EDHEC CAREER CENTRE - M&A INTERVIEWS

- Technical questions

 Run me through the capital structure of a company starting with the more junior
instruments?
 What is an LBO? A Club Deal? Private Placement? USPP?
 Are Private Equity funds important clients for us? On the sellside? Buyside?
 Give me examples of PE funds active in our market?
 What is the typical leverage of an LBO in the current market environment?
 Have you ever read a credit rating report? A broker’s report? What did you think?
 Should companies still be the ones paying to get rated? Does it not create obvious
conflicts of interest?
 How independent is the research produced by banks? How is it funded? Where do
analysts get information from?
 What is our position in league tables? Are we stronger on the sellside or buyside?
 If you were given both options would you rather pitch for a sellside or buyside
mandate?
 What are the various valuation methods? Give me examples of off balance sheet
liabilities?
 What rate do you use to discount future cash flows in the DCF model?
 What is a proforma model? How would you build one?
 What is a debt capacity model?
 Have you ever constructed a financial model from scratch?
 Give me the definition of a High Yield Bond? Is it the same as a junk bond?
 Are you familiar with a particular sector? Would you rather focus on a particular
sector or be generalist?
 What is you ideal work/life balance?
 What do you think of the ongoing discussions regarding bankers’ bonus?
 Do you like money? How much are you expected to be paid in your first year?
 Why Corporate Finance?

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 What are the main execution risks during an acquisition / merger process?
 Would you rather focus on big caps or midcaps?
 In the context of an acquisition, what would be the options to limit both dilution and
credit downgrade risks?
 Is the cost of debt higher than the cost of equity? Why?
 Are most acquisitions accretive? What is a fully diluted EPS?
 Give me the definition of an NDA? VDD? Data-room?
 Are you familiar with Bloomberg?
 What are the various accounting techniques to combine two companies’ financial
statements?
 You have one minute to pitch France Telecom CFO regarding a €5bn acquisition in
Ghana, what would you tell him?
 How are mandates originated?
 What is a spin-off? A build-up?
 What is a secondary LBO?
 Give me an example of recent transactions we completed?
 What is the job of an MD? VP? Manager? Analyst?
 Would you rather complete more transactions in volume or value? Why?
 In the context of an acquisition how is the acquiring company share price affected?
Target share price?
 What do you think of share buybacks vs. dividends?
 What is an universal bank? Do you think it is the most viable model?
 Give me examples of recent M&A deals?
 What is a tombstone?
 What is Mezzanine? Unitranche? Cov-lite? What is a collateral? Give me examples?
 What is a share issue?
 What are the main differences between a bank facility and bond issue?
 M&A in Boutique vs Audit vs Universal Banks vs pure IB players, what are their
respective competitive advantages?
 How does being a major lender help in getting M&A mandates?
 What is a Chinese Wall?
 What are the characteristics of a Convertible Bond?

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