private sector company to be selected by the government or a statutory entity through a transparent and open competitive bidding process.c) the criterion for bidding should be the amount of viability gap funding required by the private sector company for implementing the project where all other parameters are comparable.d) the project should provide a service against payment of pre-determined tariff or user charge.e) this scheme will apply only if the contract/concession is awarded in favour of a private sector company.f) the approval to projects is given prior to invitation of bids and actual disbursement takes place once the private entity has expended his portion of the equity.g) the final vgf is determined through the bidding.
the detailed vgf guidelines may be accessed at the following&nbsp;link. They employ a lot of former MBB consultants, so the interviews are similar to what you would expect at MBB, however less structured/more flexible (can be longer, or shorter, cases are not that unified). Obviously, in their cases they focus a lot on financial sector. So, the good approach to prepare for the interview with MA would be just to prepare as you would do for MBB, but to put more focus on financial services/payment cases. As regards personal fit questions, focus on highlighting the same virtues as for the MBB, i.e. leadership, team work, analytical skills, goal orientation, entrepreneruship. You should consult an attorney experienced with guardianships, if there is already a guardianship in place.


If not, then the money is yours and it is yours to do with as you like. Without knowing a lot more about your situation, there isn't much that an attorney can advise to help you protect your assets. first, thank you for serving our nation.


second, it will be important to understand your stage in life. presumably, you may be turning 19 after your a-levels or 20 after your poly studies. either way, you are young and have a long investment runway ahead of you.


third, where can you place your money while you serve the nation for the next two years?


www.squirrelsave.com.sg


assuming you can get emergency funding if needed from your parents, then you must decide the risk you want to take in placing the money.


the safest (lowest risk) with no return is to literally keep your money in the safe. that’s not the best way frankly when there are slightly riskier ways to grow your money with decent returns.


one possibility is to place into a bank savings account in singapore, preferably in a fixed deposit which offers a higher return than the basic savings account.


however, i would recommend investing in a well-diversified global portfolio, especially when you have two years of runway to grow your money. after all, it will be good to have good returns after you complete your national service to help you meet expected expenses when you further your studies or take a well-deserved holiday.


investing globally is easy with robo-advisers. pick one which is fully automated where you don’t have to make decisions except how much to invest. in selecting the robo, check if the risk management is done by machine learning ai or if it is managed ultimately by a human manager. diversification requires massive data analytics, which is not humanly possible. yet it is easily done with the computing power available today.


before you start, you need to know or select your own risk profile. it is not easy as most people do not do what they say. further, conventional risk profiling poses technical questions which some people may not fully understand. instead, look for risk profiling tools which reflect your personality and risk-reward behaviour. using such a tool that can analyse your risk-reward attitude is a critical step to start your investing journey.


www.squirrelsave.com.sg what are you lookig for?free study guides: 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/virtual-networks-static-private-ip-arm-pporta...

cbt nuggets:   
https://www.cbtnuggets.com/blog/certifications/cloud/how-to-study-for-vmware-vsphere-6-vcp-dcv-in-9-...

instructor led training - i used to work for them and am biased :-)  

https://www.cbtnuggets.com/blog/certifications/cloud/how-to-study-for-vmware-vsphere-6-vcp-dcv-in-9-...