Project Finance

Make Your Every Business Decision a Masterpiece

Posted on by InVhestia

InVhestia Africa and Esham Park celebrated their recently concluded merger on Thursday 14th March. Attended by clients and partners, the launch event highlighted the enhanced capabilities that the combined entity, going by the name InVhestia Africa will offer.

Esham Park is a project finance advisory and consortiums structuring company which was has been in existence for over 10 years working on various projects and adding value to clients across Africa. Over the last 5 years Esham Park has been working closely with InVhestia on several projects executing them successfully.

At the event, Simon Mwacharo Guyo, the Chief Executive Officer of Craftskills Wind Energy Limited shared his journey with Esham Park. “The Esham Park team took me on as a client 9 years ago and walked with me until my passion project reached financial close in December 2018. This level of dedication is hard to find in consultants” said Mr. Guyo. The project he speaks of is the 100MW Kipeto wind power project which is the second largest wind power project in Kenya. The project will have 67 turbines spread on 17 acres of land that will power 40,000 homes. Mr. Guyo highlighted the support of the local community and indicated that the project would be giving a 5% dividend contribution to the Maasai community. Esham Park marketed the opportunity to potential investors, led investor engagements and negotiations and reviewed term sheets and transaction documents.

InVhestia Africa, on the other hand, is a corporate finance advisory, financial modelling training and capital raising company. It has been in existence over the last 7 years during which time has become an industry leader in the area of financial modelling and advisory work related to it across Africa. InVhestia has worked with clients from various sectors such as Financial services, FMCG, Agribusiness and the Energy sector among others.

Presenting the strategic direction of InVhestia going forward, Stephen Gugu, a principal at the firm emphasized, “Our financial modelling and advisory services will form the quality inputs that will make your every decision yield a masterpiece.” The coming together of the two firms will provide clients with fully integrated financial advisory services. The focus will now be three fold, Project and Corporate Finance Advisory, Financial Modelling and Training, and Capital Raising. The team members have a solid track record with over 12 countries of work experience. Some of the team members were recruited through the firm’s social responsibility initiative, the Invhestia Annual Inter-university Competition. At the event, the top students from last years edition were honored and given an opportunity to network with potential employers and mentors. The awarding was given by Antony Maina from Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) our 2018 competition partner. InVhestia is dedicated to ensuring you have the quality inputs needed to succeed and grow your business and is committed to growing the talent in the financial sector.

For more information on how you can plug in to the 4th Edition of the competition, reach out to us on learn@invhestia.com

Let’s talk about how to make your every business decision a masterpiece today.

Project Finance Online Financial Modelling Course

Posted on by InVhestia

InVhestia’s online financial modelling training offering has grown over time, catering for the needs of those who are unable to attend in class courses due to distance, costs or preference. InVhestia is happy to announce the addition of a new course, the Project Finance financial modelling course based on a real estate case study. InVhestia already has an introductory course to financial modelling, and a corporate finance and valuation course. The project finance course provides comprehensive coverage and a step-to-step guide towards understanding and evaluating a project with the added benefit of doing this from the comfort of your office or living room, at your own pace.

The course is hosted on the InVhestia online platform and is taught using instructional videos. Once you subscribe, you will access the course materials and handouts which have been organized in a modular manner. This means you can choose to start the course from the beginning or tackle specific items based on where you feel your challenges are. The only pre-requisite is a fair knowledge of MS Excel to enhance the quality of your experience.  If, however this is a challenge you can get started with the introduction for financial modelling course using FAST to bring you up to speed. The course is taught using the internationally recognized FAST Standard approach to financial modelling ensuring that upon completion any models you prepare can be used internationally and that they are Flexible, Appropriate, Structured and Transparent. Another key advantage of the FAST standard is that you can choose to sit the certification which sets you apart from other modellers and is a good indicator of your level of skill to employers and clients.

The aim of this course is to equip learners with the skills to make forecasts and evaluate projects with no historical information. This means that by the end of the course you should be able to create models for greenfield projects in various sectors. Instructed by Stephen Gugu, who has several years of experience in the project finance field and as an instructor, the course starts by defining the broader aspects of project finance. The course approaches modelling based on the three phases of the projects; development, construction and operations. It examines financing of projects, calculation of taxes, key ratios and returns from both the project and the equity basis. Sensitivity and scenario analysis are also covered just like in real world situations where these tend to be more important than the base cases.

It took us 48 hours to shoot the content for this course and more than 200 hours in editing and reviewing to ensure that the user gets the best product possible. The content was examined and reviewed by our team of junior and senior associates for ease of understanding and accuracy. The final product usually makes the work done in the background look easy, trust us it’s not! On one of the shooting days, the instructor powered through a battle with a flu, which explains the deepening voice when dealing with construction finance. Quips aside, we take pride in this course which we designed to pass along model build and audit skills in a way that makes for good retention. We have incorporated a discussion forum on the platform that allows one to engage with InVhestia’s experienced financial modelling team for any issues, and the good news is you are always guaranteed a response within the shortest time possible. Aside from that, a one-time purchase guarantees you a lifetime access which means you can refer, refresh and review the material at any time. If the lifetime access is not for you, paying per month at reduced rates is also part of the menu, reach out to us at learn@invhestia.com to get access to the course in the way that makes most sense to you.

The course is carefully structured with over 10 hours of content presented in 5 – 12 minute videos. The case study covers modules such as project finance timeline, construction costs, construction finance, operating revenue and cost and final exit of the project. The modules make it easy for one to understand the theory behind project finance, building a FAST-compliant project finance model and evaluate various projects using measures as IRR, NPV and ratios. Using other teaching tools, we have made it possible for you to follow the practical modelling and model alongside the instructor.

As an introductory offer, we have extended a 50% discount to anyone who signs up for the course by the end of November 2017. Don’t miss out!! Register for FM102 and use the coupon code F701C2C8C9 to take advantage of this offer.

Watch the Introduction to Project Finance video here