48 hours
48-Hour Investment Memo
86 pages in, two pages back, with a price.
You send backTwo-page memo with a price
$69
See the testPractice Tests / 48-Hour Take-Home LBO
- 48 hours
- Excel model + memo
- Blank workbook
- Private equity
48-Hour Take-Home LBO
Read a memorandum and a databook, write a four-page investment memo and support a valuation range with a three-statement LBO.
You get the test, a worked answer key, the memo and model I sent and a two-page debrief.
Penwick Process Water, a fictional company · Recreated from a test I took in July 2023
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What you are given
A page of instructions, a 40-page memorandum and a 27-page databook.
This is a page from the test. Select it to read it at full size.
What the test asks
- Read a confidential information memorandum and a supplemental databook on a water treatment chemicals and equipment business.
- Write a memo of no more than four pages: the opportunity, the investment merits, the priority risks and the topics for further diligence.
- Recommend a valuation range and support it with a three-statement LBO model, including sources and uses, sent in Excel.
- Name five pieces of further data you would ask the banker for.
- Be ready to defend your assumptions on a one-hour debrief call.
- All of it in 48 hours.
What the answer looks like
The answer key is a complete model you can check yours against line by line, with a note wherever it differs from what I sent. This example is from the free test, so nothing here gives this case away.
The note on the Taxes row
<- Got this wrong on the day: in the 60-minute file (row 27) this was EBT x (1 - tax rate), which is after-tax income, and cash taxes read it. Tax is EBT x the tax rate.
Take the free 60-minute test to see a full answer key and debrief
What you get
Start here.pdf1 page
1 - The test
1 - The assignment.pdf1 page
2 - Confidential information memorandum.pdf40 pages
3 - Supplemental databook.pdf27 pages
2 - My answer
1 - Answer key (corrected model).xlsxcheck yours against this
2 - The memo I sent.pdf4 pages
3 - The model I sent.xlsx
3 - Debrief
Debrief.pdf2 pages
Who it is for
- Anyone preparing for a private equity associate process with a take-home case.
- You should be able to build a three-statement LBO from a blank workbook. No template comes with the test.
- You have 48 hours to send back a full model, a tight memo and a view you can defend on a call. Allow an hour afterwards to compare and read the debrief.
The story
In July 2023, after two rounds of interviews, a recruiter emailed me a case study from a private equity firm. It arrived on a Saturday morning with three documents: a page of instructions, a confidential information memorandum and a supplemental databook.
I had 48 hours. The instructions asked me to put myself in the shoes of an associate at the firm, write up the opportunity in no more than four pages, recommend a valuation range and support it with a three-statement LBO model.
My memo and model went back at the end of the 48 hours.
Before you start
Is this the real test?
It is recreated from the test I took. The format, the task and the time limit are the same. The company is fictional and its dollar figures are changed.
Why two models?
One is the file I sent. The other is the same file corrected, with a grey note on every row that changed. Check your numbers against the corrected one.
What decides the case?
How a single cost line is forecast. The debrief shows both answers and what each does to the return.
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$89
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