Effective Business Writing for Junior Corporate Finance Professionals

2 Part Course | Learn how to acquire the required skills for effective business report writing

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A one-day course presented over two-half days in a virtual class from 2:00pm to 5:30pm UK time

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Download: Course Category Brochure | Course Outline

Part 1

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 practice

Key sections

Executive summary
Key trends
Current situation assessment
Analysis of potential solutions/key considerations
Valuation analysis and financing considerations
Conclusion and next steps

Part 2

Tips for Writing Effective Corporate Finance Reports

Report vs. essays
- Focus on the critical financing and strategic information through bullet points
- Each bullet needs to make a point and provide a message
- The reader 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 (first sentence of each paragraph)
- Sections should lead naturally into the next
The executive summary
- Consistent with the Corporate Finance analysis being presented
- Exciting enough to read the details
- It should 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
- Ask yourself in each sentence: is this already mentioned elsewhere?
- Make sure your work is diverse at every level
Cross-referencing
- Consistency in numbers and financial analysis throughout
- Source all data & information provided
- Use 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 & tables
- Balance the proportion of charts & texts
- Data should reinforce the page message
Use of appendices
- Show completeness and seriousness
- Graphs and tables of secondary importance
- Sensitivities on key results & analysis
- Listing of all sources
Use of drafts
Corporate report writing with multiple authors

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 on a Board presentation to develop attention de 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:

Participants are split into groups of 3 to 4 professionals.
Participants are asked to write a brief 2-3 pages investment memorandum on potential business acquisition and related financing.
The participants are given numerous analyses and documents regarding 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 in front of the classroom.
A full debriefing on each group’s presentations will then take place.

The trainer has more than 20 years of experience in accounting and investment banking. He is an experienced financial trainer who has delivered courses for leading financial institutions and central banks in the City of London, Wall Street and around the world in the areas of Corporate Finance, Valuation (Industrials and Banks), Financial Modelling, M&A, Leveraged Buyout (LBO), Financial Accounting, Capital Markets, Bank Regulatory Capital and Financial Risks, both in English and French.

He began his career as a Credit Analyst at Banque Continental in Luxembourg, conducting credit analyses for short- and long-term credits and participating in loan syndications. He then worked as a Senior Auditor for Deloitte & Touch in Luxembourg, auditing and preparing financial statements for various banks, insurance, investment funds, venture capital and commercial companies.

He continued his career in Investment Banking at Citigroup (ex-Salomon Smith Barney) in London and New York, where 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.

He then worked as a Vice-President in the internal M&A department of Barclays Bank in London, where his experience included the acquisition of ABSA for US$ 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.

The trainer is a senior advisor to an M&A practice based in Paris and focuses on buy-side and sell-side transactions, mainly in the technology sector.

The 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.

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

This is a highly interactive effective corporate finance writing course with several real-life corporate finance case studies.
This course is delivered by an experienced trainer, an M&A banker with years of writing corporate finance documents.
You will receive comprehensive material covering techniques and tips on improving business writing skills.
Delegates are encouraged to bring their writing challenge to ‘solve’ during the session.

Redcliffe’s effective business writing training is focused on learning the necessary writing skills to produce an effective business report for Corporate Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) professionals.

Upon completion of the intensive one-day financial report writing training, participants will be able to: