Effective Writing Essentials for Corporate Finance & M&A

Course Introduction

• What are the critical skills of effective business writing?
• Write with the reader in mind
• Summarising data in a concise manner
• Structure and organise your report
• The “so what?” test

Business Report Types

• What are the different types of business reports in Corporate Finance?
• A Corporate Finance marketing presentation
• An investment appraisal technique for a private equity firm
• An information memorandum on a potential target
• A presentation on financing needs for an acquisition

Case Study I: Several Corporate Finance business reports are presented to participants to identify best practices. Key sections:

• Executive summary
• Key trends
• Current situation assessment
• Analysis of potential solutions/key considerations
• Valuation analysis and financing considerations
• Financial writing courses include conclusion discussions and next steps to reinforce key takeaways

Tips for Writing Effective Finance Reports

• Report vs. essays:
  • Focus on the critical financing and strategic information through bullet points
  • Why does each bullet need to make a point and provide a message?
  • The reader is often senior management, board-level
• Planning and organising the Corporate Finance reports for writing an effective business plan:
  • What are the key messages underlying your M&A or financing storyline?
  • What are the key sections and subsections?
• Achieving a logical structure and sequence:
  • Start with the executive summary
  • Use of headings, sub-headings, sections, subsections and numbering
  • The logical connection between ideas
  • Focus on topic sentences (the first sentence of each paragraph)
  • Sections should lead naturally into the next
• The executive summary:
  • This business writing course for professionals includes guidance on crafting executive summaries
  • Exciting enough to read the details
  • Why should it stand on its own, even if you haven’t read the original report?
  • Should define the problem clearly and present solutions
• Avoidance of repetition:
  • Double-check section and sub-section headers
  • Why you should ask yourself in each sentence: Is this already mentioned elsewhere?
  • Making sure your work is diverse at every level
• Cross-referencing:
  • Consistency in numbers and financial analysis throughout
  • Source all data and information provided
  • Use a consistent format – fonts and colour palette
• Using an appropriate style of business writing:
  
  • Concise, relevant, accurate, descriptive vs analytical, etc
  • Word choice, sentence fluency, and writer’s voice for effective business writing
• Use of data:
  • Choose powerful graphs and tables
  • Balance the proportion of charts and texts
  • Data should reinforce the page message
• Use of appendices:
  • Showing completeness and seriousness
  • Graphs and tables of secondary importance
  • Sensitivities on key results and analysis
  • Listing of all sources
• Use of drafts
• Corporate report writing with multiple contributors is the final topic covered in this section of our effective business writing course

Case Study 2: The concepts described above are illustrated by six small business writing case studies, including;

• Organising a Corporate Finance report based on a given transaction
• Analysing a research report to comment on the logical structure
• Writing the executive summary of an Information Memorandum
• Identifying mistakes in a Board presentation to develop attention to detail
• Analysing the style of a presentation (word choice, passive vs active tone, the link between the sentences, etc.)
• Reviewing and commenting on the pertinence of data and graphs concerning the message of a presentation

Final Case Study

As part of the investment writing course, participants will engage in a hands-on group exercise designed to simulate real-world investment writing scenarios.

Working in small teams of 3 to 4 professionals, attendees will create a concise 2–3 page investment memorandum focused on a potential business acquisition and related financing. To support this task, each group will receive a detailed information pack on a European company, including:

• Business Profile
• Description of the industry and sector outlook
• Financial statements and business forecasts
• Financing considerations
• Each group will present and defend its findings
• A full debriefing on each group’s presentations will then take place

With over two decades in accounting and investment banking, our course leader brings a wealth of expertise to Redcliffe’s writing courses for business professionals. He is an experienced financial trainer who hosts sessions for leading financial institutions and central banks in the City of London, Wall Street and around the world. Subject matters include Corporate Finance, Valuation (Industrials and Banks), Financial Modelling, M&A, Leveraged Buyout (LBO), Financial Accounting, Capital Markets, Bank Regulatory Capital and Financial Risks. All content is delivered in English and French as required.

Beginning his career as a Credit Analyst at Banque Continental in Luxembourg, our expert conducted credit analysis for short and long-term credits and participated in loan syndications. He was a Senior Auditor for Deloitte & Touch in Luxembourg, auditing and preparing financial statements for various banks, insurance, investment funds, venture capital and commercial companies.

Our effective business writing workshop is delivered by a professional who continued his career in Investment Banking at Citigroup (ex-Salomon Smith Barney) in London and New York. Here he worked on various M&A, LBO and debt offerings, mainly for financial services clients. He was involved in the EUR 20 billion public offer of Crédit Lyonnais by Crédit Agricole, one of the most significant European banking transactions.

Working as Vice-President in the internal M&A department of Barclays Bank in London, the trainer's experience included the acquisition of ABSA for $5 billion, one of the leading South African banks, the purchase of ING Private Banking in France and the failed acquisition of Banco Atlantico in Spain.

Recently, he was a Director in the Investment Banking department of Commercial International Bank (CIB), the largest non-government bank in Egypt. He has completed several transactions, including two sell-side M&A deals, one follow-on equity offering and a delisting. He worked extensively with leading sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms and prominent families in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Bringing real-world expertise to our effective business writing training, he serves as a senior advisor in a Paris M&A practice, specialising in tech-focused transactions.

Our trainer has an MBA in Finance from the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Groupe INSEEC (“International Management Institute of Paris”). He holds « Series 7 » and « Series 63 » US licenses.

This effective business writing skills course equips you with the tools and techniques to produce clear, concise, and impactful corporate finance documents. Participants will:

• Understand critical sections of a business report for writing effective business cases, letters or emails
• Learn how to juggle with and summarise masses of data.
• Write a powerful, straight-to-the-point business report.
• Feel more comfortable presenting findings to a senior audience as an effective business writer.

• Investment bank analysts and junior associates
• M&A advisory boutiques junior professionals
• Corporate development junior professionals
• Junior equity research 
• Junior Finance professionals in industries

This programme will help participants develop the ability to write clear, concise, and impactful Corporate Finance business reports tailored for senior management, boards, and investors. Participants will learn how to structure reports effectively, including executive summaries, financial analysis, valuation considerations, and strategic recommendations, while also gaining practical techniques for summarising complex financial data and presenting key messages clearly.

Through interactive case studies covering M&A presentations, investment appraisals, information memoranda, and financing proposals, participants will apply best practices in business writing and strengthen their presentation and analytical skills with expert feedback from an experienced investment banking trainer.