LBO Model – Advanced Exam Questions and Answers

LBO Model – Advanced Exam Questions and Answers How would an asset write-up or write-down affect an LBO model? / Walk me through how you adjust the Balance Sheet in an LBO model. - ANSWER ️️ All of this is very similar to what you would see in a merger model - you calculate Goodwill, Other Intangibles, and the rest of the write-ups in the same way, and then the Balance Sheet adjustments (e.g. subtracting cash, adding in capitalized financing fees, writing up assets, wiping out goodwill, adjusting the deferred tax assets / liabilities, adding in new debt, etc.) are almost the same. The key differences: • In an LBO model you assume that the existing Shareholders' Equity is wiped out and replaced by the equity the private equity firm contributes to buy the company; you may also add in Preferred Stock, Management Rollover, or Rollover from Option Holders to this number as well depending on what you're assuming for transaction financing. • In an LBO model you'll usually be adding a lot more tranches of debt vs. what you would see in a merger model. • In an LBO model you're not combining two companies' Balance Sheets. Normally we care about the IRR for the equity investors in an LBO - the PE firm that buys the company - but how do we calculate the IRR for the debt investors? - ANSWER ️️ For the debt investors, you need to calculate the interest and principal payments they receive from the company each year. Then you simply use the IRR function in Excel and start with the negative amount of the original debt for "Year 0," assume that the interest and principal payments each year are your "cash flows" and then assume that the remaining debt balance in the final year is your "exit value."