Tag Archives: Financial Research Outsourcing

Introduction

Investment Banking is a special type of banking that helps organizations or individuals raise capital and provides consulting services to them. It helps in conducting large complicated transactions such as mergers or acquisitions or raising an initial public offering (IPO) using underwriting.

Investment Bankers are experts in the field of finance who have their fingers on the pulse of the market. As acknowledged worldwide this is one of the most complex financial mechanisms in the world.

As has been the case with different sectors, it has been for some time now that organizations have started investment banking outsourcing services to third-party vendors as well. Outsourcing one means giving the authority to outsource one of its services to these third-party vendors so that the company can save on operating costs and get specialized services from highly skilled staff- all this while ensuring adequate data security and adherence to regulatory compliances.

This helps organizations not only streamline their services but also provide value-added services to customers that they couldn’t have thought about earlier.

It is important to note that the nature of investment banking outsourcing and the services provided by vendors have evolved alongside technological advancements. The first and foremost is business digitization, which has resulted in increased transparency and visibility for clients, as well as a better end-user experience for customers. This has resulted in improved strategic partnerships and, as a result, higher quality work being outsourced by investment banking outsourcing clients, which can only be met with strategic partners.

Challenges Faced by Investment Banks

Modern investment banking faces various kinds of challenges that are listed below:

Challenges Faced By Investment Banks

Challenges Faced By Investment Banks

Scarce Capital Resources

Due to recession and depression all over the world, almost all markets, companies, and individuals are not comfortable investing their money in the capital markets. This has created a world where capital resources have become scarce. The job of an investment banker is to invest capital more efficiently, but due to the scarcity of resources, there is a reduced business for investment banks in general.

Need to Reduce Costs

Markets have become more competitive. As a result, the cost of goods and services is decreasing. This has an impact on the finance industry as well. Investment banks’ margins are shrinking, and thus their cost of capital is decreasing. As a result, they must reduce costs to encourage their investors to invest money.

Increased Regulations

The new structured products created and sold by investment banks go through strict regulations since the mortgage crisis in 2008. This creates a limit on the operations of investment banks. These increases cost for investment banks and they have to maintain a different department of qualified professionals so that they could create and bring in new investment opportunities after scrutinizing them.

Technology Disruptions

Rapid technological advancements have drastically altered every industry in the world, including investment banking. The fintech industry has emerged over the years as new technology. This industry revolves around providing the same financial services at a lower cost. They have access to cutting-edge technology and a modern network, allowing them to raise capital at a lower cost.

Cross Selling Complexities

A huge area of the investment banking services sector relies on cross-selling. For example, if someone is looking for mergers and acquisitions, the investment bankers provide them with the services such as issue management, capital structure advisory, and many more. This way they bring value to their clients. But due to limited budgets, they are limited to the services they offer. The declining budget causes decreased revenue for research and other departments.

Benefits of Investment Banking Outsourcing

There are several reasons why investment banking outsourcing is becoming increasingly popular. We have tried to highlight some of these reasons below. They are:

Benefits of Investment Banking

Benefits of Investment Banking

Focus on Core Business

Investment banking outsourcing can help companies in focusing on their core competencies rather than focusing on mundane tasks and being worried about their day-to-day operations.

Controlled Costs

Cutting operational costs is a challenge that exists with organizations throughout. Investment banking outsourcing provides an avenue where companies can take care of differences in the relative value of currencies to derive as much as 30-50% savings in costs.

Increased Efficiency

Investment banking outsourcing is a specialized operation and the workers who work for these banks need to be highly skilled for this. A similar talent of MBA’s exists in low-cost destinations like India where the operations can be outsourced to them. Highly skilled talent helps in improving the efficiency of investment banking services.

Changing Economic Factors

In today’s uncertain world, the political dynamics are changing daily. This has an impact on the economies of the world and since we are so intertwined today the ripple effects of adverse conditions in a globally connected country are bound to have effects on the whole world. Investment banking outsourcing ensures the risks are well hedged with specialized partners operating from different geographies across the world.

Technological Changes

Investment banking outsourcing has ensured that the companies are up to date with the latest technological advancements that are occurring worldwide at a fraction of the cost had they invested real-time into adopting them. The use of the latest technologies by third parties ensures that all the technological challenges are met.

Time Zone Advantage

The gap in time zones between your country and the area you are outsourcing to, in addition to the cost advantage, is another important benefit. By doing so, you can focus on your primary tasks all day long while also having finished your day-to-day operations by the time you get up the next day. It gives you the benefit of round-the-clock business operations.

Magistral’s Services on Investment Banking Outsourcing

The outsourcing of investment banking may be a way to cut operating expenses. In an era of growing complexity in both established and new industries, investment banks are extremely nuanced. Smaller investment banks have a difficult time juggling their project pipelines and manpower needs. Medium-sized banks are eager to develop their expertise in emerging industries, which are bustling with activity and volume. However, large banks are more concerned with cutting costs while maintaining the quality of the services they provide to their customers. Magistral provides a range of service options to support Investment Banks.

Some of the services that are associated with Investment Banking Outsourcing that is offered by Magistral consulting are:

-Deal Sourcing: Performing industry and market analysis, finding potential targets, and publishing newsletters are various kinds of services provided under deal sourcing.

-Data Cleansing: Data cleansing and mining are done to perform analysis on suitable data.

-Valuations: Valuations are done by creating financial models by various methods such as LBO/DCF Modelling, Comparable Analysis, Precedent Transaction Analysis, and Impact Analysis.

-Due Diligence:  Research-based due diligence both primary and secondary are performed to uncover the true potential of an asset while giving a completely independent opinion on investment quality.

-Deal Execution: Teasers and Investment Memorandums are made along with identifying the potential investors/buyers.

-Portfolio Management: Providing ESG compliance monitoring, preparing financial reports, business development support, and procurement support is provided.

-Equity Research and Analysis: The services provided under this head include fundamental analysis, quantitative analysis, credit analysis, and country analysis.

-Marketing: This includes creating white papers, case studies, thought papers, CRM management, etc.

About Magistral Consulting

Magistral Consulting has helped multiple funds and companies in outsourcing operations activities. It has service offerings for Private Equity, Venture Capital, Family Offices, Investment Banks, Asset Managers, Hedge Funds, Financial Consultants, Real Estate, REITs, RE funds, Corporates, and Portfolio companies. Its functional expertise is around Deal origination, Deal Execution, Due Diligence, Financial Modelling, Portfolio Management, and Equity Research.

For setting up an appointment with a Magistral representative visit www.magistralconsulting.com/contact

About the Author

The article is Authored by the Marketing Department of Magistral Consulting. For any business inquiries, you could reach out to  prabhash.choudhary@magistralconsulting.com

A Brief Introduction

Consumer and market insight report and analyze consumer behavior, information, and feedback. The comprehension and analysis of these insights assist adjustments to customer support systems and business development. Companies collect feedback using customer surveys, statistics, reviews, and focus groups to understand the underlying attitudes underlying consumer behavior and decision-making processes.

There is no formal definition of consumer and market insight, but it may be summed up as any measurement that can be utilized to observe and understand what customers think and feel. It might be their eye movements when viewing your page, how long they spend on it, how much they order, which options they choose, etc.; the list is endless. While certain information may be utilized alone to make a specific determination, marketers often use a variety of consumer insights to make their decisions.

Consumer marketing insights are also crucial when testing new initiatives within your company. You may learn from consumer insights how placement on the page, product details, SEO, and many other aspects affect your sales. Businesses employ consumer insights to understand their audience’s thoughts and feelings more deeply. Companies may better understand their customers’ needs and wants, and, more crucially, the reasons behind those needs and wants, by studying human behavior, which is likely to boost revenue and brand value thus.

Sector concentrating the more spending on market research 2020, by sector

Sector concentrating the more spending on market research 2020, by sector

Consumers today have virtually limitless store options and complete freedom over how they assess and interact with media and companies. In the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic, research has revealed that 81 % of consumers would continue reorganizing their spending this year, while 46 % of customers have experienced new expenditure restraints.

Benefits of Consumer and Market Insight

Consumer and market insight has the power to create or destroy a marketing plan. This dependency on data monitoring has only increased across all businesses considering the COVID-19 outbreak. Businesses and consumers are switching to a digital-dominant strategy enabling more precise insight measurement. Consumer insight may help determine the characteristics your consumers are seeking and find demands that your rivals are still not meeting. Social media and search engine trends might be helpful in this regard. To stay informed about what your target audience is searching for, you may set up alerts for movements and rivals.

This takes us to a further advantage of consumer insights: They provide a detailed picture of how you may compare your company to others’ businesses in ways other than sales and revenue. You can see how you compare to your rivals on various business-related terms regarding search engine rankings. 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. 3/4 will switch if the customer doesn’t like the experience, so it’s vital to keep care of the customer experience.

Build effective category strategies that increase sales and promote sustainable growth by utilizing solid, impartial, and contextualized insights. Make quick judgments based on proactive information and forward-looking insights to stay one step ahead of the competition. Data and information make it easy to mitigate risk and identify strategic priorities.

How to get Consumer and Market Insight

Utilize social media analytics

According to a research survey, only 1.9 % of marketing executives said their businesses have the skills to use marketing analytics. With the popularity of social media as a tool for marketing, companies may communicate directly with their customers and discover their precise attitudes and responses to their offerings. Nowadays, many social media platforms have survey and questionnaire tools that can also give valuable information about consumer attitudes or behaviors. YouTube analytics, google trend and analytics, and google audience retention tools are the best source of collecting marketing insight.

Getting Consumer and Market Insight

Getting Consumer and Market Insight

Conduct surveys

Getting direct customer input is a terrific method to learn about the industry. Many businesses opt to do this by sending out feedback forms as soon as a client connects with or purchases their product or service. They may follow up later to obtain a more comprehensive customer experience analysis.

Access to public data

Because of the internet, businesses now have access to an infinite quantity of data, much of which is public information. When deciding on their marketing strategies, companies might utilize information about consumer buying patterns, financial situations, and the condition of their respective industries or economies.

Conduct market research

Focus groups are typically gathered as part of market research, a traditional method for businesses to collect data for market insights. These test subjects’ responses might offer valuable information about how the broader public might react to a particular product, service, or marketing campaign.

Customer feedback

Asking clients for feedback is one of the simplest methods to obtain consumer insights. However, there is a need for this. To guarantee that their customers feel comfortable sharing, brands must develop trust.

The impact of global consumers has changed

The transition of consumers to digital has increased significantly. Gen Z customers have created applications to discover extra food and purchase more goods online. People are preferably buying more on online sales or in big billion deals.

73% of Indian consumers return the product after shipment, so the company’s return policy should be easy to attract the customer and create trust. Myntra had 8 million orders during its end-of-reason sale in which 5 million buyers bought 4,636 brands. In the sale, 10 shirts were sold every second, 3 pairs of jeans were sold every second, and 17 sarees were sold every second, which signifies consumer behavior. Sales influence consumer behavior, those not in need also buy something.

44 % were undecided or made three or more assertions that they disagree with near shopping sustainability. A 23 % rise in expenditure across six or more categories was forecast by consumers worldwide. In the six months starting in April 2021 and concluding in September, 24 % of consumers worldwide do not anticipate increasing their expenditure in any category.

How to use Consumer and Market Insight

Set your goal

A list of questions and objectives is often where research starts. Determine the data type needed to finish your analysis before asking for input. Data on consumer demographics, corporate reputation, brand awareness, product issues, market rivals, and customer service initiatives may be included in the objectives for consumer insights.

Choose the research methodology

The research techniques you choose will depend on the information and results you are looking for. Data on consumer demographics and public relations may be found through focus groups and customer surveys. In customer evaluations and surveys, suggestions, and issues with goods, features, and customer service may come up. Pick the best approach to serve your research’s objectives and produce the most satisfactory outcomes.

Conduct research

Install data gathering technologies to compile information from sales processes and website visits or assemble participants and ask them to share their perspectives. Customers who respond to surveys and provide feedback frequently receive rewards from businesses. To gather information for analysis and determine consumer happiness, solicit and record consumer insights.

Analyze the result

You may find and visualize common issues, trends, and causes that arise among your customers by analyzing the outcomes of the data you collected. Create a graph or written report to summarize customer data and examine patterns like demographics, consumer behaviors, and product issues. Improvements and modifications that address frequent difficulties and feedback can be made using knowledge of the reasons and reactions that occur most frequently.

Apply changes

Consumer insight and market research are primarily used to develop and improve products that better fulfill the demands of consumers. Product development and marketing teams build solutions and work to answer customer complaints after collecting and evaluating the data. The organization’s understanding of customer service is demonstrated using these enhancements.

Why Magistral Consulting?

-Customer insight: Utilize tools like social media sentiment analysis, U&A insights, N.P.S. tracking, bespoke surveys, and more to stay current on consumer trends, requirements, and purchasing patterns to identify focus areas and create successful marketing plans.

-Market expansion: Receive timely, essential insights and evaluations of markets and regions to aid in partner selection, local market intelligence, understanding of shifting legal and regulatory environments, and developing successful ready strategies.

-Updated information: Proactively updates on recent and pertinent developments in your markets and categories will help you find new opportunities for innovation and growth.

-Expert insight: A comprehensive understanding of your company’s possibilities and difficulties by combining data from internal, external, and third parties. We have expertly selected insights on markets, categories, rivals, and consumers to assist your commercial and marketing teams in making more informed strategic decisions.

-Custom tools: You may create world-class category growth strategies fast and easily using pre-built templates and unique tools.

About Magistral Consulting

Magistral Consulting has helped multiple companies to reduce operations costs through its offerings in Procurement and Supply Chain.

About the Author

The article is Authored by the Marketing Department of Magistral Consulting. For any business inquiries, you could reach out to prabhash.choudhary@magistralconsulting.com

Introduction

Around the globe, there is a trillion-dollar business of investing in all sorts of assets like equity, both public and private, real estate, and upcoming assets like cryptocurrencies. Once the investment is made, the task on the part of the investor shifts to investment management. There are many activities of investment management that could be outsourced and that is what leads us to analyze the stream of investment management outsourcing. Investment management and hence investment management outsourcing takes all forms depending on the asset being invested in, and the prime business of the asset or investment manager.

Here we take a look at major activities of each type of investment manager or asset manager which could be effectively outsourced to save on costs and improve quality.

Who Should Outsource Investment Management and How?

Outsourced Investment Management

Outsourced Investment Management for different types of Asset Managers

Private Equity and Venture Capital firms

The underlying asset that a Private Equity or a Venture Capital firm invests in is equity. Sometimes it’s for stocks listed on exchanges but most of the time these are private investments, the target of which are start-ups are unlisted companies.

In the PE/VC value chain of investing, there are activities like Fundraising, Deal origination, Deal execution, and Portfolio Management. Quite a few activities in these departments are outsourceable. For fundraising, the activities like investor reach-out, investor profiling, CRMs, newsletters, white papers, and data management jobs could be effectively outsourced. Regarding, Deal origination, the deal pipeline management has a great potential of outsourcing along with initial due diligence. Deal execution processes like valuation and financial modeling are templatized and could be considered. Portfolio management has varied activities and outsourcing potential vary as per the nature of the business of the portfolio companies. Most activities related to Strategy and Marketing have great potential for outsourcing when it comes to Portfolio Management.

Hedge Funds

For the most common type of hedge fund out there, that is a long-short equity hedge fund, multiple activities should be considered for outsourcing. Equity Research is the foremost one. The research that is done for the investors is almost always best to be outsourced. Apart from Equity Research, Fund Administration and Fund Accounting are better done when outsourced. It makes sense from the cost and expertise point of view. Marketing activities almost always have great potential for offshoring.

Real Estate

Managing a real estate asset after the investment comprises standardized work-streams. Most of it relates to collecting data, analyzing it, making reports, and raising red flags if any. Accounting and administration along with research has a great potential for outsourcing

Investment Banks

Investment Banks are into all sorts of assets directly or for their clients. For the varying types of their work pallet, there is varying potential for outsourcing.  For investment banks, activities that are commonly outsourced are Equity Research, Security-based Investment Research, development of excel or other automated models, investment research for private investments, marketing, deal origination, and deal execution. In fact, 30-50% of all activities performed by an investment bank has a solid potential for outsourcing that may be explored

Asset Management Firms

These are for specialized asset managers like managers managing a portfolio of crypto or commodities. There is no one size fits all approach to outsourcing for these asset managers. As a thumb rule, everything related to technology like platform development, automation, website development, or software development can be outsourced. Also, anything that is of support function’s nature like Strategy or Marketing could be looked at.

Models of engagement with the outsourcing vendor

Once you have made your mind to explore outsourcing, the biggest concern is around the way an outsourced vendor or the service provider would work with you and your team. There are three established models of working while outsourcing. These are FTEs, Retainer, and Ad-hoc. Some progressive vendors like Magistral are signing up success-based contracts too.

Outsourcing Engagement Model

Investment Management Outsourcing Engagement Model

FTEs

FTE the most common engagement model for investment management outsourcing.

FTE stands for Full-Time Employee equivalent. It’s like a virtual employee who is operating from a different country. This virtual employee could be coordinated with, on email, video calls, WhatsApp, chats, or any other mode that is suitable to the client and is convenient as per time zone differences. It looks like a person is aligned with the client full time and he works seamlessly with the client. That is always the case, but the vendor, his processes, training, supervision, and culture play a big role in ensuring the continuity of services. A vendor enables the FTE to perform optimally by providing training and desired supervision. The vendor’s processes ensure that the client is insulated from the bad performance of FTE as the work is supervised by more senior resources. In case the individual decides to leave the organization, similarly, qualified and trained professionals are available on the bench for the replacement. That is the reason it makes sense to work with individuals through the service providers who may be an established name in their industry. Working directly through freelancing websites or hiring directly exposes clients to manage costs and risks, which is not the case while dealing with an established service provider.

This also is the cheapest model on per hour basis. But it is inflexible as there may be contractual obligations for a minimum period of support. This case is more prominent when resources are specialized in niche skills

Typical jobs that require FTE engagements are operational, where the offshored team works with the onsite team seamlessly. So, if a task is part of your ongoing investment management operations, mostly it will be outsourced on FTE-based engagement.

Retainer

You know there is a need for outsourcing tasks. At the same time, you think a full-time individual working on these jobs may be overkill. In these situations, where tasks just require some hours every month, the retainer model of engagement comes in handy. Say rather than hiring an FTE or a full-time virtual employee, you would only want 100 hours’ worth of tasks outsourced every month. A retainer is far more flexible than FTEs but costs higher on per hour cost basis. Typical jobs that are suitable for retainer-type outsourcing are newsletters, MIS, reports preparation, and other marketing-related tasks.

Ad-hoc Projects

As the name suggests the engagement is for one-time projects only. A client gives out the scope of the project. The service provider or the vendor provides a proposal that carries, scope of work, timelines, and commercials. The project kicks off after the client signs off the proposal and is paid after the delivery of the project. Almost any project that is strategic and is not expected to be repeated on an ongoing basis is an ideal candidate for ad-hoc based outsourcing. Also, it’s an ideal mode, if you would want to test the services of a vendor before signing a longer-term contract. It is the most flexible outsourcing arrangement as projects may start or end at your convenience, but at the same time, it is costliest in terms of cost per hour basis.

Success Based

Most traditional service providers shy from signing a success-based engagement. The fear stems from the trust deficit, performance fears, and the complications of defining a success scenario. Magistral signs success-based engagements with clients, with whom it has existing relationships. Existing relationships take the risks related to trust deficit and performance. A mutually agreed “success” scenario could also be defined in those situations. The tasks that are outsourced under these arrangements usually relate to fundraising, deal sourcing, and meetings’ set up

Magistral has helped more than 100 clients in outsourcing and offshoring multiple activities related to the Investment Management process. To start a conversation drop a line here.

About Magistral

Magistral Consulting has helped multiple funds and companies in outsourcing operations activities. It has service offerings for Private Equity, Venture Capital, Family Offices, Investment Banks, Asset Managers, Hedge Funds, Financial Consultants, Real Estate, REITs, RE funds, Corporates and Portfolio companies. Its functional expertise is around Deal origination, Deal Execution, Due Diligence, Financial Modeling, Portfolio Management and Equity Research

For setting up an appointment with a Magistral representative visit www.magistralconsulting.com/contact

About the Author

The Author, Prabhash Choudhary is the CEO of Magistral Consulting and can be reached at Prabhash.choudhary@magistralconsutling.com for any queries or business inquiries.

 

 

 

Introduction

Equity Research of listed stocks forms a major part of operations in Hedge Funds, Investment Banks, and many Asset Management firms.

Though methods may differ, all the exercises related to equity research mostly pertain to finding the intrinsic value of the stock and then inferring if it’s overvalued or undervalued currently, prompting buy sell or hold recommendations for the asset managers or their clients.

What makes an equity research exercise comprehensive?

Though equity research exercise could potentially be a theoretical exercise where an Equity Research analyst puts in a few hours’ of efforts, crunch numbers, and comes up with a recommendation.  These models are almost always prepared and just need P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cashflow numbers, which are available in the public domain for a listed stock, fed in, to find out the valuation and the recommendation for the stock.

It is however the further details that determine the quality of the research. These are a variety of sources, qualitative inputs and their quantification, Evaluation of the ongoing news and buzz related to the stock, social media activity, rumors, and the subjective calls of analyst that makes the difference. It’s amazing that some analysts even track the brand of the watch that the CEO wears to the analyst conferences. They make subjective calls on the stock on an information point as minute as that or say body language of the management in a conference call.

 

If a stock is to watched as closely as needed to take calls worth millions, it’s not possible for an equity research analyst to proceed in a templated way for all the stocks she needs to track. It needs to go much beyond that.

Equity Research Inputs

Parts of a comprehensive Equity Research exercise

Here is what differentiates a comprehensive analysis from a basic one

Sources of Information: Sources of information if more the merrier. Sources of information if diverse allows us to analyze the stock closely. For example, a database that carries information about all the legal cases pending against a company would add color to the analysis that will have a material impact on the overall recommendation for the stock. Usual sources of information are P&L, Balance sheet, and cash flow statements, all of which are publicly available for a listed stock apart from news about the stock, regulatory filings, 10Ks, conference calls, and ESG related compliance documents.

 

Forecast and Assumptions: A financial forecast can easily be put together sometimes by just extrapolating the past growth in the future. That is a simplistic but not correct way of doing it. The heart of a financial or earnings forecast is the assumptions made to arrive at the same. All assumptions need to be reasonable and preferably vetted by industry experts. Companies may be bullish about their latest strategy and its financial impact, but that needs to be looked at cautiously if at all it is going to lead to any impact, and if yes, how much. That is where industry studies come into play. A company forecast needs to be compared with industry forecasts and if the company’s growth forecasts are more than that of the industry, has there been any past instances when the company had beaten the industry forecasts. For example, if a healthcare company is planning to launch equipment that will take a leadership position in five years, has there been any past instance for this healthcare company to take a leadership position within five years of the launch in the past? The key to a robust model is going into detail about all the assumptions and making sure all assumptions are validated by past numbers.

 

Company Valuation Analysis

Equity Quantitative Research methods aim at valuing the company using more than one method to see if all valuations are consistent with each other. If there is a huge variation in valuations of companies by different methods, the analyst needs to arrive at the best suitable valuation with sound reasoning. The most common equity research models to find out the valuation of a company are DCF modeling, Relative Valuation, Sum of Parts, and Risk Assessment. DCF that stands for Discounted Cash Flow analyzes all the future cash flows of the company and discounts it to the present value. Relative Valuation compares the company valuation with peers to see if it is relatively undervalued or overvalued. The Sum of parts breaks a big company into smaller chunks and finds if the sum of all parts of valuations of a company is equal to the overall company valuation. The risk assessment identifies all the risks and quantifies the material impact of risks into the valuation

 

Qualitative Assessment

Numbers do tell the story but miss while indicating the future, which is unknown. That is where the qualitative inputs come into play. An experienced analyst can convert these qualitative inputs into quantitative ones that impact the valuation. Some of these qualitative inputs are quality of management, Competitive intensity in the industry, ESG initiatives and risks, and analyzing Porter’s 5 forces. It’s to be noted that Porter’s 5 forces is a highly qualitative model and needs to be put on a quantification scale.

Different institutions approach equity research differently depending on their business and operational needs. Here is how Equity Research differs across institutions

Equity Research for Investment Banks

Equity Research at Investment Banks is as much as a Marketing exercise as it is operational. Usually, an Investment Bank would send stock recommendations to all its current and potential clients. These recommendations are sometimes not detailed as the detailed research is kept for high paying clients. An equity research report is prepared for every stock. The report is templated and carry similar content for all the stocks that the bank tracks. It also suggests the buy, sell, or hold recommendations along with the price range to expect for each stock. Detailed equity research is also done for the buy-side. There are multiple research report templates that are available with an Investment Bank.

Earlier the research cost was added to the brokerage cost for an investment bank. Now a regulatory notification in Europe bars Investment Banks from clubbing brokerage and research costs together. This means now research needs to be high quality and needs to be provided only when the client demands. It’s just a matter of time that these regulations catch hold in the United States and other financial markets across the world.

Equity Research for Hedge Funds

Equity Research for hedge funds is done towards the aim of portfolio management and taking long and short positions regarding listed stocks

Hedge Funds are quite secretive about the methodology they follow while picking up stocks. Sometimes the secrecy is warranted as they have something that is really unique but most of the time it’s just a marketing gimmick to avoid further questioning about their methodology. Many claim to use Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to pick up the stocks. Equity Research in Hedge Fund parlance is the most critical part of Operations. There is also a huge reliance on Technology with trades mostly intraday and sometimes in milliseconds!! But there is nothing that has replaced the good old fundamental analysis.

Hedge Funds also specialize in technical analysis apart from fundamental analysis. Technical analysis uses mathematical formulas to project trends and thus the future stock price for short term trades.

Equity Research for Private Equity

Private Equity usually deals in Private stocks but sometimes they do pick up stake in listed companies as well. Equity Research in Private Equity is very different than what is done in Hedge Funds and Investment Banks. It is because mostly Private Equity is interested in buying a significant stake and thus has far more information and management bandwidth at its disposal. It uses that leverage to get and analyze information that is usually not available in the public domain.

 

Equity Research for Asset Managers

All other forms of Equity Research vary in complexity and methodology but mostly sticking to finding the intrinsic value of the stock with the aim of finding undervalued stocks for investments. Some Asset Managers specifically perform equity research for retail investors.

 

Magistral’s Approach for Equity Research

Magistral is an equity research firm that focuses on Fundamental Research to find out the intrinsic value of a stock using multiple sources. Our methodology takes into account multiple sources to start with and those sources are continually refreshed to update the model to carry the latest intelligence. We also prepare customized Equity Research report. Here is how our Equity Research Process looks like

Magistral' Equity Research Approach

Magistral’s Equity Research Methodology

 

Our equity research services are customizable and scalable as per clients’ requirements. Magistral has delivered multiple Equity Research projects in the past

About Magistral

Magistral Consulting has helped multiple funds and companies in outsourcing operations activities. It has service offerings for Private Equity, Venture Capital, Family Offices, Investment Banks, Asset Managers, Hedge Funds, Financial Consultants, Real Estate, REITs, RE funds, Corporates and Portfolio companies. Its functional expertise is around Deal origination, Deal Execution, Due Diligence, Financial Modeling, Portfolio Management and Equity Research

For setting up an appointment with a Magistral representative visit www.magistralconsulting.com/contact

About the Author

The Author, Prabhash Choudhary is the CEO of Magistral Consulting and can be reached at Prabhash.choudhary@magistralconsutling.com for any queries or business inquiries.

 

Financial Modeling Outsourcing is fast catching up, this article focuses on the steps required to prepare a Financial Model that will attract the attention of investors. It also argues as to why it is all the more important to outsource financial modeling to bring in an expert’s point of view.

Financial Modeling Definition

Financial Modeling is an inseparable part of Investment Analysis. A financial model prepared on an excel sheet is used to analyze almost all investment decisions.

Financial Modeling is considered to be a quantitative exercise plainly dealing with numbers and formulas. Sometimes on excel and sometimes on software like R, VB, Python, etc. However, regular practitioners understand that this is more of an art than science. It doesn’t only need to be correct in terms of formulas and assumptions, it needs to sell as well to the client.

In the article we will also talk about Financial Modeling Outsourcing, that is fast catching up as a trend to ensure the quality of the Financial Model

Types of Financial Models

The investment community uses multiple types of Financial Models. Following are the broad types of Financial Model:

Financial Model for Private Companies: Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Investment Banking firms use this to find out the valuation of an asset. Financial Modeling and Valuations go hand-in-hand. Investment Banks also do it day in and day out for their clients. It’s for situations where a private company, a start-up, or otherwise is looking to raise funds from debt or equity or is looking for the opportunities of Mergers and Acquisition. This type of financial model has all the sections that are important for investing like P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash-flows, Working Capital, Cap Table, RoI calculations, exchange rates, Resource utilization metrics, and other relevant details.

The way assumptions are made for the future forecast of revenue is the heart of the financial model. All other numbers just follow these broad numbers. If assumptions on revenue and cost are wrong, a financial model can either give undervalued or lofty valuations, both of which have the potential to kill the deal, either from the buy or sell side.

Financial Model for Stocks: Investors in equity stocks, usually Hedge Funds or Investment Banks use these models for themselves or their clients. They arrive at buy, sell, or hold recommendations based on these financial models. A Discounted Cash Flow Model of the publicly listed stocks is at the heart of each recommendation. It has future financial projections built-in and is updated continuously based on the developments related to that company or industry. Formulas on the model are the same and still, different brokerages come to different recommendations for the same stock. Ever wondered why? It is all in the assumptions and assessment of development. A development or news can be seen as highly negative by a brokerage and hence a huge negative impact on future projections, whereas the same news could be assessed neutral by another broking house.

The key to a great financial model in this situation is to understand the culture of your client/investor. Are they conservative or high-risk takers? Depending on the culture, you can make appropriate assumptions and hence the recommendations that suit your clients. Comparables and peer analysis is also used along with the DCF modeling

M&A Models: Most M&A models build further on financial models for start-ups and companies. It carries specific sections around financing and payback, synergies, Leveraged Buyout details to assess if the proposed M&A is going to create value for everyone involved. The most commonly used models here are Merger Modeling and Precedent Transaction Analysis.  Again assumptions are more important than the Formulas, as that can make or break the deal.

Other Models: A financial model is present usually before any sort of investment or fund-raising decision regarding any form of asset, whether we are talking about Real Estate, REITs, or a portfolio of crypto assets. Financial Model for Real Estate is in principle same as a Private Equity investment in a company but takes into account situations related to the concerning Real Estate.

Real Estate can be acquired and used differently, leading to different financial outcomes. A Real Estate financial model objectively analyses these scenarios and their financial outcomes. Say a land bank bought in the city center of a megacity could be kept vacant for capital appreciation. It could also be developed as an old-age hostel or a hotel. The second scenario will lead to rental income but at the same time will also require capital investments.

All this needs to be evaluated objectively to conclude if the proposed investment makes sense for the investors. Similar models are made to track the performance of REITs, or rent rolls coming from multiple commercial properties. There are multiple ways a Real Estate could give returns and all this leads to a hugely customized financial model specific to the situation. Real Estate Financial Modeling Outsourcing is catching up in a big way.

Steps to prepare a Financial Model- Financial Modeling Best Practices

The steps would change as per the financial model under preparation. Following are the generalized steps that are valid for usually all types of Financial Models:

Understanding the business and business situation:  This is the very first step before putting in a single number in Excel, R, Python, VB, or any other software that you plan to use for Financial Modeling. More thorough is your understanding of the business, more reasonable are the assumptions and more chances of it flying with the client or investors.

Usually, a pitch deck is prepared before the financial model so that all stakeholders are clear about the business strategy. This is all the more important in the case of start-ups that are raising Series A with no previous revenue track record. An experienced practitioner asks lots of questions in this stage about the strategy, finance, human resources, market, geographies, products, patents, industry, people, and everything else related to the business.

A robust financial model demands an eye for details. If it is related to specific investing situations, questions should be asked around returns, risks, similar business models around, management team, etc. The financial modeling technique to be used in this specific business situation should also be finalized.

Preparing Assumptions: This is one of the most critical steps while preparing financial models. If Assumptions made does not make sense, it renders the whole financial model useless. Other than making reasonable and well-researched assumptions, the experienced practitioners also make sure assumptions could be changed in the model. Multiple stakeholders play around the model to finalize the contours of the deal. The standard aspect of deal-making is changing assumptions in the model. A well-made model is flexible in changing assumptions.

Preparing the model: Preparing financial models on Excel is most common however, models can also be created on R, VB, Macros, Python, etc. There are many off the shelf financial modeling tools that are available. Financial Model Templates are usually available at this stage. Standardization is the major part of the model in this stage. For example, any private company valuation model would comprise, P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, etc. These statements will have standardized headers and formulas too. The parts dependent on the nature of business are customized. A SaaS business for example will be very different from Steel business in terms of how they acquire customers and project revenue.

Bringing intuition and data together: This is the task of the most experienced operator in the field of financial modeling. It not only requires the knowledge of the formulas in the financial model but also a thorough understanding of business, its competition, and the industry as a whole. When that experienced operator looks at the valuation that the model throws, he instinctively knows if that is correct or not. The assumptions are played around with if the valuation is not in the expected ballpark. A valuation level that makes sense to both Buy-Side and Sell-Side is achieved by this exercise.

 

In the end, we see Financial Modeling is more of an art than the exact science.

The rationale behind outsourcing financial modeling

An expert at Financial Modeling has worked with multiple start-ups, Investment Banks, Private Equity, Venture Capital, and other Financial advisors multiple times before.  They have templates available readily with them and know the right questions to ask. All this leads to a Financial Model that is in tune with what the investor ecosystem demands. If you are looking for Financial Modeling Outsourcing, Magistral Consulting (www.magistralconsulting.com) can help in multiple ways.

 

Magistral Consulting (www.magistralconsulting.com) is a leading player in the Financial Modeling Outsourcing space. It provides Financial Modeling Services. Magistral has specialization in preparing Financial Models for Private Equity, Financial Models for venture Capital, Financial Models for Real Estate, Financial Model for Investments Banks, Financial Models for Hedge Funds, Start-up Financial Modeling, apart from several other highly customized Financial Models. It has delivered Financial Modeling Projects globally to clients in the US, UK, Europe, and South-East Asia. For a business inquiry, you can drop a line at https://magistralconsulting.com/contact/

 

The Author, Prabhash Choudhary is the CEO of Magistral Consulting and can be reached at Prabhash.choudhary@magistralconsulting.com, in case of queries.

 

 

 

Why Private Investments are more important than they ever were?

Wealth creation has moved from ‘Post-IPO’ in public markets to ‘Pre-IPO’ in private markets. All indicators related to private investments are at an all-time high. Gone are the days, when institutional investors would invest in primary and secondary markets to stay in the security for the long term, for continued wealth creation and regular flow of dividends. Increasingly, experienced investment managers are investing in private markets, scaling the company, merge it with others, and take the bigger entity public to create wealth for themselves, while limiting the returns upside for retail and other institutional investors in the secondary market. Robust Due diligence exercise is imperative.

At least in the near future, it can be said that IPO will not be the source of funds for the companies also. It is going to be the private investors in the form of Angel, Private Equity, and Venture Capital firms. Companies are increasingly postponing their IPOs in favor of private investors due to less regulatory requirements, the savvy nature of investors to back maverick ideas, less number of stakeholders to manage, and industry-specific knowledge of investors that can be used for further scaling companies. But private investments from investors’ point of view are very different from investing in equities where all the data is available upfront. Due diligence of private target companies is a painstaking process. As part of due diligence, the following are the items that need to be checked before a private investment is signed and closed:

Founders and the Founding Team: We hear this often that a VC backs a ‘team’ and not a company. So when we talk about due diligence of early-stage investment, the team acquires the center-stage, in terms of investment decision making. There are a host of questions that need answering before backing a founding team. For example, whether one of the founders was sacked in the last job due to charges of sexual harassment against him? How founders behave with their teams when investors are not around? Are the educational and experience credentials claimed by founders correct and verifiable? Has someone spoken to the references provided? And so many more!!

When millions are riding on the personal conduct of a group of people, no investor would want to repeat a ‘Travis Kalanick’ episode. It is thus imperative to get into all the minute details about the founding team’s business and personal conduct.

Market and Industry of the Target Company: Another oft-repeated saying of the Alternative Investment industry is that ‘it is better to invest in an average company in a rising industry rather than backing an excellent company in a declining industry’. To be on the top of the industry trends and how it is going to unfold in the near to mid-term is imperative for risk aversion of the invested capital. An industry with all its hues of multiple sub-industries with cross-germination of tech into it needs a specialist intervention in terms of market research and forecasts

Past Financial Performance: The target company usually provides data on revenue and market traction. Although dollars coming into a bank account is a fairly straight-forward end KPI, there are multiple other market traction KPIs that finally ensure dollars in the account at some point in time in the future. These traction KPIs are industry-specific like the number of paid customers, freemium customers, free to paid customer conversion rates, claimed market share, etc. It would have been fairly simple if the company would have provided these numbers accurately. Sometimes clouds are deliberately maintained on data. One sees a month-on-month increasing number of customers, but what is not known is the percentage of paid customers amongst them or worst still, maybe the whole surge has come from free membership campaigns. Devil is in the details. Talking to market and tech experts along with customers will go a long way in ensuring the right investment decision.

Future Financial Performance: Future financial performance is usually a linear or exponential extrapolation of current performance or sometimes just pulled out of the hat to sell a rosy picture of the future. Many times, the company is struggling to meet expenses currently, but future forecasts graph takes off like a rocket headed into space. All these forecasts need to be taken with a pinch of salt. It’s worthwhile to check and challenge all the assumptions that have gone into coming up with the financial model and the forecasts. It is a factor that could literally make or break for your millions going into the private investment.

Customers: Proof of the pudding is in the eating. Customers talking well of a company is a good sign for investors. Also, customers vote with their dollars. Talking to them gives an idea about the customer journey, pain points, existing alternatives to product or service and what exactly would be needed for them to shell out those dollars for the product or service. This requires a specialist Market Research agency that has expertise in ghost shopping and customer surveys.

Employees: One of the first people who bought into a vision is the ‘employees’ of the start-up. A place that has happy employees speaks louder than any other credential for the founder. At the same time, a toxic culture will be quicksand that will absorb millions of dollars in no time, without a blip on revenue numbers. Most founders are not ‘Steve Jobs’ type visionary. They are average folks, who get stressed with day to day running of the start-up machinery, which takes a toll on them. How do they behave with their employees at that point in time is a fairly good indicator of an individual’s potential as an effective stakeholder manager currently and in the future? A research agency can provide honest feedback on this indicator.

Regulations: Are there any regulatory risks in the business, that will come into play after scaling up of operations? Thorough research and liaising with government agencies can go a long way in avoiding statutory and regulatory risks that might plague your investment in the future.

Other Investors: Old boys of the industry do remark that ‘VCs and PEs hunt in packs’. It is heard often. Other investors are more of a support than a threat. If they have voted with their dollars than it might be a good company. Also in situations of B2C tech where winners take it all or a small group of winners take it all, funding dollars make the difference between the winner and the laggards. Multiple investors backing a company will take care of those dollars, which means your own investment is safer. At this point, verifying the claim of the company about other lead investors, co-investors, and conversations going on needs to be verified by a neutral agency.

Magistral Consulting helps Private Equity, Venture Capital, Family Offices, and Investment Banks in performing due diligence for private assets. All these steps are taken care of, in our proprietary research method that is designed to eliminate potential investment risks. A concise weight-based evaluation metrics with clear recommendations about future potential and risks are delivered in aggressive timelines. As our delivery centers are based out of low-cost countries, it builds in significant savings in terms of research costs as well. To know more, please get in touch with info@magistralconsulting.com

The author is CEO of Magistral Consulting and can be reached at prabhash.choudhary@magistralconsulting.com for any clarifications and queries.

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