When you start with a fresh project, only source of info for your numbers is your best friend SEDAR, how long do you take to model?
Depends how long the runway is…usually 30-45 seconds.
You’re just asking about the mechanical act of creating something in excel? In my experience it takes longer to go through the old filings to see what adjustments you may want to make and to work through your revenue build up, pick comps and make adjustments to the comps, etc. If I’m putting together just a plain, simple forecast model for a simple business from a blank excel page, I can get through it in half a day- probably more like three or four hours. If it’s a sum of the parts valuation, the delta in time on each additional part is generally a little less since you’ll have less information or will generally take some shortcuts on smaller, less significant segments. If you’re talking about M&A modeling, the model will take a little longer since you’ll have to include a synergy and accretion/dilution analysis plus you have two companies. LBO modeling may also take longer because you’ll have to spend a lot of time on your debt/interest schedules if there is a complicated capital structure. This can get really complicated if there is mezz funding and/or warrants.
Since models vary greatly, the time to put one together is going to vary greatly as well. I put together a quick and dirty model last night in 15 minutes to help me visualize what an equity purchase plan might look like. 15-20 additional minutes and this rudimentary model could have been pretty enough to print and present. For a complete model, the type we’d use on the sell side, with p&l, cash flow and balance sheet all working together in addition to a segment model, an annual summary tab, a nicely-formatted-for-printing tab, valuation tab (DCF, comps), etc., you are probably looking at a few days, possibly, starting from scratch. Depends how complicated the company in question is. I’ve modeled very straightforward companies and ones with a lot of moving parts. Also, are we talking about getting a model mechanically working or all of the assumptions and projections complete as well? The latter is really never “complete”, is it?
farley013 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Depends how long the runway is…usually 30-45 > seconds. Dude, you’re going WAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY too fast. Haven’t even hit my first blue steel at 30…