The Vault Guide To Finance Interviews

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VAULT GUIDE TO

FINANCE
INTERVIEWS

D. BHATAWEDEKHAR, DAN JACOBSON,
HUSSAM HAMADEH
AND THE STAFF OF VAULT

Copyright © 2005 by Vault Inc. All rights reserved.
All information in this book is subject to change without notice. Vault makes no claims as to
the accuracy and reliability of the information contained within and disclaims all warranties.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Vault Inc.
Vault, the Vault logo, and “The Most Trusted Name in Career InformationTM” are trademarks
of Vault Inc.
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, contact Vault Inc.,
150 W. 22nd Street, 5th Floor, New York, New York 10011-1772, (212) 366-4212.
Library of Congress CIP Data is available.
ISBN 1-58131-304-7
Printed in the United States of America

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are extremely grateful to Vaults entire staff for all their help in the editorial,
production and marketing processes. Vault also would like to acknowledge the
support of our investors, clients, employees, family, and friends. Thank you!

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION

Landing a Gig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY

The Finance Interview: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

VALUATION TECHNIQUES

How Much is it Worth? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Basic Accounting Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Market Valuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Comparable Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
Multiple Analysis or Comparable Company Analysis . . . . . . . . .45
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

EQUITY ANALYSIS AND PORTFOLIO
MANAGEMENT

Investment Management and Portfolio Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62
Stock Analysis and Stock Picking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67

STOCKS

Equity vs. Debt (Stocks vs. Bonds) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72
Stock Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77

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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Table of Contents

BONDS AND INTEREST RATES

Bond Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84
Pricing Bonds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86
The Fed and Interest Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89
The Fed and Inflation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91
Effect of Inflation on Bond Prices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
Leading Economic Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

CURRENCIES

Exchange Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100
Influence of Interest Rates on Foreign Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . .101
Influence of Inflation on Foreign Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102
Capital Market Equilibrium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103
Exchange Rate Effects on Earnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104
Effect of Exchange Rates on Interest Rates and Inflation . . . . .105
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106

OPTIONS AND DERIVATIVES

109

The Wild West of Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110
Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110
Writing Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112
Options Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113
Forwards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115
Futures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115
Swaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117

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Table of Contents

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

121

Why Merge? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
Why Not Merge? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123
Stock Swaps vs. Cash Offers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124
Tender Offers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125
Mergers vs. Acquisitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
Will That Be Cash or Stock? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
Accretive vs. Dilutive Mergers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129

BRAINTEASERS AND GUESSTIMATES

133

Stress Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
Acing Guesstimates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
Brainteasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137

FINAL ANALYSIS

147

APPENDIX

149

Finance Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150
About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .158

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xiii

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INTRODUCTION

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Introduction

Landing a Gig
Money makes the world go round, and those in charge of money are the
financiers. Have thirst for relevance? The finance industry has always been a
competitive field, due in large part to the glamour and prestige assigned to the
working relationships with industry titans. Of course, the outstanding salaries
explain much of the pull as well. (Unless you can dunk a basketball or throw
football 50 yards, it’s hard to beat the pay in investment banking, where recent
college grads can come close to six figures.)
So what’s the secret to landing a finance gig? Naturally, identifying
opportunities is the first step. Many finance firms have structured on-campus
recruiting processes. If you’re in college or graduate school (especially business
school), check with the career services office to see which finance companies
recruit at your campus. If the company you’ve got your eye on doesn’t come to
your school, don’t despair. Many firms accept resumes from non-targeted
schools. Check the firm’s web site to find out how to submit your resume. Firm
web sites are also a good bet for those out of school looking to change jobs or
careers. Additionally, check with friends and alumni for openings at a specific
firm or in the finance industry in general.
Virtually every recruiter or professional agrees that no matter how you hear about
your position, the most important factor in getting a job is making a good
impression in your interview. No matter what your credentials, experience or
references, if you don’t come off in your interviews as someone who can do the
job and who will fit in at the company, you stand little to no chance of getting hired.
Don’t be too put off by the pressure. If you’ve landed an initial interview, you
can assume someone at the firm, in reviewing your resume, thinks you’ve got at
least the basics necessary to succeed. It’s now up to you to prove that to your
interviewers by being confident and knowledgeable. This guide will familiarize
you with the questions you’re likely to receive in the course of your interview.
As you’ll see, you can expect to tested to make sure you can work under
pressure, fit into the company’s culture and excel in your job.
Finance career opportunities can be broadly divided into several categories, most
prominently investment banking, commercial banking, asset management,
venture capital and private equity, and finance positions at a corporation like Dell
or The Coca-Cola Company (also referred to as “corporate finance”). There is
considerable movement between these positions I-bankers leave to take posts
in industry, or with private equity firms, etc. Generally, the pinnacle for most
finance professionals is either as a partner or managing director of a bank, a

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Introduction

portfolio manager for an asset management firm, or as Chief Financial Officer
(CFO) of a company. The interviews for each of these industries are very similar.

For more information on finance interviews and finance
careers, go to the Vault Finance Career Channel
• Employer surveys on hundreds of top finance employers
• The Vault Guide to Advanced and Quantitative Finance Interviews and the
Vault Finance Interviews Practice Guide
• Thousands of top finance jobs on the Vault Finance Job Board
• Finance Resume Review and Writing – named the “Top Choice” for resume
makeovers by The Wall Street Journal
• One-on-one finance interview prep with Vault finance interview experts
• The Vault Guide to the Top 50 Banking Employers, the Vault Career Guide to
Investment Banking, the Vault Career Guide to Hedge Funds, the Vault Career
Guide to Investment Management, and other Vault finance guides

www.vault.com/finance

Visit the Vault Finance Career Channel at www.vault.com/finance with
insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Finance Job Board and more.

Read what EMPLOYEES have to say about:

Workplace culture
Compensation
Hours
Diversity
Hiring process

Read employer surveys on
THOUSANDS of top employers.

THE FINANCIAL
SERVICES
INDUSTRY

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
The Financial Services Industry

The Finance Interview: An Overview
Investment banking and other finance positions are among the most stressful
and demanding positions on the planet and interviews in finance often test
an applicant's tolerance for such an environment. To test an applicant's
stamina, interviews in finance traditionally involve three or four rounds at a
minimum, and each round may have up to six interviews, with the number
of interviews generally increasing in each round. To test an applicant's
ability to handle stress, interviewers may adopt aversive or stressful
interviewing tactics. Insiders say that occasionally a bank or finance
interviewer will go so far as to use techniques from rapid-fire quantitative
questions such as “How many planes are currently flying over the United
States right now?” to confrontational questions such as, “Why should I give
you this job? Your resume doesn't fit our profile.” Firms may ask you
specific and detailed questions about your grades in college or business
school, even if your school policy prohibits such questions. At other firms,
interview rounds may be interspersed with seemingly casual and friendly
dinners. Don’t let down your guard! While these dinners are a good
opportunity to meet your prospective co-workers, your seemingly genial
hosts are scrutinizing you as well. (Read: Don’t drink too much.)
There are generally two parts to the finance hiring process: the “fit part” and
the “technical part.” The “fit part” is where the hiring firm deciphers
whether or not you fit into their group’s culture. The “technical part” is
where the interviewer judges your analytical and technical skills. If you
don’t know the basic concepts of finance and accounting, your interviewers
will believe (rightly) that you are either 1) not interested in the position or
2) not competent enough to handle the job. While a good deal of this book
is devoted to helping you ace the technical part of finance interviews, it is
arguably more important that you nail the fit interview, proving that you are
someone the people in the group would like to work with. As you go
through recruiting in finance interviews, understand that you compete with
yourself. Most firms are flexible enough to hire people that are a good fit.
The fit interview
They call it the O’Hare airport test, the Atlanta airport test, or the whatevercity-you-happen-to-be-applying-in airport test. They also call it the fit
interview or the behavioral interview. It means: “Could you stand to be
stranded in an airport for eight hours with this person?”

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
The Financial Services Industry

Generally, while your performance in the fit interview partly depends – as
the airport test suggests – on your personality fit, it also depends on your
“career fit,” or your ability to portray yourself as a good fit as an investment
banker, asset manager, and so on. In other words, interviewers will try to
figure out what your attitude towards work is like, how interested you are in
a career in the industry, and how interested you are in the job for which you
are applying.
Im a hard worker
As a general rule, you should emphasize how hard you have worked in the
past, giving evidence of your ability to take on a lot of work and pain. You
don’t have to make things up or pretend that there’s nothing you’d want
more than to work 100-hour weeks. In fact, interviewers are sure to see
through such blatant lying. Says one I-banking interviewer, “If somebody
acted too enthusiastic about the hours, that’d be weird.” If you ask
investment bankers and others in finance what they dislike most about their
jobs, they will most likely talk about the long hours. Be honest about this
unpleasant part of the job, and convince your interviewer that you can
handle it well. For example, if you were in crew and had to wake up at five
every morning in the freezing cold, by all means, talk about it. If you put
yourself through school by working two jobs, mention that, too. And if no
experience applies, at least acknowledge the hours as a necessary part of a
career path you are choosing.
Got safe hands?
As with all job interviews, finance interviews will be focused on figuring out
whether you can handle the responsibility required of the position,
understandable considering that in many cases with finance positions, that
responsibility may mean making decisions with millions or billions of
dollars.
An interviewer will try and figure out if you’ve got safe hands and won’t be
dropping the ball. “This is a critical I-banking concept,” says one banker
about safe hands. “The idea is: ‘Can I give this person this analysis to do
and feel comfortable that they will execute it promptly and correctly?’ The
people with safe hands are the ones who advance in the company. They are
not necessarily the hardest workers but they are the most competent.” Make
sure you bring up examples of taking responsibility and getting complex,
detail-oriented jobs done right.

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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
The Financial Services Industry

A mind to pick things apart
The world of finance involves a lot of number crunching and analytical
ability. And while you don’t have to be a world-class mathematician, you
do have to have an analytic mind if you are going to succeed. Explains one
insider at a numbers-heavy Wall Street firm, “you can’t be any old English
major. You’ve got to have a really logical, mathematical head.” Make sure
you have examples of your problem-solving and analytic strengths,
particularly those involving quantitative analysis.
T-E-A-M! Go team!
Teamwork is a popular buzzword for employers of all industries. Every
finance position (except, perhaps, for research) requires that an employee
work closely with others – whether in investment banking deal teams or in
cross-fuctional corporate teams such as the finance officials working with
marketers at a large corporation. Interviewers will ask questions to make
sure that you have experience and have excelled in team situations. Sure,
you can break out those glory days stories about the winning touchdown
pass, but hopefully there are more poignant situations which can also help
describe your teamwork ability – previous work experience, volunteer
activities, or school work in teams, to name a few.
Preparing for finance interviews
When you review career options, don’t discount the amount of time it takes
to prepare for finance interviews. First of all, you should evaluate whether
you actually want to be in finance. In short, you should know what you’re
getting into. Not only should you know this for your own sake (this is your
future, after all), but your interviewers want to know that you understand the
position and industry.
You should use the opportunity of non-evaluative settings (i.e., not an
interview) to ascertain if finance is for you. These are questions to which we
strongly suggest you have answers to before interviewing. Make a point to
attend recruiting presentations by firms. Informational interviews with
alumni and (for those in business school) second-years are also good ways
to get answers to some of your questions.
As for written materials, you can start with general business publications
like The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, BusinessWeek, and the
Financial Times. From there, you can move on to trade publications that will
give more industry-specific news and analysis. American Banker,

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
The Financial Services Industry

Institutional Investor, Investment Dealers Digest and The Daily Deal are
some examples.
Your interaction with alumni can have direct results. The results can be
good if you prepare properly before contacting them, are sufficiently
informed, ask good and sincere questions, and show proper respect. You can
also assure yourself a ding if you don’t handle a meeting or phone
conversation correctly.
Here are some questions about finance positions you should ask before you
have your first interview:
• What is a typical day like?
• What are the hours in the industry really like? Are they 100 hours every
week or every other week? Is it the same for every firm?
• How do people cope with the lifestyle issues in the industry?
• What kind of money do people make in the industry?
• What are the things I-bankers (or commercial bankers, venture capitalists,
etc.) like about their jobs? What would they like to change?
• What is the future of the industry for the next few years? How will the
industry change? How will the margins change? The return on equity?
• What is the career track in the industry? What skills are required at what stage?
• What is so exciting about this job?
• What is the culture of an I-banking firm as compared to a Fortune 500
company? Compared to a startup?
• What are the exit opportunities after 10 years in the industry? After two years?
Research individual firms
Once you’ve answered questions about the industry, you should begin to
narrow your research to specific firms – both to know which firms to target,
and to be knowledgeable for your interviews. Good sources for research are
easily accessible publications like The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek
and Fortune. If you have the resources (perhaps at a school library), you can
also read through recent issues of trade publications like Investment
Dealers Digest. And of course, to get the inside scoop on culture, pay, and
hiring at top firms, read the company profiles on www.vault.com, as well as

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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
The Financial Services Industry

guides like The Vault Guide to the Top 50 Banking Employers and The Vault
Guide to the Top Financial Services Firms.
Insiders at business school who have gone through the recruiting process
suggest that you form research and interview practice teams. There is a lot
of material to cover, and it is not possible to do it all by yourself. Form teams
for researching industries and firms. Later, you can use the same teams to
practice interviews. If you are an undergraduate, you should try to see if
your school has an investment banking or finance club. If you are in business
school, your school will undoubtedly have such a club, or you may want to
team up with other students who are looking into finance careers. Teams of
four to six work quite well for this research process.
Practice your interviews
As you read this guide, you should prepare answers to common questions
given at finance interviews – whether they be fit questions, technical
questions, or brainteasers. While this may be easiest for technical questions
and brainteasers (after all, we can help you to nail those questions with the
right answers), it is also important to prepare for fit questions even if there
are no right or wrong answers. We can steer you onto the right path with
these questions, but you’ll need to fill in the blanks. What’s the hardest thing
you’ve ever had to do? Can you give me an example of a time when you
came up with a creative solution? You don’t want to be cursing yourself after
an interview, thinking about what you should have said, or examples you
could have brought up.
One of the best ways to prepare answers to these questions is to use
mock/practice interviews. You can practice by role-playing with your
friends and classmates, or by taking advantage of interview training offered
by your school. Most MBA career centers, and many undergraduate career
centers, offer students the opportunity to perform mock interviews, which
are normally videotaped. These practice sessions are conducted either by
professional career counselors or by second-year students. The mock
interviewees are given the videotape of their critique to watch at home
(again and again). Students may choose what kind of interview they’d like
to receive: finance, consulting, etc.
What mistakes are commonly unearthed by the videotaped interview? One
business school career counselor says that he finds that “most MBAs don’t
have their story down. They can’t elaborate on why they came to business
school, and why they want to work in the industry.” The best candidates are
able to describe their background and career history, and make a pitch about
10

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
The Financial Services Industry

why they are interested in a firm, all in a minute or less, career counselors
say. Another problem is that many students apparently “can’t elaborate their
strengths. They have them, but can’t sell them. They are too modest.” While
there’s no use demurring when explicating your good points, career center
professionals warn that “there is also a danger of tooting your horn too
much” – so make sure you’re not making any claims for competency you
can’t back up with relevant experience.
To take full advantage of their mock interviews, career counselors say, you
should take them as seriously as possible. Dress professionally “to get into
the interviewing mindset.” Afterwards, the interviewer will go over the
session, assessing your strengths and weaknesses. It’s a good idea to take
notes on this feedback.
Mock interviewers also coach students on appropriate answers. “For
example,” explains one mock interviewer, “many candidates are asked to
name their top three weaknesses. Answering with your actual weaknesses is
not a good idea. So when I identify a student’s weaker point – maybe they
are weak on real teamwork experience – we strategize on an appropriate
answer. It’s better to say something like ‘I wouldn’t call them weaknesses,
but there are three areas in which I still have room to grow,’ and then choose
three areas that are not deal-breakers.”
Do interviewers thus end up hearing the same canned answers over and over
again? “I do hear from some interviewers at certain schools – not mine! –
that they do hear identical answers to certain questions,” says one insider.
“My advice to students is to always put answers into their own words.”
Prepare questions
Finally, don’t forget that finance interviewers often ask candidates whether
they have any questions. Don’t get caught looking like a job applicant who
hasn’t done research and is not curious about the opportunities. Read about
the firms, read about the industries, and prepare some intelligent questions.
Also, remember that, when in doubt, you can allow the interviewers to talk
about themselves with questions like, “Tell me about your career path” and
“Describe your typical day-to-day responsibilities.”

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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
The Financial Services Industry

Questions
1. Why do you want to do investment banking/investment management/
whatever career you plan to pursue?
This is a question you are almost guaranteed to receive. First and foremost,
you must emphasize that you know what the finance department in which
you are interviewing does. Talk to as many people in the industry before the
interview to get a good idea of the job function’s day-to-day tasks as well as
the general description of the work a person in that job is asked to perform.
Then, when asked the question, you need not state that you’ve yearned to be
in finance your life, but you should illustrate succinctly that you know the
job functions of the position for which you are interviewing, that you enjoy
performing these functions, and that you have developed the core skills
required (i.e., analytical ability, good communication skills, and, of course,
a strong work ethic and willingness to put in the hours to do the job).
2. What exactly do investment bankers (or investment managers, etc.)
do?
Don’t laugh. You’d be astonished at how many people go to interview with
Goldman Sachs or Fidelity Investments without having a clear idea of what
they’ll be doing if they actually get the job. You are very likely to receive
this question if you are a career-changer or if you have a non-financial
background. You’d better know the basics of your industry – for example,
that investment bankers raise capital for companies in the public or private
marketplace or that investment managers manage money for individuals and
institutions.
3. Heres a whiteboard. Stand in front of it and present a chapter from
your favorite finance textbook. You have five minutes.
May we suggest not selecting the introduction? The point of this question is
twofold. First of all, the interviewers want to test your ability to explain
complicated financial matters in lucid terms. Secondly, they want to test
your on-the-spot presentation skills. Practice with a friend – even with your
professor, if you can – until you’re comfortable presenting this material.
4. Walk me through your resume.
Again, highlight those activities and previous positions that are most
applicable to the core finance skills. Also talk about the things you are proud

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
The Financial Services Industry

of and that set you apart. Finally, illustrate that your educational and career
moves follow a logical sequence.
5. Let me give you a situation: It is Friday afternoon. Tomorrow
morning you have to catch a flight to Boston for your best friends
marriage, and you are in the wedding. You have informed your deal
team well in advance and they know that you will be gone. Just when
you are about to leave, you find out that a client wants to meet with the
banking team tomorrow. What will you do?
One of the big assets you bring to a finance position, especially those with
investment banks, is your attitude towards work. This is a rather tricky
question, but use this to express the fact that you understand the hardships
that an I-banking career would involve, and that you have endured such
sacrifice situations previously.
6. Say you are supposed to meet your girlfriend for dinner but the MD
asks you to stay late. What do you do? Can you give me an example of
a similar situation you have faced before?
Another attitude question. Be prepared.
7. Why should we hire you?
When answering an open-ended question like this, try to make them
insightful and entertaining like you did for your school applications. Again,
this question begs you to illustrate that you understand the position for
which you are interviewing and that you are hardworking, analytical, and
team-oriented. Prepare examples and as you do, think of them as if they
were speeches. What would your stories and anecdotes be? Would they be
exciting? Funny? Insightful? Absorbing? Something that the audience
would remember for a long time? Unique?
8. Why did you decide to do an MBA?
If you are an MBA student looking for a finance position, you are probably
going to get this question. If you came from a finance background, you can
talk about how you thought you would add to your skill set by going to
business school, and how that expectation has panned out. If you did not,
simply answer the question as honestly as you can. As an aside, it is
perfectly appropriate to respond that you are getting an MBA as a means for
changing careers.

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The Financial Services Industry

9. What types of activities did you pursue while in college?
While it may be all good and well to talk about the soup kitchen, remember
that you’re interviewing for intense, stressful positions. Says one
interviewer, “We love to see people who worked part-time, went to all six of
their classes, got As and don’t seem to need sleep. Frankly, banks like people
in debt who will kill themselves for the big bonus. I believe ‘hungry’ people
are highly valued in the interview process.”
10. Why are you applying to this firm?
Do your research and find out what each firm prides itself on, whether it be
international presence, team-orientation or social environment. Get ready to
talk about the industry and the firm specifically. For some firms (smaller,
specialized I-banks like Lazard, for example), this is an especially important
question. Says one insider at a boutique firm, “You definitely want to have
someone who knows what they’re getting into. I don’t think its advisable to
say I’m looking at all the bulge-bracket firms – plus [yours]. You want to see
people who are very focused.” And even at those big firms that all seem the
same, your interviewer will be impressed and flattered if you can talk about
how his or her firm is different and why that interests you.
11. Give me an example of a project that youve done that involved
heavy analytical thinking.
Candidates without a financial background should have an answer prepared
for this question that describes a work or school project, focusing on the part
that required a lot of number crunching.
12. If you were the CEO of our bank, what three things would change?
An interesting question. This question assumes, first of all, that you’ve done
enough research on your potential future employer to answer this question.
Telling your interviewers that you’d open an office in Shanghai may be a
good answer – but not if the firm already has an office in that city. Be
prepared to defend your answers. Avoid being too negative – “I’d fire the
CFO” is a bad answer if one of your interviewers works with him.
13. What is your favorite web site?
Up to you. If you own stock, it’s fine to choose a site like Ameritrade. You
could choose Vault, for the research on your favorite firms. If you want to
impress them with your business savvy, you could simply choose a web site

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
The Financial Services Industry

that you think is run especially well, like eBay. Just be prepared to back up
your answer with specific information.
14. Tell me about the stock price of a company in your prior line of
work.
Make sure you’re conversant with how your previous employers (or
competitors) are doing before you interview.
15. Give me an example of a time you worked as part of a team.
You’re sure to get this one. Draw on experiences from previous work
experience, from volunteer activities, and from any other situation in which
you worked with others toward a common goal. Highlight your strengths as
a team member: empathy, collaboration and consensus-building are good
themes to emphasize.
16. What is the most striking thing youve read recently in The Wall
Street Journal?
A variation of this question is: “What publications do you read regularly?”
With these questions, your interviews want to see how well read you are,
how interested you are in finance, and how well you can describe any of the
recent burning financial issues. Read the Journal regularly, especially when
it is close to the interview time. We suggest starting with 45 minutes a day
and gradually bringing that down as you become more efficient in your
information-gathering.
17. Describe a project you have worked on that you enjoyed.
Yet another opportunity to show that you are a hardworking, responsible,
analytical team player.
18. Lets say I give you this summer job/full-time job today. Now lets
move to the future and say that at the end of the summer, you find out
that you did not get a full-time offer, or that six months into the job you
are fired. Give me three reasons why this could happen, and what you
can do to prevent this.
This is a twist on the “what are your biggest weaknesses” question, made
specifically more stressful for the finance interview. Don’t lose your cool,
and have answers prepared.

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19. Think of a person you feel knows you very well both professionally
and socially. If I were to call this person and ask him to describe you,
what would he say?
Yet another version of the strengths and weaknesses question.
20. What motivates you?
Think through this one. First of all, you should indicate that you are highly
motivated. Second, remember the profile that finance interviews are
generally looking for. Appropriate answers include financial security,
problem-solving, deadlines, and productivity. Again, be prepared to give
examples.
21. Can you give me an example of an experience of failure?
You should have an answer prepared for this question. Be modest and admit
that you have experienced setbacks. Also, focus on how you bounced back
from the setback and what you learned from the experience.
22. You dont seem like you are a very driven person. How will you be
able to handle a job in banking?
A stress question that can easily hit you at the tail end of a long and tiring
interview process. After meeting with more than a dozen people in a day, it
may be very easy to appear worn out, which is precisely what you must
avoid – you must convince your interviewer that you don’t wear out easily
by displaying good energy. Come up with good examples of a time when
you were totally driven despite fatiguing circumstances.
23. Tell me about an accomplishment that you are proud of.
This is your chance to shine. Remember: team-oriented, analytical,
hardworking, dependable.
24. What was your favorite course in school? Your least favorite?
Why? What were your grades in each?
Have a few choices ready and be prepared to justify them. Don’t say that
you didn’t like a class because it was “too hard” or “had too much math” or
even that “the professor was unreasonable” (because your interviewer may
wonder if you’ll think your boss unreasonable as well). Remember that your
interviewer most likely has your transcript in front of her, so don’t try to
inflate your grades.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
The Financial Services Industry

25. Tell me how you have modeled with equations in the past.
If you’re an economics major, or if you’ve owned a business, you shouldn’t
have a problem answering this question. Even if you’re a non-finance
major, you should have at least one class or real-life example you can
provide. If you’ve never done financial modeling, do at least one example
before the interview or have someone walk you through the process.
26. Who have you talked to at our bank?
This is actually a good sign – your interviewer may ask them for impressions
of you. You should remember the names of any representatives who have
attended campus career events. Hopefully, in your research you’ve
connected with people at that firm.
27. Can you tell me about a time when you handled many things at the
same time?
In some finance positions, especially I-banking, multi-tasking is an
important attribute. Think through your background and prepare for this
question.
28. What would you like for me to tell you?
Remember, you will be asked if you have any questions. Do your research
and impress your interviewer with your knowledge and insight. However,
don’t ask transparent questions that seem like you are only asking them
because you have to. And, again, when in doubt, ask about their own
personal experiences.
29. What is a hedge fund?
This is obviously a popular question for those candidates interviewing for
the increasingly popular and prestigious hedge fund positions. Surprisingly,
many candidates have no feel for what distinguishes a hedge fund from other
types of funds.
A hedge fund is a private investment partnership which uses aggressive
strategies unavailable to other types of funds, most popularly mutual funds.
Hedge funds are required by law to have less than 100 investors, and
liberally use such financial techniques and vehicles as short-selling, swaps,
risk arbitrage and derivatives Since they are restricted by law to less than
100 investors, the minimum hedge-fund investment is typically $1 million.
(For more information, get the Vault Career Guide to Hedge Funds.)
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Decrease your T/NJ Ratio
(Time to New Job)
Use the Internets most targeted
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VaultMatch Resume Database
Vault takes match-making to the next level: post your resume
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and e-mail them directly to your inbox.

VALUATION
TECHNIQUES

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Valuation Techniques

How Much is it Worth?
Imagine yourself as the CEO of a publicly traded company that makes
widgets. You’ve had a highly successful business so far and want to sell the
company to anyone interested in buying it. How do you know how much to
sell it for? Likewise, consider the Bank of America acquisition of Fleet.
How did B of A decide how much it should pay to buy Fleet?
For starters, you should understand that the value of a company is equal to
the value of its assets, and that
Value of Assets = Debt + Equity
or
Assets = D + E
If I buy a company, I buy its stock (equity) and assume its debt (bonds and
loans). Buying a company’s equity means that I actually gain ownership of
the company – if I buy 50 percent of a company’s equity, I own 50 percent
of the company. Assuming a company’s debt means that I promise to pay
the company’s lenders the amount owed by the previous owner.
The value of debt is easy to calculate: the market value of debt is equal to
the book value of debt. (Unless the debt trades and thus has a real “market
value.” This information, however, is hard to come by, so it is safe to use
the book value.) Figuring out the market value of equity is trickier, and
that’s where valuation techniques come into play.
The four most commonly used techniques are:
1.

Discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis

Multiples method

Market valuation

Comparable transactions method

Generally, before we can understand valuation, we need to understand
accounting, the language upon which valuation is based.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Valuation Techniques

Basic Accounting Concepts
Before we look at these valuation techniques, let’s take a look at basic
accounting concepts that underpin valuation. MBAs interested in finance
careers should definitely be comfortable with these concepts (and may find
this overview to be very basic). Undergrads who have taken accounting
classes should already be familiar with these concepts as well.
Basic overview of financial statements
There are four basic financial statements that provide the information you
need to evaluate a company:
• Balance Sheets
• Income Statements
• Statements of Cash Flows
• Statements of Retained Earnings
These four statements are provided in the annual reports (also referred to as
“10Ks”) published by public companies. In addition, a company’s annual
report is almost always accompanied by notes to the financial statements.
These notes provide additional information about each line item of numbers
provided in the four basic financial statements.
The Balance Sheet
The Balance Sheet presents the financial position of a company at a given
point in time. It is comprised of three parts: Assets, Liabilities, and
Shareholder’s Equity. Assets are the economic resources of a company.
They are the resources that the company uses to operate its business and
include Cash, Inventory, and Equipment. (Both financial statements and
accounts in financial statements are capitalized.) A company normally
obtains the resources it uses to operate its business by incurring debt,
obtaining new investors, or through operating earnings. The Liabilities
section of the Balance Sheet presents the debts of the company. Liabilities
are the claims that creditors have on the company’s resources. The Equity
section of the Balance Sheet presents the net worth of a company, which
equals the assets that the company owns less the debts it owes to creditors.
In other words, equity is comprised of the claims that investors have on the
company’s resources after debt is paid off.

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The most important equation to remember is that
Assets (A) = Liabilities (L) + Shareholder’s Equity (SE)
The structure of the Balance Sheet is based on that equation.
This example uses the basic format of a Balance Sheet:

Media Entertainment, Inc
Balance Sheet
(December 31, 2005)
Assets
Cash
Accounts Receivable
Building

Total Assets

203,000
26,000
19,000

248,000

Liabilities
Accounts Payable

7,000

Equity
Common Stock
Retained Earnings

10,000
231,000

Total Liabilities & Equity

248,000

With respect to the right side of the balance sheet, because companies can
obtain resources from both investors and creditors, they must distinguish
between the two. Companies incur debt to obtain the economic resources
necessary to operate their businesses and promise to pay the debt back over
a specified period of time. This promise to pay is based on a fixed payment
schedule and is not based upon the operating performance of the company.
Companies also seek new investors to obtain economic resources. However,
they don’t promise to pay investors back a specified amount over a specified
period of time. Instead, companies forecast for a return on their investment
that is often contingent upon assumptions the company or investor makes
about the level of operating performance. Since an equity holder’s
investment is not guaranteed, it is more risky in nature than a loan made by
a creditor. If a company performs well, the upside to investors is higher.
The promise-to-pay element makes loans made by creditors a Liability and,
as an accountant would say, more “senior” than equity holdings, as it is paid
back before distributions to equity-holders are made.
To summarize, the Balance Sheet represents the economic resources of a
business. One side includes assets, the other includes liabilites (debt) and
shareholder’s equity, and Assets = L+E. On the liability side, debts owed to
creditors are more senior than the investments of equity holders and are
22

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Valuation Techniques

classified as Liabilities, while equity investments are accounted for in the
Equity section of the Balance Sheet.
The Income Statement
We have discussed two of the three ways in which a company normally
obtains the economic resources necessary to operate its business: incurring
debt and seeking new investors. A third way in which a company can obtain
resources is through its own operations. The Income Statement presents the
results of operations of a business over a specified period of time (e.g., one
year, one quarter, one month) and is composed of Revenues, Expenses and
Net Income.
Revenue: Revenue is a source of income that normally arises from the sale
of goods or services and is recorded when it is earned. For example, when
a retailer of roller blades makes a sale, the sale would be considered revenue.
Expenses: Expenses are the costs incurred by a business over a specified
period of time to generate the revenues earned during that same period of
time. For example, in order for a manufacturing company to sell a product,
it must buy the materials it needs to make the product. In addition, that same
company must pay people to both make and sell the product. The company
must also pay salaries to the individuals who operate the business. These are
all types of expenses that a company can incur during the normal operations
of the business. When a company incurs an expense outside of its normal
operations, it is considered a loss. Losses are expenses incurred as a result
of one-time or incidental transactions. The destruction of office equipment
in a fire, for example, would be a loss.
Assets and expenses
Incurring expenses and acquiring assets both involve the use of economic
resources (i.e., cash or debt). So, when is a purchase considered an asset and
when is it considered an expense?
Assets vs. expenses: A purchase is considered an asset if it provides future
economic benefit to the company, while expenses only relate to the current
period. For example, monthly salaries paid to employees for services they
already provided to the company would be considered expenses. On the
other hand, the purchase of a piece of manufacturing equipment would be
classified as an asset, as it will probably be used to manufacture a product
for more than one accounting period.

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Valuation Techniques

Net income: The Revenue a company earns, less its Expenses over a
specified period of time, equals its Net Income. A positive Net Income
number indicates a profit, while a negative Net Income number indicates
that a company suffered a loss (called a “net loss”).
Here is an example of an Income Statement:

Media Entertainment, Inc
Income Statement
(For the year ended December 31, 2005)
Revenues
Services Billed
Expenses
Salaries and Wages
Rent Expense
Utilities Expense
Net Income

100,000

(33,000)
(17,000)
(7,000)

(57,000)
43,000

To summarize, the Income Statement measures the success of a company’s
operations; it provides investors and creditors with information needed to
determine the enterprise’s profitability and creditworthiness. A company
has earned net income when its total revenues exceed its total expenses. A
company has a net loss when total expenses exceed total revenues.
The Statement of Retained Earnings
Retained earnings is the amount of profit a company invests in itself (i.e.,
profit that is not used to pay back debt or distributed to shareholders as a
dividend). The Statement of Retained Earnings is a reconciliation of the
Retained Earnings account from the beginning to the end of the year. When
a company announces income or declares dividends, this information is
reflected in the Statement of Retained Earnings. Net income increases the
Retained Earnings account. Net losses and dividend payments decrease
Retained Earnings.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Valuation Techniques

Here is an example of a basic Statement of Retained Earnings:

Media Entertainment, Inc
Statement of Retained Earnings
(For the year ended December 31, 2005)
Retained Earnings, January 1, 2005
Plus: Net income for the year

Less: Dividends declared
Retained Earnings, December 31, 2005

$200,000
43,000
243,000
(12,000)
$ 231,000

As you can probably tell by looking at this example, the Statement of
Retained Earnings doesn’t provide any new information not already
reflected in other financial statements. But it does provide additional
information about what management is doing with the company’s earnings.
Management may be reinvesting the company’s net income into the business
by retaining part or all of its earnings, distributing its current income to
shareholders, or distributing current and accumulated income to
shareholders. (Investors can use this information to align their investment
strategy with the strategy of a company’s management. An investor
interested in growth and returns on capital may be more inclined to invest in
a company that reinvests its resources into the company for the purpose of
generating additional resources. Conversely, an investor interested in
receiving current income is more inclined to invest in a company that pays
quarterly dividend distributions to shareholders.)
The Statement of Cash Flows
Remember that the Income Statement provides information about the
economic resources involved in the operation of a company. However, the
Income Statement does not provide information about the actual source and
use of cash generated during its operations. That’s because obtaining and
using economic resources doesn’t always involve cash. For example, let’s
say you went shopping and bought a new mountain bike on your credit card
in July – but didn’t pay the bill until August. Although the store did not
receive cash in July, the sale would still be considered July revenue. The
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Statement of Cash Flows presents a detailed summary of all of the cash
inflows and outflows during the period and is divided into three sections
based on three types of activity:
• Cash flows from operating activities: Includes the cash effects of
transactions involved in calculating net income.
• Cash flows from investing activities: Basically, cash from non-operating
activities or activities outside the normal scope of business. This involves
items classified as assets in the Balance Sheet and includes the purchase and
sale of equipment and investments.
• Cash flows from financing activities: Involves items classified as
liabilities and equity in the Balance Sheet; it includes the payment of
dividends as well as issuing payment of debt or equity.
This example shows the basic format of the Statement of Cash Flows:

Media Entertainment, Inc
Statement of Cash Flows
(For the year ended December 31, 2005)
Cash flows provided from operating activities
Net Income

33,000

Depreciation Expense

10,000

Increase in Accounts Receivable
Increase in Accounts Payable

(26,000)
7,000

(19,000)
24,000

Net cash provided by operating activities
Cash flows provided from investing activities
Purchase of Building
Sale of Long-Term Investment

(19,000)
35,000
16,000

Net cash provided by investing activities
Cash flows provided from financing activities
Payment of Dividends
Issuance of Common Stock
Net cash provided by financing activities
Net increase (decrease) in cash

(12,000)
10,000
(2,000)
38,000

Cash at the beginning of the year

165,000

Cash at the end of the year

203,000

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Valuation Techniques

As you can tell be looking at the above example, the Statement of Cash
Flows gets its information from all three of the other financial statements:
• Net income from the Income Statement is shown in the section “cash flows
from operating activities.”
• Dividends from the Statement of Retained Earnings is shown in the section
“cash flows from financing activities.”
• Investments, Accounts Payable, and other asset and liability accounts from
the Balance Sheet are shown in all three sections.

Market Valuation
Now let’s look at the major techniques of valuation. We’ll begin with
market valuation, as it is the simplest way to value a publicly traded firm. A
publicly traded firm is one that is registered on a stock exchange (like the
New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq). The company’s stock can be bought
and sold on that exchange. Most companies we are familiar with, such as
The Coca-Cola Company, IBM, and General Motors, are publicly traded.
Every publicly traded company is required to publish an annual report,
which includes financial figures such as annual revenues, income, and
expenses. The 10Ks (Annual Financials) and 10Qs (Quarterly Financials)
for publicly traded firms are available online through the SEC Edgar
database, www.edgar-online.com.
The value of a publicly traded firm is easy to calculate. All you need to do
is find the company’s stock price (the price of a single share), multiply it by
the number of shares outstanding, and you have the equity market value of
the company. (This is also known as market capitalization or “market cap”).
The market price of a single share of stock is readily available from
publications like The Wall Street Journal and from various quote services
available on the Internet; the number of shares outstanding can be obtained
from the cover of the most recent 10-K or 10-Q of the company, or from web
sites such as Yahoo! Finance, Hoover’s Online, and cnnfn.com.

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Valuation Techniques

Example:
Company A stock price

$60/share

No. of shares outstanding
___________________________

200 million

Equity Market Value (market cap) = $60 x 200 million = $12 billion

Once you determine the market value of a firm, you need to figure out either
the discount or premium that it would sell for if the company were put on
the market. When a company sells for a discount it is selling for a value
lower than the market value; when it sells for a premium, it is selling for a
value greater than the market value. Whether a company sells at a premium
or a discount depends on those supply and demand forces you learned about
in Econ 101. Typically, if someone wants to acquire a firm, it will sell for a
price above the market value of the firm. This is referred to as an acquisition
premium. If the acquisition is a hostile takeover, or if there is an auction, the
premiums are pushed even higher. The premiums are generally decided by
the perception of the synergies resulting from the purchase or merger. (See
chapter on M&A.)

Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)
The DCF analysis is the most thorough way to value a company, and secondyear MBAs should expect to be tested on their ability to do a DCF in a
finance interview. There are two ways to value a company using the DCF
approach:
• Adjusted Present Value (APV) method
• Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) method
Both methods require calculation of a company’s free cash flows (FCF) as
well as the net present value (NPV) of these FCFs. Before we look at these
methods, we’ll examine a few underlying concepts: net present value, the
Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), free cash flows, and terminal year
value.
Net Present Value
What do we mean when we talk about net present value? We’ll explain this
important concept with a simple example. Let’s say you had an arrangement
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Valuation Techniques

under which you were set to receive $20 from a friend one year from now.
Now let’s say for some reason that you decide you don’t want to wait for a
year and would rather have the money today. How much should you be
willing to accept today? More than $20, $20, or less than $20?
In general, a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow for two
simple reasons. First, a dollar today can be invested at a risk-free interest
rate (think savings account or U.S. government bonds), and can earn a
return. A dollar tomorrow is worth less because it has missed out on the
interest you would have earned on that dollar had you invested it today.
Second, inflation diminishes the buying power of future money.
A discount rate is the rate you choose to discount the future value of your
money. A discount rate can be understood as the expected return from a
project that matches the risk profile of the project in which you'd invest your
$20.
Note: The discount rate is different than the opportunity cost of the money.
Opportunity cost is a measure of the opportunity lost. Discount rate is a
measure of the risk. These are two separate concepts.
To express the relationship between the present value and future value, we
use the following formula:

Present Value

Future Value
(1 + rd ) n

Here, “rd” is the discount rate, and “n” is the number of years in the future.
The method of calculating the discount rate is different depending on the
method of valuation used (i.e., APV method vs. WACC method). Although
the discount rate varies, the concept of NPV, or net present value, is the
same.
Let’s say a series of cash flows is expressed as the following:
Year
Free Cash
Flows

FCF1 FCF2 FCF3 FCF4 FCF5 FCF6 FCF7 FCF8

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Net present value (NPV) in Year 0 of future cash flows is calculated with the
following formula:

NPV =

FCF1
(1 + rd)

FCF2
FCF3
+
+
2
3
(1 + rd)
(1 + rd)

FCF8
+...+
8
(1 + rd)

or
n

NPV =
i=1

(

FCFi
i

(1 + rd)

)

Here again, rd is the discount rate, which is calculated differently depending
on whether you use APV or WACC (to be explained later).
Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
In order to find the appropriate discount rate used to discount the company’s
cash flows, you use the Capital Asset Pricing Model, or (CAPM). This is a
model used to calculate the expected return on your investment, also
referred to as expected return on equity. It is a linear model with one
independent variable, Beta. Beta represents relative volatility of the given
investment with respect to the market. For example, if the Beta of an
investment is 1, the returns on the investment (stock/bond/portfolio) vary
identically with the market returns. A Beta less than 1, like 0.5, means the
investment is less volatile than the market. So if the Dow Jones Industrial
Average goes up or down 20 percent the next day, a less volatile stock (i.e.,
Beta < 1) would be expected to go up or down 10 percent. A Beta of greater
than 1, like 1.5, means the investment is more volatile than the market. A
company in a volatile industry (think Internet company) would be expected
to have a Beta greater than 1. A company whose value does not vary much,
like an electric utility, would be expected to have a Beta under 1.
Mathematically, CAPM is calculated as

re = rf + ß (rm - rf)

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Here:
re

= Discount rate for an all-equity firm

= Risk-free rate (The Treasury bill rate for the period over which the
cash projections are being considered. For example, if we are
considering a 10-year period, then the risk-free rate is the rate for
the 10-year U.S. Treasury note.)

= Market return

rm - rf = Excess market return (This is the excess annual return of the stock
market over a U.S. Treasury bond over a long period of time. This
is usually assumed to be 7 percent for the U.S. Market.)
ß

= Equity Beta

Equity Beta is given in various sources like Value Line or Internet sites like
Yahoo! Finance. If the firm you are valuing is not publicly traded, then you
need to find a firm with a similar Balance Sheet and Income Statement that
is publicly traded. (When calculating CAPM you should be careful to use
the “equity Beta” value, and not “assets Beta.”) If you have information for
Beta assets rather than Beta equity, you can derive Beta equity using the
following relationship:

(E)
ßA =

(ßE)

(D+E)

+ (1 - t)

(D)
(D+E)

(ßD)

Here:
D=

Market value of debt (usually the book value of debt)

E =

Market value of equity (the number of shares outstanding x
share price) (Also known as “market cap.”)

ßD =

Beta debt (usually one can assume this to be equal to 0)

t =

Corporate taxes, (usually assumed to be 35%)

Therefore:

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ßE = ßA

(D + E)
(E)

Free cash flows
To capture the characteristics of an all-equity firm we recalculate a
company’s cash flows as if the firm had no debt. The free cash flow (FCF)
of an all-equity firm in year (i) can be calculated as:

FCFi = Earnings Before Interest and Taxes x (1 - t)
+ Depreciation & Amortization
- Capital Expenditure (“CapEx”)
- Net increase in working capital (or + net
decrease in working capital)
+ Other relevant cash flows for an all equity firm

Here:
Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (or EBIT) can be obtained from the
Income Statement (see section on major accounting concepts).
t = Corporate tax rate, usually assumed to be 35%.
Depreciation & Amortization of a firm can be obtained from the firm’s
Balance Sheet (see section on major accounting concepts).
Capital Expenditure and Net increase in working capital can be obtained
from the Statement of Cash Flows.
Other relevant cash flows for an all-equity firm would be items like asset
sale proceeds (selling a major piece of real estate, for example) or the use of
tax loss carry-forwards or tax credits.
While all of these items can be found in the firm’s financial statements for
historical periods, the free cash flow used for DCF analysis is expected
future free cash flow. Bankers will typically construct projections, using a
combination of guidelines from the company and a derivation of reasonable
estimates using their own assumptions. While historical financial

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statements are helpful in constructing projections, DCF analysis can only be
done with future cash flow projections.
Terminal year calculation
The terminal year represents the year (usually 10 years in the future) when
the growth of the company is considered stabilized.
In other words...
The cash flows of the first 10 years are determined by company management
or a financial analyst, based on predictions and forecasts of what will
happen. Then, a terminal year value needs to be calculated assuming that
after year 10 the cash flows of the company keep growing at a constant “g.”
Values of “g” are typically not as high as the first 10 years of growth, which are
considered unstabilized growth periods. Instead, “g” represents the amount
the company can feasibly grow forever once it has stabilized (after 10 years).
The value of the terminal year cash flows (that is, the value in year 10) is given
by:

TY FCF =

FCF10 (1 + g)
(rd - g)

The present value of the terminal year cash flows (that is, the value today) is given
by:

PV (TY FCF) =

TY FCF
(1 + rd)

or
PV (TY FCF) =

FCF10 (1 + g)
10

(1 + rd) (rd - g)

Adding it up
Adding the discounted value of the first 10 year FCFs, and the terminal year
FCFs (CFs after year 10 into perpetuity) gives us the value of the company
under the DCF analysis.

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Calculating discount rates
Remember when we said that there are several ways of calculating discount
rates? We’ll now look at the two most popular methods of discounted cash
flow (DCF) analysis tested in finance interviews: the WACC (Weighted
Average Cost of Capital) and APV (Adjusted Present Value). The key
difference between the two methods is the way in which the discount rate is
calculated. For WACC, we calculate the discount rate for leveraged equity
(reL) using the capital asset pricing model (CAPM); for APV, we calculate
the discount rate for an all-equity firm (reU).
WACC
For WACC, the discount rate is calculated with the following formula:

rdWACC =

(E)
(D + E)

(reL) +

(D)
(D + E)

(1 - t)(rD)

Here:
D
E
rD
reL

=
=
=
=

Market value of debt
Market value of equity
Discount rate for debt = Average interest rate on long-term debt
Discount rate for (leveraged) equity (calculated using the CAPM)

Note: The terms (E)/(D + E) and (D)/(D + E) represent the target equity
and debt ratios (also referred to as the equity-to-debt and debt-to-equity
ratios).

CAPM:
reL = rf + ßL (rm - rf)

Here:
rf
rm
rm -rf
ßL

= Risk-free rate = the Treasury bond rate for the period for which the
projections are being considered
= Market return
= Excess market return
= Leveraged Beta

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The value of leveraged Beta can be derived from the unleveraged Beta using
the equation below, in a process also referred to as “unlevering the Beta”:

ßL = ßU

[

]

1 + (1 - t) (D)
(E)

Here:
ßU

Unleveraged Beta (Again, ßU for a specific company can be
obtained from Value Line or online sources like Yahoo!)

APV
For the APV calculation the discount rate is calculated with the following
formula:

reU = rf + ßU (rm - rf)

Here:
ßU

Unleveraged Beta

Thus we see the key difference between WACC and APV. With the APV
calculation, we take the unleveraged equity discount rate (the discount rate
that assumes that a company has no debt), rather than a leveraged (historical)
discount rate that the WACC calculation uses.
To summarize:
Method

Discount
Rate

Type of Firm
(Assumption)

Beta

APV

reU

all equity

ßU

WACC

reL

leveraged/historical

ßL

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So suppose a company has debt. Obviously, the APV does not capture the
real value of a comapny in this case. Why? Because interest payments are
tax deductible. Hence, to find the value of a company using APV, we add in
the value of the debt tax shield, or the amount of money a company saves by
not having to pay interest on debt. To compensate for this difference we add
a value for the debt tax shield separately to arrive at an overall valuation of
the company. The debt tax shield (DTS) for any year is given by:

DTS = (t)(rD)(D)

Here:
D
rD
t

= Total debt for the company that year
= Weighted average interest rate on that debt calculated for each year
of the projected cash flows
= Corporate tax rate

This principle is the main reason for the emergence of the LBO (leveraged
buyout) shops, including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and its
famous takeover of RJR Nabisco, which inspired the bestseller Barbarians
at the Gate. KKR borrowed money (issued debt) to buy RJR Nabisco at a
price well above the market price. Since the company had no debt before
the takeover and has historically had highly reliable cash flows, KKR was
able to increase the company’s value through a financial restructuring and
save on taxes through the use of interest payments on debt and its
accompanying write-offs.
The tricky question now is: What discount rate should be used for
calculating the present value of the DTS? The answer is the discount rate
that would best capture the risk associated with the DTS. If you assume that
the ability to use the tax shield is as risky as the cash flows to an all-equity
firm, we would use the reU. If you assume that the tax shield is as risky as
the ability to repay the debt, then the discount rate should be the average
interest rate, or rD.
Note: The debt tax shield is similarly calculated for the terminal year and
discounted to the present year.
APV with DTS = APV without DTS + DTS

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One simple approximation for DTS that can be used for most back-of-theenvelope calculations in an interview is:
DTS = APV without DTS X (Tax rate (t) X Long-term debt rate (L))
Here:
t
L

= Tax rate
= Leverage ratio (also referred to as the long-term debt ratio) = D/(D + E)

The main difference between the WACC and APV methods is that the
WACC takes the “target” debt-to-equity ratio to calculate the discount rate.
However, a target debt-to-equity ratio is not reached until a few years in the
future. Hence the method is not “academically complete.” The APV method
takes this into consideration and looks at an “all-equity” firm.
However, the difference that amounts from assuming a target debt-to-equity
ratio is very small; most investment banks use the WACC method even
though most business schools teach both methods. The difference between
the two methods will become clearer as we go through an example of how
to calculate the appropriate discount rate.
Step 1: Assumptions
You are given the following information for the company you are valuing:
Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

EBIT

7.0

7.5

7.9

8.4

Depreciation

2.9

2.7

2.6

Capital Expenditures

1.5

2.5

3.0

Increase in Working Capital

0.8

1.5

0.9

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Tax Rate (t)

35%

Book Value Debt (D)

7.0

Book Value Equity (Ebook)

10.0

Market Value Equity (Emarket)

15.0

Beta (historical) (ßL)

1.5

Long-term T-Bond rate (rf)

10.0%

Long-term debt rate (rD)

12.0%

Long-term growth rate (g)

6.0%

Long-term risk premium (rm - rf)

8.0%

Step 2: Cash flows
Free cash flow to all equity firm = EBIT (1 - t) + Depr. - CAPX - Ch NWC.

Plugging in our data, we get:
Year One
Year Two
Year Three
Year Four

=
=
=
=

7.0 (1 - 0.35) + 2.9 - 1.5 - 0.8
7.5 (1 - 0.35) + 2.7 - 2.5 - 1.5
7.9 (1 - 0.35) + 2.7 - 2.5 - 1.5
8.4 (1 - 0.35) + 2.6 - 3.0 - 0.9

=
=
=
=

5.15
3.58
3.84
4.16

So our free cash flows look like this:

FCF

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

5.15

3.58

3.84

4.16

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Step 3: Discount rates
APV
Remember that there are two ways to determine a discount rate. Let’s begin
with the APV analysis

First get ßU from the ß L of 1.50

ß =
U

ßL
[1 + (1 - t)(D)]
E(market value)

ßU =

1.50
1 + (1 - 0.35)(7.0)

= 1.15

(15.0)
re U =

rf + ßU (rm - rf)

reU =

0.10 + (1.15)(0.08) = 0.0192 or 19.2%

Hence, the expected return on equity for an all-equity firm would be 19.2
percent. We will use this as the discount rate for the APV analysis.
Remember:
ßL = Beta for a firm with debt, or historical Beta (leveraged/historical
Beta)
U
ß = Beta for the equivalent firm without debt, or an all-equity firm
(unleveraged Beta)
WACC
Let’s now look at the WACC method. For WACC, we need to know what
the target (long-term) debt-to-capital ratio for this company is. Let’s assume
that it is 40 percent. That is, in the long run, this company expects to finance
its projects with 40 percent debt and 60 percent equity.

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First, we need to calculate ßL

[
[

]

1 + (1 - t) (D)
ßL = ßU 1 + (1 - t) D
E(E)

ßL = 1.15

]

1 + (1 - 0.35) (0.4)
(0.6)

= 1.64
reL = rf + ßL (rm - rf)
re L = (0.10) + (1.64)(0.08) = 0.2312 or 23.12%

Note: Here we calculate our expected return on equity, or reL, using the
target debt-to-equity ratio. We use this reL for all years whether or not that
target ratio has been matched or not. Since our long-term debt rate is 12.0
percent, and our long-term debt is 40 percent, we can now calculate WACC.

rWACC =

(E)
(D)
(reL) +
(1 - t)(rD)
(D + E)
(D + E )

WACC = 0.6 x 0.2312 + 0.4 x (1 - 0.35) x 0.13
WACC = 0.1699 or 17.0%

Step 4: Terminal value
We assume that the company operates forever. But, we only have four years
of cash flow. We need to put a value on all the cash flows after Year Four.
The Year Four cash flow is 4.16 and we expect it to grow at 5 percent a year.
The value of all cash flows after Year Four (as of the end of Year Four) can
be calculated with our Terminal Value formula.

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Using
APV

FCF4 (1 + g)

TY FCF =

(rd - g)
4.16 x (1 + 0.05)

TY FCF =

Using
WACC

(0.192 - 0.05)

= 30.76

FCF4 (1 + g)

TY FCF =

(rd - g)
4.16 x (1 + 0.05)

TY FCF =

(0.173 - 0.05)

= 35.51

Step 5: Taking the NPV of all the cash flows
Now we have to add up our cash flows

APV
FCF

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

5.15

3.58

3.84

4.16

Add terminal value = 30.76

FCFadjusted

5.15

3.58

3.84

34.92

Using these cash flows, and our discount rate of 19.2 percent, we can
calculate the net present value.

NPV =

FCF1
(1 + rd)

5.15
(1 + 0.192)

FCF2
(1 + rd)
+

FCF3
(1 + rd)

3.58
(1 + 0.192)2

FCF4
(1 + rd)
3.84

(1 + 0.192)3

34.92
(1 + 0.192)4

4.32 + 2.52 + 2.27 + 17.30 = 26.41 (approximately)

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Let’s add up the cash flows for the WACC method:

WACC
Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

5.15

3.58

3.84

4.16

FCF

Add terminal value = 35.51

FCFadjusted

5.15

3.58

3.84

39.67

Using these cash flows, with a discount rate of 17.0 percent, we can calculate an
NPV (r = rWACC )

NPV =

FCF1
(1 + r)

5.15
(1 + 0.17)

FCF2
(1 + r)
+

FCF3
(1 + r)

3.58
(1 + 0.17)2

FCF4
4

(1 + r)
3.84

(1 + 0.17)3

34.92
(1 + 0.17)4

4.4 + 2.6 + 2.4 + 18.6 = 28.0 (approximately)

Step 6: Figuring out the companys value
For WACC, we are done with our calculation – the value of the company is
approximately $28.0.
For APV, however, we add the present value of the interest tax shields
(DTS). We use the following formula:

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To summarize:

APV

WACC

Discounted
value of FCF

$26.41

$28.0

Value of
tax shield

$3.7

Total

$30.1

$28.0

The APV and WACC methods make slightly different assumptions about the
value of interest tax shields, resulting in slightly different values.

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Comparable Transactions
To use the “comparable transactions” technique of valuing a company, you
need to look at the “comparable” transactions that have taken place in the
industry and accompanying relevant metrics such as “multiples” or ratios
(e.g., price paid: EBITDA). For example, when NationsBank was
considering acquiring Montgomery Securities, it likely studied comparable
transactions, such as Bankers Trust’s acquisition of Alex Brown or Bank of
America’s acquisition of Robertson Stephens. In other words, NationsBank
looked at other acquisitions of investment banks by financial institutions that
had taken place in the recent past, ascertained the relevant multiples at which
these firms were acquired (EBIT or Book Value, for example) and applied
these multiples to the company which they were trying to value.
With the comparable transactions method, you are looking for a key
valuation parameter. That is, were the companies in those transactions
valued as a multiple of EBIT, EBITDA, revenue, or some other parameter?
If you figure out what the key valuation parameter is, you can examine at
what multiples of those parameters the comparable companies were valued.
You can then use a similar approach to value the company being considered.
As an example, let’s assume that there is an Internet start-up called
echicago.com that is planning to go public. Let’s also say that this is a health
care Internet company. The question the company’s financial management,
their investment bankers, and the portfolio managers who are planning to
buy stock in the company will ask is: “How much is the company worth?”
To obtain a value for the company, they can look at recent comparable
transactions. For example, suppose eharvard.com and estanford.com are
other health care Internet companies that have recently successfully gone
public. The financials of the companies are summarized below (assume all
companies have no net debt, so their Equity and Enterprise Values are
identical):
Value

Sales

EBITDA

Earnings

Sales Multiples

(Market Cap) (mil)

(mil)

(Losses) (mil)

(Market Cap/Sales)

echicago.com

(10)

estanford.com

2100

(12)

eharvard.com

3000

(8)

Company

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Because the three companies are in the same industry and have similar
financials, the transaction for echicago.com can be valued at multiples
similar to those used for the other two. The value for echicago.com could
be anywhere from 30 x 80 to 40 x 80, i.e., 2,400 to 3,200 millions of dollars,
or $2.4 billion to $3.2 billion. (Bankers would value the company using this
range in valuation; at the time of heavy speculation in Internet stocks,
however, we would not be surprised if investors valued the company at an
even higher price.)

Multiple Analysis or Comparable
Company Analysis
Quite often, there is not enough information to determine the valuation using
the comparable transactions method. In these cases, you can value a
company based on market valuation multiples, which you can do using more
readily available information. Examples of these valuation multiples
include price/earning multiples (also known as P/E ratios, this method,
which compares a company’s market capitalization to its annual income, is
the most commonly used multiple) EBITDA multiples, and others. Once
you have done this, you can add debt to ascertain enterprise value. When
using these methods, you look at which multiples are used for other
companies in the industry to ascertain equity value.
Let’s look at an example. What is the value of a company in the
semiconductor industry with $100 million in net debt that posts annual sales
of $180 million, EBITDA of $70 million, and earnings of $40 million (let’s
call it Wharton Semiconductor). Companies in the semiconductor industry
might be valued with sales, EBITDA or earning multiples. The numbers
used for EBITDA or earnings might be figured for the 12 months trailing
(the previous 12 months), the last fiscal year, 12 months projected, or the
next fiscal year projected. These figures can be obtained from research
reports published by various research departments within investment banks
or brokerage houses.

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Let’s assume that there are four semiconductor companies similar to
Wharton Semiconductor. An investment bank would perform a “Common
Stock Comparison” to determine relevant multiples:
Company

Value
(Market Cap)

Sales

EBITDA

Earnings

Chicago Semiconductor

900

220

115

Harvard Semiconductor

700

190

Kellogg Semiconductor

650

280

Stanford Semiconductor

320

150

Company

Sales
Multiples

(

)

Market Cap
Sales

EBITDA
Multiples

(

)

Market Cap
EBITDA

Price-toEarnings
Multiples

(

)

Market Cap
Earnings

Chicago Semiconductor

4.1

7.8

11.0

Harvard Semiconductor

3.7

7.8

11.7

Kellogg Semiconductor

2.3

9.6

15.5

Stanford Semiconductor

2.1

7.1

12.3

AVERAGE

3.1

8.1

12.6

Notice above that Enterprise Value is divided by sales or EBITDA to
ascertain the sales and EBITDA multiples, while Equity Value is divided by
Net Income to ascertain the price-to-earnings multiple.
Using the average multiples from the Common Stock Comparison, we can
estimate Wharton Semiconductor’s value as follows:

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Using the sales multiple: Wharton’s sales of $180 million x 3.1 (average
sales multiple) = $558 million (Enterprise Value) - $100 million (Net Debt)
= $458 million (Equity Value)
Using the EBITDA multiple: Wharton’s EBITDA of $70 million x 8.1
(average EBITDA multiple) = $565 million (Enterprise Value) - $100
million (Net Debt) = $465 million (Equity Value)
Using the price-to-earnings multiple: Wharton’s earnings of $40 million x
12.6 (average price-to-earnings multiple) = $505 million (Equity Value)
So using the multiples method, we can estimate the Equity Value of Wharton
Semiconductor at between $449 and $505 million. This means that, adding
in debt, we arrive at Wharton’s Enterprise Value of between $549 and $605
million.

Questions
1. What is the difference between the Income Statement and the
Statement of Cash Flows?
The Income Statement is a record of Revenues and Expenses while the
Statement of Cash Flows records the actual cash that has either come into or
left the company. The Statement of Cash Flows has the following
categories: Operating Cash Flows, Investing Cash Flows, and Financing
Cash Flows.
Interestingly, a company can be profitable as shown in the Income
Statement, but still go bankrupt if it doesn’t have the cash flow to meet
interest payments.
2. What is the link between the Balance Sheet and the Income
Statement?
The main link between the two statements is that profits generated in the
Income Statement get added to shareholder’s equity on the Balance Sheet as
Retained Earnings. Also, debt on the Balance Sheet is used to calculate
interest expense in the Income Statement.

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3. What is the link between the Balance Sheet and the Statement of Cash
Flows?
The Statement of Cash Flows starts with the beginning cash balance, which
comes from the Balance Sheet. Also, Cash from Operations is derived using
the changes in Balance Sheet accounts (such as Accounts Payable, Accounts
Receivable, etc.). The net increase in cash flow for the prior year goes back
onto the next year’s Balance Sheet .
4. What is EBITDA?
A proxy for cash flow, EBITDA is Earnings Before Interest, Taxes,
Depreciation, and Amortization.
5. Say you knew a company’s net income. How would you figure out its
“free cash flow”?
Start with the company’s Net Income. Then add back Depreciation and
Amortization. Subtract the company’s Capital Expenditures (called
“CapEx” for short, this is how much money the company invests each year
in plant and equipment). The number you get is the company’s free cash
flow:

Net Income
+ Depreciation and Amortization
– Capital Expenditures
– Increase (or + decrease) in net working capital
= Free Cash Flow (FCF)

6. Walk me through the major line items on a Cash Flow statement.
The answer: first the Beginning Cash Balance, then Cash from Operations,
then Cash from Investing Activities, then Cash from Financing Activities,
and finally the Ending Cash Balance.

7. What happens to each of the three primary financial statements when
you change a) gross margin b) capital expenditures c) any other change?
Think about the definitions of the variables that change. For example, gross
margin is gross profit/sales, or the extent to which sales of sold inventory
exceeds costs. Hence, if a) gross margin were to decrease, then gross profit

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decreases relative to sales. Thus, for the Income Statement, you would
probably pay lower taxes, but if nothing else changed, you would likely have
lower net income. The cash flow statement would be affected in the top line
with less cash likely coming in. Hence, if everything else remained the
same, you would likely have less cash. Going to the Balance Sheet, you
would not only have less cash, but to balance that effect, you would have
lower shareholder’s equity.
b) If capital expenditure were to say, decrease, then first, the level of capital
expenditures would decrease on the Statement of Cash Flows. This would
increase the level of cash on the balance sheet, but decrease the level of
property, plant and equipment, so total assets stay the same. On the income
statement, the depreciation expense would be lower in subsequent years, so
net income would be higher, which would increase cash and shareholder’s
equity in the future.
c) Just be sure you understand the interplay between the three sheets.
Remember that changing one sheet has ramifications on all the other
statements both today and in the future.

8. How do you value a company?
Valuing a company is one of the most popular technical tasks you will be
asked to perform in finance interviews. Remember the several methods that
we discussed, and good luck. MBAs looking for I-banking or finance in a
company positions are sure to get this question.
One basic answer to this question is to discount the company’s projected
cash flows using a “risk-adjusted discount rate.” This process involves
several steps. First you must project a company’s cash flows for 10 years.
Then you must choose a constant growth rate after 10 years going forward.
Finally, you must choose an appropriate discount rate. After projecting the
first five or 10 years performance, you add in a “Terminal Value,” which
represents the present value of all the future cash flows another 10 years.
You can calculate the Terminal Value in one of two ways: (1) you take the
earnings of the last year you projected, say year 10, and multiply it by some
market multiple like 20 times earnings, use that as your terminal value; or
(2) you take the last year, say year 10, and assume some constant growth rate
after that like 10 percent. The present value of this growing stream of
payments after year 10 is the Terminal Value. Finally, to figure out what
“discount rate” you would use to discount the company’s cash flows, tell
your interviewer you would use the “Capital Asset Pricing Model” (or
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Valuation Techniques

“CAPM”). (In a nutshell, CAPM says that the proper discount rate to use is
the risk-free interest rate adjusted upwards to reflect this particular
company’s market risk or “Beta.”) For a more advanced answer, discuss the
APV and WACC methods.
You should also mention other methods of valuing a company, including
looking at “comparables” – that is, how other similar companies were
valued recently as a multiple of their sales, net income, or some other
measure.
9. The CEO of a $500 million company has called you, her investment
banker. She wants to sell the company. She wants to know how much
she can expect for the company today.
It might sound different, but this is the same question as No. 8: How do you
value a company?
10. What is the formula for the Capital Asset Pricing Model?
The Capital Asset Pricing Model is used to calculate the expected return on
an investment. Beta for a company is a measure of the relative volatility of
the given investment with respect to the market, i.e., if Beta is 1, the returns
on the investment (stock/bond/portfolio) vary identically with the market’s
returns. Here “the market” refers to a well diversified index such as the
S&P 500. The formula for CAPM is as follows:

CAPM:
reL = rf + ßL (rm - rf)

Here:
rf

= Risk-free rate = the Treasury bond rate for the period for which the
projections are being considered
rm
= Market return
rm - rf = Excess market return
ßL
= Leveraged Beta
L
re
= Discount rate for (leveraged) equity (calculated using the CAPM)

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Valuation Techniques

11. Why might there be multiple valuations for a single company?
As this chapter has discussed, there are several different methods by which
one can value a company. And even if you use the rigorously academic DCF
analysis, the two main methods (the WACC and APV method) make
different assumptions about interest tax shields, which can lead to different
valuations.
12. How do you calculate the terminal value of a company?
Terminal year value is calculated by taking a given year in the future at
which a company is stable (usually year 10), assuming perpetually stable
growth after that year, using a perpetuity formula to come up with the value
in that year based on future cash flows, and discounting that value back to
the present day. This method uses the following formula.

TY FCF =

FCF10 (1 + g)
(rd - g)

Here “g” is an assumed growth rate and rd is the discount rate. Remember
that you could also calculate the terminal value of a company by taking a
multiple of terminal year cash flows, and discounting that back to the
present to arrive at an answer. This alternative method might be used in
some instances because it is less dependent on the assumed growth rate (g).
13. Why are the P/E multiples for a company in London different than
that of the same company in the States?
The P/E multiples can be different in the two countries even if all other
factors are constant because of the difference in the way earnings are
recorded. Overall market valuations in American markets tend to be higher
than those in the U.K.
14. What are the different multiples that can be used to value a
company?
The most commonly used multiple is price-to-earnings multiple, or “P/E
ratio.” Other multiples that are used include revenue, EBITDA, EBIT, and
book value. The relevant multiple depends on the industry. For example,
Internet companies are often valued with revenue multiples; this explains

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Valuation Techniques

why companies with low profits can have such high market caps.
Companies in the metals and mining industry are valued using EBITDA.
As discussed in the section on valuation, not only should you be aware of
the financial metric being used, you should know the time period the metric
used represents: for example, earnings in a P/E ratio can be for the previous
or projected 12 months, or for the previous or projected fiscal year.
15. How do you get the discount rate for an all-equity firm?
You use the Capital Asset Pricing Model, or CAPM.
16. Can I apply CAPM in Latin American markets?
CAPM was developed for use in the U.S. markets, however, it is presently
the best known tool for calculating discount rates. Hence, while CAPM is
not exact, it is a good framework for thinking about and analyzing discount
rates outside of the U.S. as fundamentally, markets are based on similar
principles.
17. How much would you pay for a company with $50 million in revenue
and $5 million in profit?
If this is all the information you are given you can use the comparable
transaction or multiples method to value this company (rather than the DCF
method). To use the multiples method, you can examine common stock
information of comparable companies in the same industry, to get average
industry multiples of price-to-earnings. You can then apply that multiple to
find the given company’s value.
18. What is the difference between the APV and WACC?
WACC incorporates the effect of tax shields into the discount rate used to
calculate the present value of cash flows. WACC is typically calculated
using actual data and numbers from balance sheets for companies or
industries.
APV adds the present value of the financing effects (most commonly, the
debt tax shield) to the net present value assuming an all-equity value, and
calculates the adjusted present value. The APV approach is particularly
useful in cases where subsidized costs of financing are more complex, such
as in a leveraged buyout.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Valuation Techniques

19. How would you value a company with no revenue?
First you would make reasonable assumptions about the company’s
projected revenues (and projected cash flows) for future years. Then you
would calculate the Net Present Value of these cash flows.
20. What is Beta?
Beta is the value that represents a stock’s volatility with respect to overall
market volatility.
21. How do you unlever a company’s Beta?
Unlevering a company’s Beta means calculating the Beta under the
assumption that it is an all-equity firm. The formula is as follows:

[

ßL = ßU

]

1 + (1 - t)(D)
(E)

22. Name three companies that are undervalued and tell me why you
think they are undervalued.
This is a very popular question for equity research and portfolio
management jobs. Here you have to do your homework. Study the stocks
you like and value them using various methods: DCF, multiples, comparable
transactions, etc. Then choose several undervalued (and overvalued) stocks,
and be prepared to back up your assessment, using financial and strategy
information.
For example, let’s say that Coke received some bad PR recently and its stock
took a hammering in the market. However, the earnings of Coke are not
expected to decrease significantly because of the negative publicity (or at
least that’s your analysis). Thus, Coke is trading at a lower P/E relative to
Pepsi and others in the industry: it is undervalued. This is an example of a
line of reasoning you might offer when asked this question (the more
thorough and insightful the reasoning, the better). Using some of the
techniques discussed earlier as well as regular readings of the WSJ and other
publications, will help you formulate real-world examples.

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Also, keep in mind that there are no absolute right answers for a question
like this: If everyone in the market believed that a stock was undervalued,
the price would go up and it wouldn’t be undervalued anymore! What the
interviewer is looking for is your chain of thought, your ability to
communicate that convincingly, your interest in the markets and your
preparation for the interview.
23. Walk me through the major items of an Income Statement.
Know all the items that go into the three major components: revenues,
expenses and net income.
24. Which industries are you interested in? What are the multiples that
you use for those industries?
As discussed, different industries use different multiples. Answering the
first part of the question, pick an industry and know any major events that
are happening. Next, if you claim interest in a certain industry, you better
know how companies in the industry are commonly valued. (Don’t answer
the first question without knowing the answer to the second!)
25. Is 10 a high P/E ratio?
The answer to this or any question like this is, “it depends.” P/E ratios are
relative measurements, and in order to know whether a P/E ratio is high or
low, we need to know the general P/E ratios of comparable companies.
Generally, higher growth firms will have higher P/E ratios because their
earnings will be low relative to their price, with the idea that the earnings
will eventually grow more rapidly that the stock's price.
26. Describe a typical company's capital structure.
A company's capital structure is just what it sounds like: the structure of the
capital that makes up the firm, or its debts and equity. Capital structure
includes permanent, long-term financing of a company, including long-term
debt, preferred stock and common stock, and retained earnings. The
statement of a company's capital structure as expressed above reflects the
order in which contributors to the capital structure are paid back, and the
order in which they have claims on company's assets should it liquidate.
Debt has first priority, then preferred stock holders, then common stock
holders. Anything left over is put into the retained earnings account.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Valuation Techniques

27. Value the following company given the following information (a
written finance interview question):
Year One

Year Two

Year Three

Year Four

EBIT

480.0

530.0

580.0

605.0

Depreciation

145.0

130.0

110.0

100.0

Capital Expenditures

160.0

140.0

130.0

110.0

Increase in
Working Capital

25.0

20.0

15.0

12.0

Tax Rate (t)

40%

Book Value Debt (D)

1,200

Book Value Equity (Ebook)

1,500

Market Value Equity (Emarket)

1,800

Beta (historical) (ßL)

1.10

Long-term T-Bond rate (rf)

8.0%

Long-term debt rate (rD)

10.0%

Long-term growth rate (g)

4.0%

Long-term risk premium (rm - rf)

6.0%

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Step 1: Figuring out free cash flows

Free cash flow to an all-equity firm = EBIT (1 - t) + Depreciation
- Capital Expenditures - Increase in Working Capital
Plugging in our data, our free cash flows look like this:
Year One

Year Two

Year Three

Year Four

248.00

288.00

313.00

341.00

FCF

Step 2: Figuring out a discount rate
Remember that there are two ways to determine a discount rate. Let’s begin
with a discount rate for APV analysis:
APV

First, get ßU from the ß L of 1.50

ßU

ßL
[1 + (1 - t)(D)]
E(market value)
1.10

[

1 + (1 - 0.40)(1,200)

]

(1,800)

reU

rf + ßU (rm - rf)

reU

0.08 + (0.79)(0.06) = 12.7%

The expected return on equity for an all-equity firm would be 12.7 percent.
We will use this as the discount rate for the APV analysis.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Valuation Techniques

WACC
Let’s now look at the WACC method. For WACC, we need to know what
the target (long-term) debt-to-capital ratio for this company is. Let’s assume
that it is 30 percent. That is, in the long run, this company expects to finance
its projects with 30 percent debt and 70 percent equity.

First, we need to calculate ßL

[

]

ßL

ßU 1 + (1 - t) (D)
(E)

ßL

0.79

0.993

[

]

1 + (1 - 0.40)(0.3)
(0.7)

reL =

rf + (ßL)(0.06)

reL =

(0.08) + (0.993)(0.06) = 13.95 or 14.0%

Since our long-term debt rate is 10 percent, and our long-term debt is 30
percent, we can now calculate WACC.

WACC =

(E)
(D)
(reL) +
(1 - t)(rD)
(D + E)
(D + E)

WACC =

0.7 x 0.139 + 0.3 x (1 - 0.4) x 0.1

WACC =

0.1153 or 11.53%

Step 3: Figuring out a terminal value
In figuring out a terminal value, first we assume that the company operates
forever. Since we only have four years of cash flow, we need to put a value
on all the cash flows after Year Four. Given that the Year Four cash flow is
341 and we expect it to grow at 5 percent a year, the value of all cash flows
after Year Four (as of the end of Year Four) can be calculated with the
Terminal Value formula of our choice (either APV or WACC).
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APV

FCF10 (1 + g)

TY FCF =

(rd - g)
341(1 + 0.05)

TY FCF =

= 4,650

(0.127 - 0.05)

WACC

FCF10 (1 + g)

TY FCF =

(rd - g)
341(1 + 0.05)

TY FCF =

= 5,483

(0.1153 - 0.05)

Step 4: Figuring out the NPV of all the cash flows
Now we have to add up our cash flows

APV
FCF

Year One

Year Two

Year Three

Year Four

248.00

288.00

313.00

341.00

Add terminal value = 4,650

FCFadjusted

248.00

288.00

313.00

4,991

Using these cash flows, and our discount rate (reu) of 12.7 percent, we can
calculate the Net Present Value using the NPV formula.

NPV =

FCF1
(1 + reu)

FCF2
(1 + reu)

248
(1 + 0.127)

FCF3
(1 + reu)

288
(1 + 0.127)2

FCF4
(1 + reu)
313

(1 + 0.127)3

4,991
(1 + 0.127)4

220 + 226.7 + 218.66 + 3,093.8 = 3,759

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Valuation Techniques

Let’s add up the cash flows for the WACC method:

WACC
FCF

Year One

Year Two

Year Three

Year Four

248.00

288.00

313.00

341.00

Add terminal value = 5,483

FCFadjusted

248.00

288.00

313.00

5,824.15

RE = REL(WACC) = RWACC

NPV =

FCF1
(1 + RE)

FCF2
(1 + RE)

FCF3
(1 + RE)

FCF4
(1 + RE)

NPV =

248
288
313
5,824.15
+
+
+
2
3
(1 + 0.1153)
(1 + 0.1153)
(1 + 0.1153)
(1 + 0.1153)4

NPV =

222.36 + 231.53 + 225.6 + 3,764.1 = 4,443.62

Step 5: Putting it all together and figuring out the
companys value
For WACC, we are done with our calculation – the value of the company is
$4,443.62.
For APV, however since we’ve used unlevered numbers (numbers without
debt involved), we need to add the present value of the interest tax shields
we get from debt interest payments. We use the following formula to figure
out the tax shield:

APV w/debt tax benefits = APV without debt tax benefits + DTS
DTS = APV without DTS X (Tax rate (t) X Long-term debt ratio)
If the company’s long-term debt ratio is 30%:
DTS = 3759 X (.4 X .3)
DTS = $451

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To summarize the results:
APV

WACC

Discounted
value of FCF

$3,759

$4,443

Value of tax
shield

$451

Total

$4,210

$4,443

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EQUITY
ANALYSIS AND
PORTFOLIO
MANAGEMENT

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Equity Analysis and Portfolio Management

Investment Management
and Portfolio Theory
Asset managers and portfolio managers (as well the job candidates
interviewing for these positions) are expected to understand basic portfolio
theory. This section covers the basics of portfolio theory. For more
advanced concepts, read the Vault Guide to Advanced Finance &
Quantitative Interviews.
Regardless of the type of portfolio he or she manages, the aim of every
portfolio manager is the same: to achieve the highest rate of return possible
given the asset class he or she is investing in while minimizing risk. As a
portfolio manager, the type of risk you are allowed to assume depends on the
type of assets or fund you are managing, but your job is still to keep the risk
as low as you can while still achieving the expected returns.
Risk
In a nutshell, the riskiness of a portfolio is defined as the standard deviation
of the portfolio’s expected returns. Standard deviation is a measure of
volatility. So, the more predictable a portfolio’s returns are perceived to be,
the less risky it is. Conversely, the less predictable a portfolio’s returns are,
the more risky the portfolio is. For example, a portfolio of stocks with
relatively low revenue and high growth prospects, where the prices can
move wildly from day to day, is a relatively “risky” portfolio.
A fact you need to face as a portfolio manager is that in order to receive an
increased return from your investment portfolio, you need to accept an
increased amount of risk. Keeping the assets in your portfolio in cash
reduces the portfolio’s risk, but it also reduces the potential return.
Portfolio risk vs. a single securitys risk
Rather than look at risk at the individual security level, portfolio managers
must constantly measure the risk of an entire portfolio. When an interviewer
for a portfolio manager’s job asks you whether you recommend adding a
particular security to a portfolio, don’t simply base your decision on the risk
of the given security. Instead, consider how that security contributes to the
overall risk of the portfolio. Using “correlation” is an effective technique for
determining such portfolio-level risk.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Equity Analysis and Portfolio Management

Correlation
The tendency for two investments in a portfolio to move together in price
under the same circumstances is called “correlation.” If two investments
have a strong positive correlation, they tend to move together. For example,
the stocks of Microsoft and Intel have a strong positive correlation. Both are
impacted by the demand for technology. Therefore, you can expect the
stocks of these two companies to generally move in the same direction.
If two stocks have a strong negative correlation, they will tend to move in
opposite directions. For example, high fuel prices might be good for oil
companies, but bad for airlines who need to buy the fuel. As a result, you
might expect that the stocks of companies in these two industries to move in
opposite directions. These two industries have a negative correlation. You’ll
get better diversification in your portfolio if you own one airline and one oil
company, rather than two oil companies. However, your returns may be
lower.
Note that the correlation between two things can be measured by a number
called a correlation coefficient. The correlation coefficient between two
securities can range from -1 (i.e., a perfect negative correlation) to +1 (i.e.,
a perfect positive correlation). A correlation coefficient of zero implies that
the two assets have no correlation with one another. You can calculate the
correlation coefficient between two securities using a formula or a financial
software program, though if you work at an investment bank you can usually
just look up this number.
Diversification
When the term “diversification” is used, it usually means building a
portfolio that includes securities from different asset classes, like stocks and
bonds. However, realize that this is the case precisely because bonds often
tend to do well when stocks don’t (i.e., they have a low correlation).
Another way to diversify a portfolio is to buy securities in the same asset
class that are not affected by the same variables and that therefore also have
a low correlation (think oil and airlines). Conversely, a portfolio of
securities with a strong positive correlation will be relatively undiversified
and therefore more risky, but may garner higher returns.

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Risk level of a portfolio with two securities:
Type of Correlation

Correlation Coefficient

Risk Level

Example

Securities have a strong
positive correlation

Close to 1

High

Microsoft and Intel

Securities have a weak or
zero correlation

Close to zero

Medium

Microsoft and
H&R Block

Securities have a strong
negative correlation

Close to -1

Low

Exxon and
Federal Express

Stock Analysis and Stock Picking
Technical analysis vs. fundamental analysis
Technical analysis involves looking at charts and patterns associated with a
stock’s historical price movements to try to profit from predictable patterns,
regardless of fundamentals such as revenue growth or expense trends.
While many on Wall Street look down upon technical analysis (and it is
rarely taught at business schools), some Wall Street traders still rely on it or
use it in conjunction with fundamental analysis to decide whether and when
to buy and sell.
In contrast, fundamental analysis of a stock (or other security) involves
using financial analysis to analyze the company’s underlying business, such
as sales growth, its balance sheet, etc., (its “fundamentals”) to decide
whether and when to buy and sell.
For the most part, your interviewers will be looking for your skills in
fundamental analysis, though if you’re interviewing for a trading position
your interviewer might expect you to have some familiarity with technical
analysis.
Stock valuation techniques
The most common forms of fundamental analysis involve the traditional
valuation techniques (DCF, multiples analysis) as well as the various
accounting and financial statement analyses that are covered in the Valuation
Techniques chapter. For investment management interviews, you should
have a strong command for these techniques for valuing individual stocks.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Equity Analysis and Portfolio Management

Financial ratios
Another important form of stock analysis is Ratio Analysis, which involves
looking at a company’s various financial ratios and how they have changed
over time to spot trends or trouble spots in the company’s operations. A
financial ratio by itself doesn’t necessary tell you very much. More
important is comparing how a company’s financial ratios are changing from
one quarter to the next, and how they compare a company’s financial ratios
with other companies in its industry.
Below are the most common ratios used in finance to analyze companies.
Particularly if you are interviewing for investment management, equity
research or similar finance positions, you may be asked questions about how
to calculate common financial ratios and what they signify.
Solvency Ratios
Quick Ratio

Cash + Accounts
Receivable
Total Current Liabilities

Current Ratio

Total Current Assets
Total Current Liabilities

Cash Ratio (also called
Liquidity Ratio)
Debt to Equity

Cash
Total Current Liabilities
Debt
Equity

Current Liabilities to
Inventory

Total Liabilities to Net
Worth

Total Current Liabilities
Inventory
Total Liabilities
Net Worth

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Shows the amount of liquid
assets (i.e., cash or assets
that can be quickly
converted to cash) on hand
to cover current debts
Similar to the Quick Ratio,
but broader, since it
includes less liquid assets
that may be used to cover
current debts
Shows the cash on hand to
cover current liabilities
Shows the amount of
shareholders equity
available to cover debts
Shows how much a
company can rely on unsold
inventory to cover debts
Similar to the debt to equity
ratio, but broader since it
includes all the companys
liabilities, not just debt

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Equity Analysis and Portfolio Management

Efficiency Ratios
Collection Period
(also called Day Sales
Outstanding)

Accounts Receivable

Inventory Turnover
(also called Inventory
Utilization Ratio)

Sales

Sales to Assets

Sales X 365

Inventory
Sales
Total Assets

Sales to Net Working
Capital

Gross Profit Margin
(also called Return
on Sales)
Return on Assets

Sales
Net Working Capital

Gross Profit
Sales
Net Profit After Taxes
Total Assets

Return on Equity
(also called Return
on Net Worth)

Net Profit After Taxes
Net Worth

Shows the average amount
of time it takes a company
to collect from customers
Shows how quickly a
company is selling its
inventory
Measures how efficiently a
company is using its assets
to generate sales
Shows a companys ability
to use short-term assets
and liabilities to generate
revenue
A measure of efficiency
shows profits earned per
dollar of sales
Shows profits relative
to a companys assets
Shows profits relative
to equity

You can use these ratios to ascertain the health of a company. For example,
a higher current ratio is better; a company’s position is improving when the
collection period declines. Here’s a quick chart that explains whether a
higher or lower ratio is better.

Ratio

Good Trend

Bad Trend

Quick Ratio

Rising

Falling

Current Ratio

Rising

Falling

Cash Ratio

Rising

Falling

Debt to Equity

Falling

Rising

Current Liabilities to Inventory

Falling

Rising

Total Liabilities to Net Worth

Falling

Rising

Collection Period

Falling

Rising

Inventory Turnover

Rising

Falling

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Equity Analysis and Portfolio Management

Ratio

Good Trend

Bad Trend

Sales to Assets

Rising

Falling

Sales to Net Working Capital

Rising

Falling

Gross Profit Margin

Rising

Falling

Return on Assets

Rising

Falling

Return on Equity

Rising

Falling

Questions
1. If you add a risky stock into a portfolio that is already risky, how is
the overall portfolio risk affected?
A. It becomes riskier
B. It becomes less risky
C. Overall risk is unaffected
D. It depends on the stock’s risk relative to that of the portfolio
Answer: D. In modern portfolio theory, if you add a risky stock into a
portfolio that is already risky, the resulting portfolio may be more or less
risky than before.
A portfolio’s overall risk is determined not just by the riskiness of its
individual positions, but also by how those positions are correlated with
each other. For example, a portfolio with two high-tech stocks might at first
glance be considered risky, but if those two stocks tends to move in opposite
directions, then the riskiness of the portfolio overall could be significantly
lower. So the risk effect of adding a new stock to an existing portfolio
depends on how that stock correlates with the other stocks in the portfolio.
2. Put the following portfolios consisting of 2 stocks in order from the
least risky to the most risky and explain why
A. A portfolio of a cable television company stock and an oil company
stock
B. A portfolio of an airline company stock and a cruise ship company
stock
C. A portfolio of an airline company stock and an oil company stock.
Answer: Least risky: C. Then A. B is the most risky.

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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Equity Analysis and Portfolio Management

The least risky portfolio is the one where the two securities have a strong
negative correlation. Stocks with a strong negative correlation tend to move
in the opposite direction under the same circumstances. Therefore, the value
of the portfolio will remain relatively stable over time, making the portfolio
less risky. In this question, since high fuel prices might be good for oil
companies, but bad for airlines who need to buy the fuel, you would expect
that the stocks of companies in these two industries to move in opposite
directions. These two industries have a strong negative correlation and
portfolio C is the least risky.
Portfolio B is the most risky because the stocks of airline companies and
cruise ship companies have a strong positive correlation: they tend to move
in the same direction under the same circumstances. For example, after the
September 11 terrorist attacks all travel related businesses suffered from
sharply lower demand. A portfolio of two securities with a strong positive
correlation will be the most risky.
Portfolio A is in the middle because we would expect cable TV stocks and
oil stocks to have a weak correlation. A weak correlation (correlation
coefficient of around 0) means that the two securities generally do not move
in the same direction under the same circumstances.
3. How do you calculate a companys Days Sales Outstanding?
Average Accounts Receivable/ Sales x 365 days
Note: The average accounts receivable for any period can be approximated by:
(Ending accounts receivable + beginning accounts receivable) ÷ 2
4. How do you calculate a companys Current Ratio?
Current assets (cash, accounts receivable, etc) / Current liabilities (accounts
payable and other short-term liabilities)
A high current ratio indicates that a company has enough cash (and assets
they can quickly turn into cash, like accounts receivable) to cover its
immediate payment requirements on liabilities.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Equity Analysis and Portfolio Management

5. Gotham Energy just released second quarter financial results.
Looking at its balance sheet you calculate that its Current Ratio went
from 1.5 to 1.2. Does this make you more or less likely to buy the stock?
Less likely. This means that the company is less able to cover its immediate
liabilities with cash on hand and other current assets than it was last quarter.
6. Xeron Software Corporations days sales outstanding have gone from
58 days to 42 days. Does this make you more or less likely to issue a Buy
rating on the stock?
More likely. When the company’s days sales outstanding (DSOs) decreases,
it means the company is able to collect money from its customers faster. In
other words, Xeron’s customers went from taking an average of 58 days to
pay their bills to 42 days. All things being equal, having faster paying
customers is almost always a good thing. Of course, one caveat is that you
want to make sure Xeron didn’t achieve this by imposing much tighter credit
terms on its customers and therefore. But if the company’s sales grew at the
same time its DSOs decreased, then as a research analyst or trader you’ll be
more likely to want to buy the stock.

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STOCKS

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Stocks

A Remedial Lesson
What does the “Inc.” after the names of many companies mean? In short,
Inc. stands for “incorporated,” a legal term that makes an entity a legal
company. There are many forms of incorporation from which a company
can choose. With the help of a lawyer, a company files papers/applications
in court to define itself as one of these forms. A company can be
incorporated as a C Corp, an S Corp, an LLC (Limited Liability
Corporation), or a partnership. There are different rules of ownership for
each of these forms, which determine in part how a company pays out
profits, is taxed, and so on.
The incorporation of a company can be regarded as its birth. And when a
company is born, it has equity. This equity is also referred to as stock, and
refers to ownership in a company. Most people unfamiliar with the finance
world equate stock with the running tickers in the pits of Wall Street trading
floors, and other symbols of publicly traded stock. You should realize that
companies do not have to be publicly traded in order to have stock they
just have to be incorporated and owned.

Equity vs. Debt (Stocks vs. Bonds)
Companies are traditionally financed through a combination of debt and
equity. Equity, or ownership stake, is more volatile as its value fluctuates
with the value of the firm. The equity of a company is represented by
securities called stocks. Here, when we refer to stock, we are referring to
common stock, or stock without a guaranteed return (as opposed to prefered
stock).
Equity has a book value this is a strictly defined value that can be
calculated from the company’s Balance Sheet. It also has a market value.
The market value of equity or stock for a publicly traded firm can be found
in The Wall Street Journal or any of the stock quote services available today.
(Market value of a company’s equity can be understood with the simple
formula: stock price x number of shares outstanding [or common stock
outstanding] = market value of equity.) The market value of a private
company can be estimated using the valuation techniques discussed in the
valuation section of this guide. However, any method used to measure either
the book value or market value of a company depends on highly volatile
factors such as performance of the company, the industry and the market as

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Stocks

a whole and is thus highly volatile itself. Investors can make lots of money
based on their equity investment decisions and the subsequent changing
value of those stocks after they are bought.
The other component of the financing of a company is debt, which is
represented by securities called bonds. (In its simplest form, debt is issued
when investors loan money to a company at a given interest rate.) Typically,
banks and large financial institutions originate debt. The returns for debt
investors are assured in the form of interest on the debt. Sometimes, the
market value of the debt changes (see chapter on bonds), but bond prices
usually do not change as drastically as stock prices. On the downside, bonds
also have lower expected returns than stocks. U.S. Treasury bonds, for
example, can provide returns of 5 to 7 percent a year or so, while volatile
stocks may rise 10 percent in a single day. On the other hand, bonds usually
have less downside risk than stock. Though they won’t post big gains, U.S.
Treasury bonds won’t lose 10 percent of their value in a single day, either.
A simple analogy of how debt and equity make up financing for a company
is to consider how most people buy homes. Homebuyers generally start
with a down payment, which is a payment on the equity of the house. Then,
the homebuyer makes mortgage payments that are a combination of debt
(the interest on the mortgage) and equity (the principal payments). Initially,
a homebuyer generally pays primarily interest (debt), before gradually
buying larger and large portions of the principal (equity). Common stock
and debt are the two extremes in the continuum of the forms of investment
in a company.
In the middle of the continuum is preferred stock. One type of preferred
stock is referred to as convertible preferred. If the preferred stock is
convertible, it can be converted into common stock as prescribed in the
initial issuance of the preferred stock. Like bondholders, holders of preferred
stock are assured an interest-like return also referred to as the preferred
stock’s dividend. (A dividend is a payment made to stockholders, usually
quarterly, that is intended to distribute some of the company’s profits to
shareholders.)
The other key difference between preferred and common stock comes into
play when a company goes bankrupt. In what is referred to as the seniority
of creditors, the debt holders have first claim on the assets of the firm if the
company becomes insolvent. Preferred shareholders are next in line, while
the common stock shareholders bring up the rear. This isn’t just a matter of
having to wait in line longer if you are a common stock shareholder. If the
bondholders and owners of preferred stock have claims that exceed the value
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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Stocks

of the assets of a bankrupt company, the common stock shareholders won’t
see a dime.
There is a tax advantage for corporations who invest in preferred stock
rather than in bonds for other companies. Corporate investors are taxed for
only 30 percent of the dividends they receive on preferred stock. On the
other hand, 100 percent of the interest payments on bonds paid to corporate
investors are taxed. This tax rule comes in handy when structuring mergers.
Seniority of creditors:
1. Bondholders
2. Preferred stockholders
3. Common stockholders

Stock Terminology
Of course, a company's commitment to its stock doesn't end after the
issuance of shares. Companies communicate with shareholders regarding
the firm's past revenues, expenses and profits and the future of the business.
There are also ways a company can manage their shares once the stock is on
the open market to maximize shareholder value, the company's reputation
and the company's future ability to raise funds. Here are several concepts
and terms you'll need to be familiar with when you study stocks and how
public companies manage their shares.
Dividends
Dividends are paid to many shareholders of common stock (and preferred
stock). However, the directors cannot pay any dividends to the common
stock shareholders until they have paid all outstanding dividends to the
preferred stockholders. The incentive for company directors to issue
dividends is that companies in industries that are particularly dividend
sensitive have better market valuations if they regularly issue dividends.
Issuing regular dividends is a signal to the market that the company is doing
well.
Unlike bonds, however, the company directors decide when to pay the
dividend on preferred stock. In contrast, if a company fails to meet bond
payments as scheduled, the bondholders can force the company into Chapter
11 bankruptcy. (Bankruptcy filing in court comes in two categories: Chapter
74

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Stocks

7 and Chapter 11. If a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is approved, the court
puts a stay order on all interest payments management is given a period of
protection during which it can clean up its financial mess and try to get the
house marching toward profitability. If the management fails to do so within
the given time, there can be a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing, when the assets
of the company are liquidated.) This action, in theory, wipes out the value
of the company’s equity.
Stock splits
As a company grows in value, it sometimes splits its stock so that the price
does not become absurdly high. This enables the company to maintain the
liquidity of the stock. If The Coca-Cola Company had never split its stock,
the price of one share bought when the company’s stock was first offered
would be worth millions of dollars. If that were the case, buying and selling
one share would be a very crucial decision. This would adversely affect a
stock’s liquidity (that is, its ability to be freely traded on the market). In
theory, splitting the stock neither creates nor destroys value. However,
splitting the stock is generally received as a positive signal to the market;
therefore, the share price typically rises when a stock split is announced.
Stock buybacks
Often you will hear that a company has announced that it will buy back its
own stock. Such an announcement is usually followed by an increase in the
stock price. Why does a company buy back its stock? And why does its
price increase after?
The reason behind the price increase is fairly complex, and involves three
major reasons. The first has to do with the influence of earnings per share
on market valuation. Many investors believe that if a company buys back
shares, and the number of outstanding shares decreases, the company’s
earnings per share goes up. If the P/E (price to earnings-per-share ratio)
stays stable, investors reason, the price should go up. Thus investors drive
the stock price up in anticipation of increased earnings per share.
The second reason has to do with the signaling effect. This reason is simple
to understand, and largely explains why a company buys back stock. No one
understands the health of the company better than its senior managers. No
one is in a better position to judge what will happen to the future
performance of the company. So if a company decides to buy back stock
(i.e., decides to invest in its own stock), these managers must believe that the
stock price is undervalued and will rise (or so most observers would
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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Stocks

believe). This is the signal company management sends to the market, and
the market pushes the stock up in anticipation.
The third reason the stock price goes up after a buyback can be understood
in terms of the debt tax shield (a concept used in valuation methods). When
a company buys back stock, its net debt goes up (net debt = debt - cash).
Thus the debt tax shield associated with the company goes up and the
valuation rises (see APV valuation).
New stock issues
The reverse of a stock buyback is when a company issues new stock, which
usually is followed by a drop in the company’s stock price. As with stock
buybacks, there are three main reasons for this movement. First, investors
believe that issuing new shares dilutes earnings. That is, issuing new stock
increases the number of outstanding shares, which decreases earnings per
share, which given a stable P/E ratio decreases the share price. (Of
course, the issuing of new stock will presumably be used in a way that will
increase earnings, and thus the earnings per share figure won’t necessarily
decrease, but because investors believe in earnings dilution, they often drive
stock prices down) .
There is also the signaling effect. In other words, investors may ask why the
company’s senior managers decided to issue equity rather than debt to meet
their financing requirements. Surely, investors may believe, management
must believe that the valuation of their stock is high (possibly inflated) and
that by issuing stock they can take advantage of this high price.
Finally, if the company believes that the project for which they need money
will definitely be successful, it would have issued debt, thus keeping all of
the upside of the investment within the firm rather than distributing it away
in the form of additional equity. The stock price also drops because of debt
tax shield reasons. Because cash is flushed into the firm through the sale of
equity, the net debt decreases. As net debt decreases, so does the associated
debt tax shield.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Stocks

Questions
1. What kind of stocks would you issue for a startup?
A startup typically has more risk than a well-established firm. The kind of
stocks that one would issue for a startup would be those that protect the
downside of equity holders while giving them upside. Hence the stock
issued may be a combination of common stock, preferred stock and debt
notes with warrants (options to buy stock).
2. When should a company buy back stock?
When it believes the stock is undervalued, has extra cash, and believes it can
make money by investing in itself. This can happen in a variety of
situations. For example, if a company has suffered some decreased earnings
because of an inherently cyclical industry (such as the semiconductor
industry), and believes its stock price is unjustifiably low, it will buy back
its own stock. On other occasions, a company will buy back its stock if
investors are driving down the price precipitously. In this situation, the
company is attempting to send a signal to the market that it is optimistic that
its falling stock price is not justified. It’s saying: “We know more than
anyone else about our company. We are buying our stock back. Do you
really think our stock price should be this low?”
3. Is the dividend paid on common stock taxable to shareholders?
Preferred stock? Is it tax deductible for the company?
The dividend paid on common stock is taxable on two levels in the U.S.
First, it is taxed at the firm level, as a dividend comes out from the net
income after taxes (i.e., the money has been taxed once already). The
shareholders are then taxed for the dividend as ordinary income (O.I.) on
their personal income tax. Dividend for preferred stock is treated as an
interest expense and is tax-free at the corporate level.
4. When should a company issue stock rather than debt to fund its
operations?
There are several reasons for a company to issue stock rather than debt. If
the company believes its stock price is inflated it can raise money (on very
good terms) by issuing stock. Second, if the projects for which the money
is being raised may not generate predictable cash flows in the immediate
future, it may issue stock. A simple example of this is a startup company.
The owners of startups generally will issue stock rather than take on debt
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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Stocks

because their ventures will probably not generate predictable cash flows,
which is needed to make regular debt payments, and also so that the risk of
the venture is diffused among the company’s shareholders. A third reason
for a company to raise money by selling equity is if it wants to change its
debt-to-equity ratio. This ratio in part determines a company’s bond rating.
If a company’s bond rating is poor because it is struggling with large debts,
the company may decide to issue equity to pay down the debt.
5. Why would an investor buy preferred stock?
1) An investor that wants the upside potential of equity but wants to
minimize risk would buy preferred stock. The investor would receive steady
interest-like payments (dividends) from the preferred stock that are more
assured than the dividends from common stock. 2) The preferred stock
owner gets a superior right to the company’s assets should the company go
bankrupt. 3) A corporation would invest in preferred stock because the
dividends on preferred stock are taxed at a lower rate than the interest rates
on bonds.
6. Why would a company distribute its earnings through dividends to
common stockholders?
Regular dividend payments are signals that a company is healthy and
profitable. Also, issuing dividends can attract investors (shareholders).
Finally, a company may distribute earnings to shareholders if it lacks
profitable investment opportunities.
7. What stocks do you like?
This is a question often asked of those applying for all equity (sales &
trading, research, etc.) positions. (Applicants for investment banking and
trading positions, as well as investment management positions, have also
reported receiving this question.) If you’re interviewing for one of these
positions, you should prepare to talk about a couple of stocks you believe are
good buys and some that you don’t. This is also a question asked of
undergraduate finance candidates to gauge their level of interest in finance.
8. What did the S&P 500 close at yesterday?
Another question designed to make sure that a candidate is sincerely
interested in finance. This question (and others like it “What’s the Dow at
now?” “What’s the yield on the Long Bond?”) can be expected especially of
those looking for sales and trading positions.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Stocks

9. Why did the stock price of XYZ company decrease yesterday when it
announced increased quarterly earnings?
A couple of possible explanations: 1) the entire market was down, (or the
sector to which XYZ belongs was down), or 2) even though XYZ
announced increased earnings, the Street was expecting earnings to increase
even more.
10. Can you tell me about a recent IPO that you have followed?
Read The Wall Street Journal and stay current with recent offerings.
11. What is your investing strategy?
Different investors have different strategies. Some look for undervalued
stocks, others for stocks with growth potential and yet others for stocks with
steady performance. A strategy could also be focused on the long-term or
short-term, and be more risky or less risky. Whatever your investing
strategy is, you should be able to articulate these attributes.
12. How has your portfolio performed in the last five years?
If you are applying for an investment management firm as an MBA, you’d
better have a good answer for this one. If you don’t have a portfolio, start a
mock one using Yahoo! Finance or other tools. Also, if you think you are
going to say it has outperformed the S&P each year, you better be well
prepared to explain why you think this happened.
13. If you read that a given mutual fund has achieved 50 percent returns
last year, would you invest in it?
You should look for more information, as past performance is not
necessarily an indicator of future results. How has the overall market done?
How did it do in the years before? Why did it give 50 percent returns last
year? Can that strategy be expected to work continuously over the next five
to 10 years? You need to look for answers to these questions before making
a decision.

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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Stocks

14. You are on the board of directors of a company and own a significant
chunk of the company. The CEO, in his annual presentation, states that
the companys stock is doing well, as it has gone up 20 percent in the last
12 months. Is the companys stock in fact doing well?
Another trick stock question that you should not answer too quickly. First,
ask what the Beta of the company is. (Remember, the Beta represents the
volatility of the stock with respect to the market.) If the Beta is 1 and the
market (i.e. the Dow Jones Industrial Average) has gone up 35 percent, the
company actually has not done too well compared to the broader market.
15. Which do you think has higher growth potential, a stock that is
currently trading at $2 or a stock that is trading at $60?
This question tests your fundamental understanding of a stock’s value. The
short answer to the question is, “It depends.” While at first glance it may
appear that the stock with the lower price has more room for growth, price
does not tell the entire picture. Suppose the $2 stock has 1 billion shares
outstanding. That means it has $2 billion market cap, hardly a small cap
stock. On the flip side, if the $60 stock has 20,000 shares gives it a market
cap of $1,200,000, and hence it is extremely small and is probably seen as
having higher growth potential. Generally, high growth potential has little
to do with a stock's price, and has more to do with it's operations and
revenue prospects.
16. What do you think is happening with ABC stock?
Expect to be asked this question if you say you like to follow a given sector
like technology or pharmaceuticals. Interviewers will test you to see how
well you know your industry. In case you don’t know that stock, admit it,
and offer to describe a stock in that sector that you like or have been
following.
17. Where do you think the DJIA will be in three months and six months
and why?
Nobody knows the answer to this one. However, you should at least have
some thoughts on the subject and be able to articulate why you take your
stance.
If you have been following the performance of major
macroeconomic indicators (which will be reviewed in the next section), you
can state your case well.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Stocks

18. Why do some stocks rise so much on the first day of trading after
their IPO and others dont? How is that money left on the table?
By “money left on the table,” bankers mean that the company could have
successfully completed the offering at a higher price, and that the difference
in valuation thus goes to initial investors rather than the company. Why this
happens is not easy to predict from responses received from investors during
roadshows. Moreover, if the stock rises a lot the first day it is good publicity
for the firm. But in many ways it is money left on the table because the
company could have sold the same stock in its initial public offering at a
higher price. However, bankers must honestly value a company and its
stock over the long-term, rather than simply trying to guess what the market
will do. Even if a stock trades up significantly initially, a banker looking at
the long-term would expect the stock to come down, as long as the market
eventually correctly values it.
19. What is insider trading and why is it illegal?
Undergraduates may get this question as feelers of their general knowledge
of the finance industry. Insider trading describes the illegal activity of
buying or selling stock based on information that is not public information.
The law against insider trading exists to prevent those with privileged
information (company execs, I-bankers and lawyers) from using this
information to make a tremendous amount of money unfairly.
20. Who is a more senior creditor, a bondholder or stockholder?
The bondholder is always more senior. Stockholders (including those who
own preferred stock) must wait until bondholders are paid during a
bankruptcy before claiming company assets.

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BONDS AND
INTEREST
RATES

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Bonds and Interest Rates

A Remedial Lesson
A bond is a borrowing arrangement through which the borrower (or seller of
a bond) issues or sells an IOU document (the bond) to the investor (or buyer
of the bond). The arrangement obligates the borrower to make specified
payments to the bondholder on agreed-upon dates. For example, if you
purchase a five-year U.S. Treasury note, the U.S. government is borrowing
money from you for a period of five years. For this service, the government
will pay you interest at the T-bill rate (the interest) and return the amount it
borrowed (the principal) at the end of five years. Meanwhile, if you choose
not to keep the bond until it matures, you can sell the bond in the market for
the current value of the future interest payments and the end principal.
Different types of organizations can issue bonds: companies like Ford Motor
or Procter & Gamble, and municipal organizations, like counties and states.

Bond Terminology
Before going any further in our discussion of bonds, we will introduce
several terms you should be familiar with.
Par value or face value of a bond: This is the total amount the bond issuer
will commit to pay back at the end of the bond maturity period (when the
bond expires).
Coupon payments: The payments of interest that the bond issuer makes to
the bondholder. These are often specified in terms of coupon rates. The
coupon rate is the bond coupon payment divided by the bond’s par value.
Bond price: The price the bondholder (i.e. the lender) pays the bond issuer
(i.e. the borrower) to hold the bond (to have a claim on the cash flows
documented on the bond).
Default risk: The risk that the company issuing the bond may go bankrupt,
and default on its loans.
Default premium: The difference between the promised yields on a
corporate bond and the yield on an otherwise identical government bond. In
theory, the difference compensates the bondholder for the corporation’s
default risk.
Credit ratings: Bonds are rated by credit agencies (Moody’s, Standard &
Poor’s), which examine a company’s financial situation, outstanding debt,
84

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Bonds and Interest Rates

and other factors to determine the risk of default. Companies guard their
credit ratings closely, because the higher the rating, the easier they can raise
money and the lower the interest rate.
Investment grade bonds: These bonds have high credit ratings, and pay a
relatively low rate of interest.
Junk bonds: Also known as high yield bonds, these bonds have poor credit
ratings, and pay a relatively high rate of interest.
U.S. Treasury bills, notes, and bonds: Bills mature in one year or less,
notes in two to 10 years., and bonds in 30 years. (The 30-year U.S. Treasury
bond is also called The Long Bond.)
To illustrate how a bond works, let’s look at an 8% coupon, 30-year maturity
bond with a par value of $1,000, paying 60 coupon payments of $40 each.
Let’s illustrate this bond with the following schematic:

$1,000 + $40
0

Year 0

$40

Year 1

$40

Year 29

Coupon rate

= 8%

Par value

= $1,000

Therefore the coupon

$40

Year 30

8% x $1,000 = $80 per year

Because this bond is a semiannual coupon, the payments are for $40 every
six months. We can also say that the semiannual coupon rate is 4 percent.
Since the bond’s time to maturity is 30 years, there are total of 30 x 2 = 60
semiannual payments.
At the end of Year 30, the bondholder receives the last semiannual payment
of $40 dollars plus the principal of $1,000.

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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Bonds and Interest Rates

Pricing Bonds
The question now is, how much is a bond worth?
The price of a bond is the net present value of all future cash flows expected
from that bond. (Recall net present value from our discussion on valuation.)

Bond Value =
t=1

(

Coupon
(1+ r)t

)

Par Value
(1 + r)T

Here:
r

Discount rate

Interval (for example, 6 months)

Total payments

First, we must ask what discount rate should be used? Remember from our
discussion of valuation techniques that discount rate for a cash flow for a
given period should be able to account for the risk associated with the cash
flow for that period. In practice, there will be different discount rates for
cash flows occurring in different periods. However, for the sake of
simplicity, we will assume that the discount rate is the same as the interest
rate on the bond.
So, what is the price of the bond described earlier? From the equation above we
get:

Price =
t=1

(

$40

)

(1 + .04)t

$1000
(1 + .04)60

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Bonds and Interest Rates

Calculating the answer for this equation is complex. Luckily, this can be
solved using a financial calculator. It might be worth noting that the first
term of this equation is the present value of an annuity with fixed payments,
$40 every 6 months for 30 years in this example. Also, there are Present
Value tables available that simplify the calculations. In this case, the interest
rate is 4 percent and T is 60. Using the Present Value tables we get
= $904.94 + $95.06
= $1000
Also, if we look at the bond price equation closely, we see that the bond
price depends on the interest rate. If the interest rate is higher, the bond price
is lower and vice versa. This is a fundamental rule that should be understood
and remembered.
The Yield to Maturity (YTM) is the measure of the average rate of return
that will be earned on a bond if it is bought now and held until maturity. To
calculate this, we need the information on bond price, coupon rate and par
value of the bond.
Example: Suppose an 8% coupon, 30-year bond is selling at $1,276.76.
What average rate of return would be earned if you purchase the bond at this
price?
To answer this question, we must find the interest rate at which the
present value of the bond payments equals the bond price. This is the rate
that is consistent with the observed price of the bond. Therefore, we solve
for r in the following equation.

$1276.76 =
t=1

( )
$40

(1+r)t

$1,000
(1+r)60

This equation can be solved using a financial calculator; in completing the
calculation we see that the bond’s yield to maturity is 3 percent semiannually.

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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Bonds and Interest Rates

Holding Period Return (HPR)
The income earned over a period as a percentage of the bond price at the
start of the period, assuming that the bond is sold at the end of the period.
Example: Lets take a 30-year bond, with an $80 coupon, purchased for
$1000 with a Yield to Maturity (YTM) of 8 percent. Say at the end of the year,
the bond price increases to $1,050. Then the YTM will go below 8 percent,
but the HPR will be higher than 8 percent and is given by:

($80) + ($1,050 - $1,000)
HPR =

$ 1,000

= 13%

Callable bonds
For the sake of simplification in our earlier discussions, we assumed that the
discount rate was equal to the interest rate, and that the interest rate was
constant at the coupon rate. However, in the real world, this is not always the
case.
If the interest rate falls, bond prices can rise substantially, due to the concept
of opportunity cost of investments.
We’ll illustrate mathmatically why this happens with an example. Let’s say
a company has a bond outstanding. It took $810.71 and promised to make
the coupon payments as described above, at $40 every six months. Let’s say
the market interest rates dropped after a while (below 8 percent). According
to the bond document, the company is still expected to pay the coupon at a
rate of 8 percent.
If the interest rates were to drop in this manner, the company would be
paying a coupon rate much higher than the market interest rate today. In such
a situation, the company may want to buy the bond back so that it is not
committed to paying large coupon payments in the future. This is referred to
as calling the bond. However, an issuer can only call a bond if the bond was
originally issued as a callable bond. The risk that a bond will be called is
reflected in the bond’s price. The yield calculated up to the period when the
bond is called back is referred to as the yield to call.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Bonds and Interest Rates

Zero coupon bonds
This type of bond offers no coupon or interest payments to the bondholder. The
only payment the zero coupon bondholder receives is the payment of the bond
face value upon maturity. The returns on their coupon bonds must be
obtained by paying a lower initial price than their face value for them. These
bonds are priced at a considerable discount to par value.
Forward rates
These are agreed-upon interest rates for a bond to be issued in the future. For
example, the one year forward rate for a five-year U.S. Treasury note
represents the interest forward rate on a five-year T-note that will be issued
one year from now (and that will mature six years from now). This
“forward” rate changes daily just like the rates of already-issued bonds. It is
essentially based on the market’s expectation of what the interest rate a year
from now will be, and can be calculated using the rates of current bonds.

The Fed and Interest Rates
The Federal Reserve Board has broad responsibility for the health of the
U.S. financial system. In this role, the Fed sets the margin requirements on
stocks and options, and regulates bank lending to securities market
participants.
The Fed also has the responsibility of formulating the nation’s monetary
policy. In determining the monetary policy of the nation, the Fed
manipulates the money supply to effect the macroeconomy. When the Fed
increases the money supply going into the economy, the monetary policy set
by the Fed is said to be expansionary. This encourages investment and
subsequently increases consumption demand. In the long run, however, an
expansionary policy can lead to higher prices and inflation. Therefore, it is
the Fed’s responsibility to maintain a proper balance and prevent the
economy from both hyperinflation or recession.
The Fed uses several tools to regulate the money supply. The Fed can 1) use
its check writing capabilities, using open market operations 2) raise or lower
the interest rates, or 3) manipulate the reserve requirements for various
banks to control the money flow and thereby the interest rate.

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Bonds and Interest Rates

Let’s look at these tools one by one:
1. Open market operations
The Fed can “write a check” to buy securities and thereby increase the
money supply to do such things as buy back government bonds in the
market. Unlike the rest of us, the Fed doesn’t have to pay the money for a
check it has written. As we will see, an increase in the country’s money
supply stimulates the economy. Likewise, if the Fed sells securities, the
money paid for them leaves the money supply and slows the economy.
2. Changing interest rates
The Fed can raise or lower interest rates by changing: (a) the discount rate
(the interest rate the Fed charges banks on short-term loans), and/or (b) the
Federal Funds rate (or Fed Funds rate), the rate banks charge each other on
short-term loans. When the Fed raises or lowers interest rates, banks usually
quickly follow by raising or lowering their prime rate (the rate banks charge
on loans to its most creditworthy customers). A reduction of the interest rate
signals an expansionary monetary policy. Why? Because by reducing the
interest of its loans to banks, the Fed allows banks to lend out money at
lower rates. More businesses and individuals are willing to take out loans,
thus pouring more money into the economy.
3. Reserve requirements
All banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System are required to
maintain a minimum balance in a reserve account with the Fed. The amount
of this minimum balance depends on the total deposits of the bank’s
customers. These minimum deposits are referred to as “reserve
requirements.” Lowering the reserve requirements for various banks has the
same expansionary effect. This move allows banks to make more loans with
the deposits it has and thereby stimulates the economy by increasing the
money supply.
But why does an increase in money supply stimulate the economy? An
increase in the money supply usually results in investors having too much
money in their portfolios, which leads them to buy more stocks and bonds
and gives them more discretionary income. In part, this action increases the
demand for bonds, drives up bond prices, and thereby reduces interest rates.
More money available also increases demand for stocks and real estate. This
availability leads to higher investments and greater demand for goods.

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Bonds and Interest Rates

The Fed and Inflation
Inflation is the rise of prices over time it is why over the long-term, we are
guaranteed to hear and (sorry, it’s true) speak phrases like: “When I was your
age, a can of Coke was only 50 cents.” Prices rise over time becasue of
increases in population and resultant demands for products.
Inflation directly affects interest rates. Consider this: If lending money is
healthy for the economy because it promotes growth, interest rates must be
higher than inflation. (If I lent out money at a 5 percent annual interest rate,
but inflation was at 10 percent, I would never lend money.) Thus, the
Federal Reserve watches inflation closely as part of its role of setting interest
rates.
Lenders issuing long-term loans such as mortgages can also issue what are
called floating rate (or adjustable) loans, whose yield depends on an interest
rate (like the prime rate) which adjusts to account for changes in inflation.
Using floating rates, lenders can be protected from inflation.
At the same time, some amount of inflation (usually around 1 to 2 percent)
is a sign of a healthy economy. If the economy is healthy and the stock
market is growing, consumer spending increases. This means that people
are buying more goods, and by consequence, more goods are in demand. No
inflation means that you do not have a robust economy that there is no
competitive demand for goods.
Either way, inflation must be watched closely. From basic microeconomics
we know that if the demand rises because of higher personal income, the
new equilibrium price is higher. Once prices rise, supply rises more (sellers
of goods enter the market to take advantage of the opportunity (i.e., growth
in macroeconomic terms). Hence, prices reach a new equilibrium above the
previous equilibrium. Trends can theoretically spiral upward, as increased
supply indicating a healthy economy further boosts the demand and supply.
As an aside, this has always been Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan’s major concern with an “irrationally exuberant” stock market
that the economy will overheat as a result and inflation will spiral out of
control.

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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Bonds and Interest Rates

Effect of Inflation on Bond Prices
The effect of inflation on bond prices is very simple: when inflation goes up,
interest rates rise. And when interest rates rise, bond prices fall. Therefore,
when inflation goes up, bond prices fall.
The ways in which economic events, inflation, interest rates, and bond
prices interact are basic to an understanding of finance these relationships
are sure to be tested in finance interviews. In general, a positive economic
event (such as a decrease in unemployment, greater consumer confidence,
higher personal income, etc.) drives up inflation over the long term (because
there are more people working, there is more money to be spent), which
drives up interest rates, which causes a decrease in bond prices.
The following table summarizes this relationship with a variety of economic
events.

Economic Event

Inflation

Interest
Rates

Bond Prices

Unemployment
figures low

Down

Dollar weakens
against Yen

Down

Consumer
confidence low

Down

Stock Market drops

Down

Companies report
healthy earnings

Down

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Bonds and Interest Rates

Leading Economic Indicators
The following table is a look at leading economic indicators, and whether
their rise or fall signal positive economic events or negative economic
events. For finance interviews, know this chart cold.
Positive Economic
Event

Negative Economic
Event

Down

Unemployment

Down

Inflation

Down

Consumer Price Index

Down

Interest Rate

Down

New Home Sales

Down

Existing Home Sales

Down

Indicator

GDP

Questions
1. What is the relationship between a bond's price and its yield?
They are inversely related. That is, if a bond's price rises, it's yield falls, and
vice versa. Simply put, current yield = interest paid annually / market price
* 100%.
2. How are bonds priced?
Bonds are priced based on the net present value of all future cash flows
expected from the bond.

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Bonds and Interest Rates

3. How would you value a perpetual bond that pays you $1,000 a year
in coupon?
Divide the coupon by the current interest rate. For example, a corporate
bond with an interest rate of 10 percent that pays $1,000 a year in coupons
forever would be worth $10,000.
4. When should a company issue debt instead of issuing equity?
First, a company needs a steady cash flow before it can consider issuing debt
(otherwise, it can quickly fall behind interest payments and eventually see
its assets seized). Once a company can issue debt, it should almost always
prefer issuing debt to issuing equity.
Generally, if the expected return on equity is higher than the expected return
on debt, a company will issue debt. For example, say a company believes
that projects completed with the $1 million raised through either an equity
or debt offering will increase its market value from $4 million to $10
million. It also knows that the same amount could be raised by issuing a $1
million bond that requires $300,000 in interest payments over its life. If the
company issues equity, it will have to sell 20 percent of the company, or $1
million/$5 million ($5 million is the new value of the company after the
capital infusion). This would then grow to 20 percent of $10 million, or $2
million. Thus, issuing the equity will cost the company $1 million ($2
million - $1 million). The debt, on the other hand, will only cost $300,000.
The company will therefore choose to issue debt in this case, as the debt is
cheaper than the equity.
Also, interest payments on bonds are tax deductible. A company may also
wish to issue debt if it has taxable income and can benefit from tax shields.
Finally, issuing debt sends a quieter message to the market regarding a
company’s cash sitation.
5. What major factors affect the yield on a corporate bond?
The short answer: 1) interest rates on comparable U.S. Treasury bonds, and
2) the company’s credit risk. A more elaborate answer would include a
discussion of the fact that corporate bond yields trade at a premium, or
spread, over the interest rate on comparable U.S. Treasury bonds. (For
example, a five-year corporate bond that trades at a premium of 0.5 percent,
or 50 basis points, over the five-year Treasury note is priced at 50 over.) The
size of this spread depends on the company’s credit risk: the riskier the
company, the higher the interest rate the company must pay to convince

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Bonds and Interest Rates

investors to lend it money and, therefore, the wider the spread over U.S.
Treasuries.
6. If you believe interest rates will fall, which should you buy: a 10-year
coupon bond or a 10-year zero coupon bond?
The 10-year zero coupon bond. A zero coupon bond is more sensitive to
changes in interest rates than an equivalent coupon bond, so its price will
increase more if interest rates fall.
7. Which is riskier: a 30-year coupon bond or a 30-year zero coupon
bond?
A 30-year zero coupon bond. Here’s why: A coupon bond pays interest semiannually, then pays the principal when the bond matures (after 30 years, in
this case). A zero coupon bond pays no interest, but pays one lump sum upon
maturity (after 30 years, in this case). The coupon bond is less risky because
you receive some of your money back before over time, whereas with a zero
coupon bond you must wait 30 years to receive any money back. (Another
answer: The zero coupon bond is more risky because its price is more
sensitive to changes in interest rates.)
8. What is The Long Bond trading at?
The Long Bond is the U.S. Treasury’s 30-year bond. This question is
particularly relevant for sales and trading positions, but also for corporate
finance positions, as interviewers want to see that you’re interested in the
financial markets and follow them daily.
9. If the price of the 10-year Treasury note rises, does the note’s yield
rise, fall or stay the same?
Since bond yields move in the opposite direction of bond prices, if the price
of a 10-year note rises, its yield will fall.
10. If you believe interest rates will fall, should you buy bonds or sell
bonds?
Since bond prices rise when interest rates fall, you should buy bonds.
11. How many basis points equal .5 percent?
Bond yields are measured in basis points, which are 1/100 of 1 percent. 1
percent = 100 basis points. Therefore, .5 percent = 50 basis points.

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Bonds and Interest Rates

12. Why can inflation hurt creditors?
Think of it this way: If you are a creditor lending out money at a fixed rate,
inflation cuts into the percentage that you are actually making. If you lend
out money at 7 percent a year, and inflation is 5 percent, you are only really
clearing 2 percent.
13. How would the following scenario affect the interest rates: the
President is impeached and convicted.
While it can’t be said for certain, chances are that these kind of events will
lead to fears that the economy will go into recession, so the Fed would want
to balance those fears by lowering interest rates to expand the economy.
14. What does the government do when there is a fear of hyperinflation?
The government has fiscal and monetary policies it can use in order to
control hyperinflation. The monetary policies (the Fed’s use of interest
rates, reserve requirements, etc.) are discussed in detail in this chapter. The
fiscal policies include the use of taxation and government spending to
regulate the aggregate level of economic activity. Increasing taxes and
decreasing government spending slows down growth in the economy and
fights inflation.
15. Where do you think the U.S. economy will go over the next year?
Talking about the U.S. economy encompasses a lot of topics: the stock
market, consumer spending, unemployment, to name a few. Underlying all
these topics is the way interest rates, inflation, and bonds interact. Make
sure you can speak articulately about relevant concepts discussed in this
chapter when forming a view on the U.S. economic future.
16. How would you value a perpetual zero coupon bond?
The value will be zero. A zero coupon doesn’t pay any coupons, and if that
continues on perpetually, when do you get paid? Never so it ain’t worth
nothing!
17. Let’s say a report released today showed that inflation last month
was very low. However, bond prices closed lower. Why might this
happen?
Bond prices are based on expectations of future inflation. In this case, you
can assume that traders expect future inflation to be higher (regardless of the

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Bonds and Interest Rates

report on last month’s inflation figures) and therefore they bid bond prices
down today. (A report which showed that inflation last month was benign
would benefit bond prices only to the extent that traders believed it was an
indication of low future inflation as well.)
18. If the stock market falls, what would you expect to happen to bond
prices, and interest rates?
You would expect that bond prices would increase and interest rates would
fall.
19. If unemployment is low, what happens to inflation, interest rates,
and bond prices?
Inflation goes up, interest rates also increase, and bond prices decrease.
20. What is a bond's “Yield to Maturity"?
A bond's yield to maturity is the yield that would be realized through coupon
and principal payments if the bond were to be held to the maturity date. If
the yield is greater than the current yield (the coupon/price), it is said to be
selling at a discount. If the yield is less than the current yield, it is said to
be selling at a premium.
10. What do you think the Fed will do with interest rates over the next
2 years?
This question is particularly relevant in 2004, when the fed funds rate has hit
an all-time low. As the economy recovers, one can reasonably expect that
the fed will raise the rate slowly to stunt inflation by taking money out of the
overall money supply. Presumably, the increase in production as the
economy gets better will make up for the tightening policy. However, there
is no right answer to this question. If you think the economy will not get
better, you can easily make a case that the fed wont raise rates. However, be
prepared to back up your answer either way.

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CURRENCIES

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Currencies

A Remedial Lesson
In this global economy, an understanding of how currencies interact and
what influences currency rates is vital for those interested in finance careers.
The strength and stability of currencies influence trade and foreign
investment. Why did so many U.S. investment banks suffer when Asian
currencies plummeted in recent years? What does a strong dollar mean?
When a company makes foreign investments or does business in foreign
countries, how is it affected by the exchange rates among currencies? These
are all issues that youll need to know as you advance in your finance career.
To begin our discussion of currencies, lets look at some of the major terms
used to discuss currencies:
Spot exchange rate: The price of one currency relative to another, i.e., the
number of one currency you can buy using another currency. (The exchange
rate people commonly talk about is actually the spot exchange rate.)
Example: Lets say that today the spot rate of U.S. dollars to the British
pound is $1.5628/£1. If you go to the bank today, and present a teller with
$1,562.80, you will receive £1,000.
Forward exchange rate: The prices of currencies at which they can be
bought and sold for future delivery.
Example: Lets say that today the one-month forward rate for British pound
is $1.5629, the three-month rate is $1.5625, and the one-year rate is
$1.5619. These represent the prices at which the market (buyers and sellers)
would agree (today) to exchange currencies one month, three months, or a
year from now.
In this example, the dollar is said to be trading at a one-month forward
discount, because you can get fewer pounds for the dollar in the future than
you can today. Alternately, the dollar is trading at a forward premium for a
three-month or one-year period, because you can get more pounds for the
dollar in the future than you can today.

Exchange Rates
So what determines the rate at which dollars and pounds, or dollars and baht,
or baht and roubles are exchanged? The perfect market exchange rate
between two currencies is determined primarily by two factors: the interest
100

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Currencies

rates in the two countries and the rates of inflation in the two countries.
However, in the real world, governments of many countries regulate the
exchange rate to control growth and investment of foreign capital in the
economy. Economists believe that such artificial controls are the main
reason currencies fall so drastically sometimes (such as the 1997-98 collapse
of the Russian rouble and many Asian currencies).
Strong/weak currencies: When a currency is strong, that means its value is
rising relative to other currencies. This is also called currency appreciation.
When a currency is weak, its value is falling relative to other currencies.
This is also called currency depreciation.
Example: Lets say the dollar-pound exchange rate on January 1 is
$1.50/£1. Three months later, on March 1, the exchange rate is $1.60/£1.
The dollar has weakened, or depreciated against the pound, because it takes
more dollars to equal one pound.

Influence of Interest Rates
on Foreign Exchange
The foreign exchange rate between two currencies is related to the interest
rates in the two countries. If the interest rate of a foreign country relative to
the home country goes up, the home currency weakens. In other words, it
takes more of the home currency to buy the same amount of foreign
currency. (Note: We are talking here about the real interest rate, or the
interest rate after inflation. After all, if interests rates and inflation were to
go up by the same amount, the effect on the countrys currency would
generally be a wash, of no net effect.)
Example: Lets say the risk-free interest rate in the U.S. is 5 percent; and in
the U.K. it is 10 percent. Lets also assume that the exchange rate today is
$1.5/£1. If the U.K. interest rate rises to 12 percent, the British pound will
tend to strengthen against the dollar.
Explanation: When interest rates in a country rise, investments held in that
countrys currency (for example, bank deposits, bonds, CDs, etc.) will earn
a higher rate of return. Therefore, when a countrys interest rates rise, money
and investments will tend to flow to that country, driving up the value of its
currency. (The reverse is true when a countrys interest rates fall.)

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101

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Currencies

Influence of Inflation
on Foreign Exchange
If the inflation in the foreign country goes up relative to the home currency,
the foreign currency devalues or weakens relative to the home currency. In
other words, it takes less of the home currency to buy the same amount of
foreign currency.
Example: Let us say that at the beginning of the year, silver costs $1,500/lb
in the U.S. and £1,000/lb in the U.K. At the same time it takes $1.5 to buy
£1. Let us now assume that inflation in the U.K. is at 10 percent while that
in the U.S. is at 0 percent. At the end of the year, the silver still costs
$1,500/lb in the U.S., but it costs pounds £1,100 in U.K. because of inflation.
Because of the U.K.s higher inflation rate, the British pound will weaken
relative to the dollar (so that, for example, it may take $1.36 to buy £1).
Advanced Explanation: Lets say again that at the beginning of the year,
silver costs $1,500/lb in the U.S. and £1,000/lb in the U.K. At the same time,
it takes $1.5 to buy £1. Let us now assume that inflation in the U.K. is at 10
percent while inflation in the U.S. is at 0 percent.
At the end of the year, the silver still costs $1,500/lb in the U.S., but it costs
£1,100/lb in the U.K. because of inflation. If the exchange rate were to
remain the same, people would start buying silver in the U.S., selling it in
the U.K., and converting their money back to dollars, thus making a tidy
profit. In other words, if you had $1,500, you would buy a pound of silver
in U.S., sell it in the U.K. for £1,100 at the end of the year, convert the
British pounds into dollars at $1.5/£1, thus receiving $1,650. For each pound
of silver with which you did this, you would make a neat profit of $150. If
you were to do that with a billion dollars worth of silver, you could pay for
the travel expenses and buy homes in London and New York. You would
have been able to take advantage of the inflation in the U.K. and created an
arbitrage opportunity.
In the real world, this does not happen. If there is inflation in the U.K., the
value of the pound will weaken. This is given by the relationship below.

f$/£
s$/£

102

(1 + i$)
(1 + i£)

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Currencies

Here:
i$ = the inflation in $
i£ = the inflation in £
f$ = the forward rate
s$ = the spot rate

Capital Market Equilibrium
The principle of capital market equilibrium (CME) states that there should
be equilibrium in the currency markets all over the world so that there is no
arbitrage opportunity in shifting between two currencies. For example, if
you could buy 1 pound for every 1.5 dollars, and 60 Indian rupees for every
pound, you should only be able to buy a dollar for every 40 rupees.

Rs60 x £1 = Rs40
£1
$1.5
$1

Consider what would happen if this was not the case. Say the dollar/pound
exchange rate was $2/£1 instead of $1.5/£1, but the rupee/dollar and
Rupee/pound relationships remained the same (1$/40 Rs and £1/60 Rs)? You
could take $100, convert it into 4,000 rupees, take those rupees and convert
it into pounds 66.67, and finally, take those 66.67 pounds and convert that
back into $133.3. You could sit at home and churn out millions of dollars this
way!
Step 1: Convert dollars to rupees

$100 x Rs40 = 4,000 Rs
$1

Step 2: Convert rupees to pounds

4,000 Rs x

Step 3: Convert pounds to dollars

£66.67 x $2 = $133.33
£1

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£1 = £66.67
60 Rs

103

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Currencies

The three factors
These three factors interest rates, inflation, and the principle of capital
market equilibrium govern the valuation of various currencies. Because
the U.S. dollar is generally considered the worlds most stable currency, it is
the widely accepted basis for foreign exchange valuation. Other currencies
that are considered stable are the Japanese yen and the Euro. The relative
movements of these currencies, as well as others, are monitored daily.

Exchange Rate Effects on Earnings
Companies that do business abroad are exposed to currency risk. For
example, if a U.S. company that manufactures goods in the U.S. sells them
in England, its quarterly earnings will fluctuate based on fluctuating dollarpound exchange rates.
If the dollar weakens (i.e., one dollar can buy fewer pounds), the companys
earnings will increase because when the pounds earned by selling the
product are sent back to the U.S., they will be able to buy more dollars. If
the dollar strengthens, then the earnings will go down. It is important to note
that there are several complex accounting rules that govern how these
earnings are accounted for. Lets look at another example.
Example: If Coca-Cola sells soda in the U.K. for £1 per 2-liter bottle, and
the dollar-pound exchange rate is $1.50/£1, Coca-Cola really gets $1.50 per
2-liter bottle it sells in England. If the dollar weakens, so that the exchange
rate is $1.60/£1, Coca-Cola will in fact get $1.60 per pound and its earnings
will be positively impacted (all else being equal).
The following table summarizes the effect of exchange rates on
multinational companies.

Economic
Event

Effect on Earnings of U.S.
Multinational Companies

Inflation

Interest
Rates

U.S. Dollar
Strengthens

Negative

Falls

Fall

U.S. Dollar
Weakens

Positive

Rises

Rise

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Currencies

Effect of Exchange Rates
on Interest Rates and Inflation
A weak dollar means that the prices of imported goods will rise when
measured in U.S. dollars (i.e., it will take more dollars to buy the same
good). When the prices of imported goods rise, this contributes to higher
inflation, which also raises interest rates. Conversely, a strong dollar means
that the prices of imported goods will fall, which will lower inflation (which
will lower interest rates). The following table summarizes the relationship
between interest rates, inflation, and exchange rates.

Economic Event

Effect on Dollar

U.S. (Real) Interest Rates Rise

Strengthens

U.S. (Real) Interest Rates Fall

Weakens

U.S. Inflation Rates Rise

Weakens

U.S. Inflation Rates Fall

Strengthens

A note on devaluation
Under a fixed-exchange-rate system in which exchange rates are changed
only by official government action, a weakening of the currency is called
devaluation. To take a recent example, devaluation is what occurred in
Indonesia in 1998. The Indonesian government had pegged its currency, the
rupiah, to the American dollar in an attempt to artificially maintain its
strength. As this policy became untenable, the government devalued its
currency, causing foreign investment to flee the country and throwing the
countrys economy into turmoil. A strengthening of the currency under fixed
exchange rates is called revaluation, rather than appreciation. These terms
can be summarized in the following chart.
Type of exchange
rate system

Home currency
strengthens

Home currency
weakens

Flexible

Appreciation

Depreciation

Fixed

Revaluation

Devaluation

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Currencies

Questions
1. What is the currency risk for a company like Microsoft?
What about Ford?
Microsoft and Ford have different currency risks. Lets take Microsoft first.
Its currency risks are created by its sales in foreign countries. For example,
if it markets a software program for 100 RMB in China, and the dollar
strengthens against the RMB (and the company doesnt change its price),
Microsoft will be making less in U.S. dollars than it had previously
anticipated. (Of course, it can react by changing its prices.)
Now lets examine Fords currency risks. Like Microsoft, Ford is vulnerable
to currency risks because it sells products in foreign currencies. In addition,
the auto giant is vulnerable because it manufactures cars overseas. Lets say
the company has manufacturing operations in Mexico, where cars are built,
and later sold in the U.S. The cost of those operations will be sensitive to the
price of the peso relative to the dollar. If the peso weakens, Ford can make
its cars cheaper, sell them for lower prices, and thus gain a competitive
advantage. But the opposite is also true. If the peso strengthens, Fords labor
costs will shoot up. In contrast, Microsoft doesnt have manufacturing costs
overseas (most of its production costs are spent in Redmond rather than at
cheaper production facilities overseas). Fords currency risk is further
complicated because some of its major competitors are in countries outside
the U.S. For example, the price of the mark and the yen influences the prices
at which German and Japanese competitors sell their cars. Thus Ford has
greater currency risk than Microsoft.
2. When the currencies in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and
Russia fell drastically in 1998, why were U.S. and European-based
investment banks hurt so badly?
I-banks were hurt on trading losses in Asia and Russia. If banks held either
currency or bonds in the currencies that dropped, these assets suddenly
turned non-performing, in other words, essentially worthless. (In fact,
Russias government defaulted on its government-backed bonds, so firms
werent just hurt by dropping currencies but also by loan defaults.)

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3. If the U.S. dollar weakens, should interest rates generally rise, fall or
stay the same?
Rise. A weak dollar means that the prices of imported goods will rise when
measured in U.S. dollars (i.e., it will take more dollars to buy the same
good). Rising prices of imported goods contributes to higher inflation, which
raises interest rates.
4. If U.S. inflation rates fall, what will happen to the relative strength of
the dollar?
It will strengthen.
5. If the interest rate in Brazil increases relative to the interest rate in
the U.S., what will happen to the exchange rate between the Brazilian
real and the U.S. dollar?
The real will strengthen relative to the dollar.
6. If inflation rates in the U.S. fall relative to the inflation rate in Russia,
what will happen to the exchange rate between the dollar and the rouble?
The dollar will strengthen relative to the rouble.
7. What is the difference between currency devaluation and currency
depreciation?
Devaluation occurs in a fixed-exchange-rate system and is usually fixed as
a function of governement policy, while depreciation occurs when a country
allows its currency to move according to the international currency
exchange market.
8. What is the effect on U.S. multinational companies if the U.S. dollar
strengthens?
U.S. multinationals see their earnings decrease when the dollar strengthens.
Essentially, sales in foreign currencies dont amount to as many U.S. dollars
when the dollar strengthens.
9. What are some of the main factors that govern foreign exchange
rates?
Chiefly: interest rates, inflation, and capital market equilibrium.

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Currencies

10. If the spot exchange rate of dollars to pounds is $1.60/£1, and the
one-year forward rate is $1.50/£1, would we say the dollar is forecast to
be strong or weak relative to the pound?
The forward exchange rate indicates the rate at which traders are willing to
exchange currencies in the future. In this case, they believe that the dollar
will strengthen against the pound in the coming year (that one dollar will be
able to buy more pounds one year from now than it can now).

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108

OPTIONS AND
DERIVATIVES

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Options and Derivatives

The Wild West of Finance
Derivatives aren’t the most trusted of financial instruments. They received
some bad press in the mid-1990s when Bankers Trust, the leading marketer
of derivatives, was accused by several of its key clients, including Procter &
Gamble and Gibson Greetings, of misinforming them about the risk of its
derivatives instruments. The trustworthiness of derivatives wasn’t helped
any when Bankers Trust bankers, which had a reputation for being highflying risk-takers, were caught on tape making dismissive comments about
whether their clients would be able to understand what they were doing or
had done wrong. Derivatives received another black mark for their role in
the bankruptcy of Orange County, California, the largest municipal
bankruptcy in U.S. history. In a case similar to the Bankers Trust case,
Orange County officials charged that they had been misled about the risk of
their investments, which involved complex derivatives. To settle that suit,
the county’s lead investment banker, Merrill Lynch, agreed to pay $437.1
million.
In 2003, Warren Buffet, one of the most successful investors of all time,
spoke out against derivates, stating, “[I] view them as time bombs, both for
the parties that deal in them and the economic system.”
What are these scary things called derivatives? Quite simply, derivatives are
financial instruments that derive their value out of or have their value
contingent upon the values of other assets like stocks, bonds, commodity
prices or market index values.
Derivatives are often used to hedge financial positions. Hedging is a
financial strategy designed to reduce risk by balancing a position in the
market. Often, hedges work like insurance: a small position pays off large
amounts if the price of a certain security reaches a certain price. On other
occasions, derivatives are used to hedge positions by locking in prices.

Options
We’ll begin our discussion with a look at options, the most common
derivative. Options, as the word suggests, give the bearers the “option” to
buy or sell a security – without the obligation to do so. Two of the simplest
forms of options are call options and put options.

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Options and Derivatives

Call options
A call option gives the holder the right to purchase an asset for a specified
price on or before a specified expiration date. (Technically, this definition
refers to an “American option.” Standard European call options can only be
converted on the expiration date. For simplicity’s sake, our examples will
assume the call options are American.) The specified price is called the
“exercise price” or “strike price.” Let’s take a look at an example. A July 1
call option on IBM stock has an exercise price of $70. The owner of this
option is entitled to purchase IBM stock at $70 at anytime up to and
including the expiration date of July 1. If in June, the price of IBM stock
jumps up to $80, the holder can exercise the option to buy stock from the
option seller for $70. The holder can then turn around and sell it to the
market for $80 and make a neat profit of $10 per share (minus the price of
the option, which we will discuss later). Or the holder can hold onto the
number of shares purchased through the option.
Note: When a call option’s exercise price is exactly equal to the current stock
price, the option is called an “at the money” call. When a call option has an
exercise price that is less than the current stock price, it is called an “in the
money” call. When a call option’s exercise price is greater than the current
stock price, it is called an “out of the money” call.
Put options
The other common form of option is a put option. A put option gives its
holder the right to sell an asset for a specified exercise price on or before a
specified expiration date. (Again, options in Europe can be exercised only
on the expiration date.) For example, a July 1 put option on IBM with an
exercise price of $70 entitles its owner to sell IBM stock at $70 at any time
before it expires in July, even if market price is lower than $70. So if the
price drops to $60, the holder of the put option would buy the stock at $60,
sell it for $70 by exercising her option, and make a neat profit of $10 (minus
the price of the option). On the other hand, if the price goes over $70, the
holder of the put option will not exercise the option and will lose the amount
he paid to buy the option.

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Options and Derivatives

Writing Options
Sounds pretty neat, eh? But how are these options created? And who buys
and sells the stock that the options give holders the right to buy and sell?
Well, there is an entire market – called the options market – that helps these
transactions go through. For every option holder there must be an option
seller. This seller is often referred to as the writer of the option. So selling a
put option is called writing a put. Anyone who owns the underlying asset,
such as an individual or a mutual fund – can write options.
Let’s go back to our previous example. If you buy the July 1 call option on
IBM stock with an exercise price of $70, you are betting that the price of
IBM will go above $70 before July 1. You can make this bet only if there is
someone who believes that the price of IBM will not go above $70 before
July 1. That person is the seller, or “writer,” of the call option. He or she
first gets a non-refundable fee for selling the option, which you pay. If the
price goes to $80 in June and you exercise your option, the person who sold
the call option has to buy the stock from the market at $80 (assuming he
does not already own it) and sell it to you at $70, thus incurring a loss of $10.
But remember that you had to buy the option originally. The seller of the
option, who has just incurred a loss of $10, already received the price of the
option when you bought the option. On the other hand, say the price had
stayed below $70 and closed at $60 on June 30. The seller would have made
the amount he sold the option for, but would not make the difference
between the $70 strike price and the $60 June 30 closing price. Why not?
Because as the buyer of the call option, you have the right to buy at $70 but
is not obligated to. If the stock price of IBM stays below $70, you as the
option buyer will not exercise the option.
Note: If the writer of the call option already owns IBM stock, he is
essentially selling you his upside on his IBM stock, or the right to all gains
above $70. Obviously, he doesnt think its very likely that IBM will rise
above $70 and he hopes to simply pocket the option price.

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Options and Derivatives

Summary options chart
Action to take
Person believes a stock will go up

Person believes a stock will go down

Buy a call
Write a put
Buy a put
Write a call

Options Pricing
Understanding how an option writer makes money brings up the natural
question: How does an option get priced?
There are at least six factors that affect the value of an option: the stock
price, exercise price, the volatility of the stock price, the time to expiration,
the interest rate and the dividend rate of the stock. To understand how these
factors affect option values, we will look at their effect on call options (the
option to buy a security).
• Price of underlying security: If an option is purchased at a fixed exercise
price, and the price of the underlying stock increases, the value of a call
option increases. Clearly, if you have the option to buy IBM stock at $100,
the value of your option will increase with any increase in stock price:
from $95 to $100, from $100 to $105, from $105 to $106, etc. (The value
of a put option in this scenario decreases.)
• Exercise (strike) price: Call options can be bought at various exercise
prices. For example, you can buy an option to buy stock in IBM at $100,
or you can buy an option to buy stock in IBM at $110. The higher the
exercise price, the lower the value of the call option, as the stock price has
to go up higher for you to be in the money. (Here, the value of the put
option increases, as the stock price does not need to fall as low.)
• Volatility of underlying security: The option value increases if the
volatility of the underlying stock increases. Let’s compare similar options
on a volatile Internet stock like Google and a more steady stock like WalMart. Say that the Google stock price has been fluctuating from $70 to
$130 in the last three months. Let’s also say that Wal-Mart has been
fluctuating from $90 to $110. Now let’s compare call options with an
exercise price of $100 and a time until expiration of three months.
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Although the average price for both stocks in the past three months has
been $100, you would value the option to buy Google stock more because
there is a greater possibility that it will increase well above $100. (Perhaps
Google would rise to $130, rather than Wal-Mart’s $110, if the previous
three months were replicated.) The reason this potential upside increases
the option’s value is that the downside loss that you can incur is fixed. You
have the option to exercise and not the obligation to buy at $100. No
matter how low Google’s stock might go, the most you would lose is the
cost of the option. Volatility increases the value of both call and put
options.
• Time to expiration:. The more time the holder has to exercise the option,
the more valuable the option. This makes common sense. The further
away the exercise date, the more time for unpredictable things to happen
and the broader the range of likely stock price increases. Moreover, the
more time the option holder has, the lower the present value of the exercise
price will be (thus increasing the option value). Like volatility, time to
expiration increases the value of both put and call options.
• Interest rates: If interest rates are higher, the exercise price has a lower
present value. This also increases the value of the call option.
• Dividends: A higher dividend rate policy of the company means that out
of the total expected return on the stock, some is being delivered in the
form of dividends. This means that the expected capital gain of the stock
will be lower, and the potential increase in stock price will be lower.
Hence, larger dividend pay outs lower the call value.
The following table summarizes the relationships between these factors and
the value of options:
If this variable increases

114

The value of a call option

Stock price

Increases

Exercise price

Decreases

Volatility

Increases

Time to expiration

Increases

Interest rate

Increases

Dividend payouts

Decreases

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Options and Derivatives

In the end, the price of an option, like any security, is determined by the
market. However, as with the various valuation techniques for companies
discussed previously, there are standard methods of pricing options, most
prominently the Black-Scholes model. This model has essentially become
the industry standard, and is a fairly good predictor of how the market prices
options.
Those interviewing for jobs as derivative traders should consult a finance
textbook and understand the model in further detail, as interviewers for these
position are bound to ask more detailed questions based on the BlackScholes model and its application. Other popular derivatives instruments
include forwards, futures, and swaps.

Forwards
A forward contract is an agreement that calls for future delivery of an asset
at an agreed-upon price. Let’s say a farmer grows a single crop, wheat. The
revenue from the entire planting season depends critically on the highly
volatile price of wheat. The farmer can’t easily diversify his position
because virtually his entire wealth is tied up in the crop. The miller who
must purchase wheat for processing faces a portfolio problem that is a mirror
image of the farmer’s. He is subject to profit uncertainty because of the
unpredictable future of the wheat price when the day comes for him to buy
his wheat.
Both parties can reduce their risk if they enter into a forward contract
requiring the farmer to deliver the wheat at a previously agreed upon price,
regardless of what the market price is at harvest time. No money needs to
change hands at the time the agreement is made. A forward contract is
simply a deferred delivery sale of some asset with an agreed-upon sales
price. The contract is designed to protect each party from future price
fluctuations. These forwards are generally used by large companies that deal
with immense quantities of commodities, like Cargill or Archer Daniels
Midland.

Futures
The futures contract is a type of forward that calls for the delivery of an asset
or its cash value at a specified delivery or maturity date for an agreed upon

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price. This price is called the futures price, and is to be paid when the
contract matures. The trader who commits to purchasing the commodity on
the delivery date is said to be in the long position. The trader who takes the
short position commits to delivering the commodity when the contract
matures.
Futures differ from other forwards in the fact that they are liquid,
standardized, traded on an exchange, and their prices are settled at the end
of each trading day (that is, the futures traders collect/pay their day’s gains
and losses at the end of each day). Futures are actively traded and liquid
securities. For example, for agricultural commodities, the exchange sets
allowable grades of a commodity (for example, No. 2 hard winter wheat or
No. 1 soft red wheat). The place or means of delivery of the commodity is
specified as issued by approved warehouses. The dates of delivery are also
standardized. The prices of the major agricultural futures appear in The Wall
Street Journal. Futures are also available on other commodities, like gold
and oil.

Swaps
Another derivative, a swap, is a simple exchange of future cash flows. Some
popular forms of swaps include foreign exchange swaps and interest rate
swaps. Let’s first examine foreign exchange swaps.
Say Sun Microsystems outsources its software development to India on a
regular basis. In such a situation, it would make payments to the firms in
India in rupees, thus find itself exposed to foreign exchange rate fluctuation
risks. To hedge these exchange risks, Sun would want to enter into a foreign
exchange swap – a predetermined exchange of currency – with another
party. For example, Sun might want to swap $1.0 million for Rs 40 million
for each of the next five years. For instance, it could enter into a swap with
the Birla Group in India, which has many expenses in U.S. dollars and is
thus also subject to the same exchange rate fluctuation risk. By agreeing to
a foreign exchange swap, both companies protect their business from
exchange rate risks.
Interest rate swaps work similarly. Consider a firm (Company A) that has
issued bonds (which, remember, means essentially that it has taken loans)
with a total par value of $10 million at a fixed interest rate of 8 percent. By
issuing the bonds, the firm is obligated to pay a fixed interest rate of
$800,000 at the end of each year. In a situation like this, it can enter into an

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Options and Derivatives

interest rate swap with another party (Company B), where Company A pays
Company B the LIBOR rate (a floating, or variable, short-term interest rate
measure) and Company B agrees to pay Company A the fixed rate. In such
a case, Company A would receive $800,000 each year that it could use to
make its loan payment. For its part, Company A would be obligated to pay
$10 million x LIBOR each year to Company B. Hence Company A has
swapped its fixed interest rate debt to a floating rate debt. (The company
swaps rates with Company B, called the counterparty. The counterparty
gains because presumably it wants to swap its floating rate debt for fixed
rate debt, thus locking in a fixed rate.) The chart below illustrates this swap.

Interest Rate Swap
variable rate
Company A

Company B
$800,000 fixed

Questions
1. When would you write a call option on Disney stock?
When you expect the price of Disney stock to fall (or stay the same).
Because a call option on a stock is a bet that the value of the stock will
increase, you would be willing to write (sell) a call option on Disney stock
to an investor if you believed Disney stock would not rise. (In this case, the
profit you would make would be equal to the option premium you received
when you sold the option.)
2. Explain how a swap works.
A swap is an exchange of future cash flows. The most popular forms include
foreign exchange swaps and interest rate swaps. They are used to hedge
volatile rates, such as currency exchange rates or interest rates.

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Options and Derivatives

3. Say I hold a put option on Microsoft stock with an exercise price of
$60, the expiration date is today, and Microsoft is trading at $50. About
how much is my put worth, and why?
Your put is worth about $10, because today, you can sell a share of stock for
$60, and buy it for $50. (If the expiration date were in the future, the option
would be more valuable, because the stock could conceivably drop more.)
4. When would a trader seeking profit from a long-term possession of a
future be in the long position?
The trader in the long position is committed to buying a commodity on a
delivery date. She would hold this position if she believes the commodity
price will increase.
5. All else being equal, which would be less valuable: a December put
option on Amazon.com stock or a December put option on Bell Atlantic
stock?
The put option on Bell Atlantic should be less valuable. Amazon.com is a
more volatile stock, and the more volatile the underlying asset, the more
valuable the option.
6. All else being equal, which would be more valuable: a December call
option for eBay or a January call option for eBay?
The January option: The later an option’s expiration date, the more valuable
the option.
7. Why do interest rates matter when figuring the price of options?
Because of the ever-important concept of net present value, all else being
equal, higher interest rates lower the value of call options.
8. If the strike price on a put option is below the current price, is the
option holder at the money, in the money or out of the money?
Because a put option gives the holder the right to sell a security at a certain
price, the fact that the strike (or exercise) price is below the current price
would mean that the option holder would lose money. Translate that
knowledge into option lingo, and you know that the option holder is out of
the money.

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Options and Derivatives

9. If the current price of a stock is above the strike price of a call option,
is the option holder at the money, in the money, or out of the money?
Because a call option gives the holder the right to buy a security, the holder
in this scenario is in the money (making money).
10. When would you buy a put option on General Mills stock?
Because buying a put option gives you the option to sell the stock at a certain
price, you would do this if you expect the price of General Mills stock to
fall.
11. What is the main difference between futures contracts and forward
contracts?
The main difference between forward and futures contracts is that futures
contracts are traded on exchanges and forwards are traded over-the-counter.
Because of this distinction, you can only trade specific futures contracts that
are traded on the exchange. Forward contracts are more flexible because
they are privately negotiated, and can represent any assets and can change
settlement dates should both parties agree.

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MERGERS &
ACQUISITIONS

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Mergers & Acquisitions

Why Merge?
When two companies decided to combine forces in a blockbuster merger,
the news dominates financial headlines. Why are companies in industries
ranging from telecommunications to financial services to retail looking to
merge? Because of the much referred to “synergies” that theoretically result
from a merger. Because of synergies, the combination of the two companies
that merge are thought to be greater than the sum of the two independently.
Examples of these synergies include: reductions in redundant workforce,
and utilizing the technology, market share of the other party to the deal, and
combinations of service offerings. Let’s take a look at the major reasons for
M&A activity.
One important reason that a company might merge with another company is
to gain a foothold into a new market, which can come in the form of a
product or a geographic region, and sometimes both. For example, in the
January 2004 JPMorgan Chase/Bank One merger, JPMorgan not only added
to its already strong investment and commercial banking activities but also
gained a strong consumer banking franchise in Bank One, thus boosting its
ability to compete in the consumer market with perennial powerhouse
Citigroup. Prior to the merger, most of Bank One's 1,800 consumer
branches were located in the South and the Midwest, while JPMorgan had a
stronghold in New York and Texas. After the combination, the firm had
some 2,300 branches in 17 states, with very little overlap.
In other cases, companies merge to enter new geographic markets. Chrysler
sold its cars almost exclusively in North America; Daimler-Benz was strong
in Europe. Thus the two agreed to combine and form DaimlerChrysler.
Sometimes mergers are driven by the coveted brand recognition of the
acquisition. For example, by acquiring US Robotics, 3Com added US
Robotics’ strong brand recognition in the modem industry. (That merger also
added an important hardware strength to 3Com’s drive to challenge Cisco as
the computer networking leader.)
In other cases, companies merge to consolidate operations, thus lowering
costs and boosting profits (think economies of scale). Why pay for two legal
departments, two PR departments, or two headquarters when you only need
one? Moreover, if a company can buy 10,000 sheets of metal for less than it
can buy 5,000, it might consider merging with someone who could give it
that advantage.

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And sometimes, companies merge just to get bigger in a consolidating
industry. In some industries, most notably banking and brokerage,
executives believe that size is required in order to compete as the industry
consolidates around a handful of major players. Size certainly played a part
in the JPMorgan/Bank One combo, as it boosted JPMorgan's assets to $1.1
billion, rivaling Citigroup's $1.2 billion. Similarly, Bank of America's
October 2003 acquisition of FleetBoston Financial made BofA the ninth
largest asset manager in the U.S., up from the No. 17 spot it held prior to the
merger.

Why Not Merge?
While mergers are fun and exciting to talk about, the post-merger logistics
aren’t always as sexy. Did you know that more than one out of every five
mergers does not achieve the synergies initially targeted? This isn’t just
because of poor implementation after the merger. Many mergers are simply
ill-advised or involve a clash of corporate cultures.
So why do failed mergers go through? One reason is that many mergers are
also the result of management egos and the excitement generated in a merger
mania market. For example, the recent Mobil/Exxon deal was constructed
largely in private through the efforts of the CEOs of the two companies,
Lucio Noto of Mobil and Lee Raymond of Exxon. (This is not to say that
this merger will not work, but to simply note that it, like many mergers, was
driven by the personalities and choices of individuals.)
Another powerful force pushing mergers are the huge I-banking fees that the
deals generate. Investment bankers are going to argue to their clients that the
mergers are in their best interest because they are in fact in their (the
bankers’) best interest. Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston both
pocketed about $30 million from their advisory roles in the AT&T/TCI
merger. Think they didn’t have some incentive to be enthusiastic when
talking about telecom/cable TV synergy?
Types of buyers
There are two main categories of buyers of companies: strategic buyers and
financial buyers. Strategic buyers are corporations who want to acquire
another company for strategic business reasons. Financial buyers are buyers
who want to acquire another company purely as a financial investment.

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Financial buyers are typically LBO (Leveraged Buyout) Funds or other
private equity funds.
Who will pay more for a company: strategic buyers or financial buyers?
Nine times out of ten, a strategic buyer will pay more than a financial buyer.
In addition to the company’s existing revenues and cash flow, strategic
buyers also hope (though they are often wrong) that they will be able to
grow the company’s cash flows faster by expanding into complementary
markets, reducing overlapping costs, etc. As a result, the strategic buyer will
assume that the company’s post-acquisition cash flows will be higher than
are currently expected to be. When they discount these higher cash flows,
they will get a higher valuation.
Valuing a company for strategic and financial
buyers
When you prepare a valuation analysis for a strategic buyer, your projected
cash flows will be different (that is, higher) than the cash flows for the
company as a “stand alone” entity. You will prepare a “pro forma” financial
model that typically assumes faster revenue growth and reduction of certain
costs because the acquiring company will be able to derive strategic
efficiencies from the acquired company.
Conversely, a valuation analysis for financial buyer cannot take into account
these synergies. At most you may be able to do a valuation model that
assumes benefits to the financial buyer such as tax benefits from interest
payments on debt used to acquire the company, and perhaps some lower
costs if there are “obvious” cost savings and efficiencies the financial buyer
can force on the target company once the acquisition is complete.

Stock Swaps vs. Cash Offers
Bankers and finance officials at companies have a couple of financing
options when they consider how to structure a merger: a stock swap or a cash
deal.
Stock swaps occur more often when there is a strong stock market, because
companies with a high market capitalization can acquire companies with
that more valuable stock. In 1998, when the equity markets were peaking,
67 percent of the merger activity in 1998 was accomplished through stock,

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versus 33 percent through cash, according to Fortune magazine. In 1988, the
ratio was only 7 percent stock to 93 percent cash. Of course, the volatility of
the stock market can make stock swaps tricky. We should understand why
many announced mergers become pending once the stock market crashes
the initial assumptions for valuing the companies are not true anymore when
the market falls. Interestingly, when the market is strong, the merger mania
heightens. Even though valuations are inflated, the environment is
optimistic and it looks like both companies made off well the acquired
company is given a very high market value, while the acquirer appears to
have gained valuable assets.
In a cash deal, shareholders must pay taxes when they receive the cash. The
tax rate for their earnings is at the ordinary income marginal tax rate (your
tax rate increases as the income bracket you are in goes higher), which is
39.6 percent for wealthy individuals. By contrast, in a stock swap, no taxes
are paid at the time of the swap. But when the swapped stock is sold in the
market, the shareholder must pay capital gains tax at a marginal tax rate of
20 percent. The U.S. government sets tax laws this way as a part of its fiscal
strategy to regulate the amount of cash in the economy and to control factors
like inflation.
Type of Merger

1988

1998

Stock

67%

Cash

93%

33%

Source: Fortune

Tender Offers
Tender offers are associated with hostile takeovers. In a tender offer, the
hostile acquirer renders a tender offer for the public’s stock at a price higer
than the current market in an attempt to gather a controlling interest in
(majority ownership of) a company. For example, let’s say Mr. T-Bone
Pickins wants to take over Acme Internet Corp., and that Acme stock is
trading at $20 per share. Say Pickins issues an advertisement to the public
usually through the newspaper, or sometimes through direct mail campaigns
that announces that he will buy Acme stock for $40 a share (double the
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going market price). If he can garner 51 percent of the stock outstanding
through this method, he will also have gained controlling ownership of the
stock.
When a tender offer is issued, the share price rises close to the offering price
in our example, to $40 per share. The proximity to the actual tender offer
is dependent on the likelihood the offer will succeed. (If the share price
didn’t rise, I, as T-Bone Pickins, would simply buy from the market rather
than following though with the tender offer, wouldn’t I? Or better still, if the
stock price didn’t rise, I, as John Doe investor, would simply buy from the
market and sell to T-Bone.)
However, Pickins doesn’t have to buy all the stock offered to him through a
tender offer. If he receives offers for more than 75 percent of the stock and
doesn’t want to buy more than 51 percent, he can buy 2/3 of the stock that
each shareholder offers him. For example, if you were an Acme shareholder
interested in T-Bone’s offer, and were willing to sell him your 1,000 shares,
he would only buy 2/3 of your stock (666 shares) for $40 and the other 1/3
for $20. (The consequence of this, of course, is that you would only sell him
2/3 of your shares.) Also, because he has made a tender offer, if Pickins does
not receive offers to buy 51 percent at his price, he does not have to purchase
the shares offered to him.
Why would anyone offer $40 a share to buy a company that the market
valued at only $20 a share? Basically, if they believe they can do
substantially better with the company than current management whether
because of expected synergies with companies they already own, a belief
that the company is inefficient and mismanaged, a belief the company is
worth more in parts than as a whole, or any other reason they believe the
company’s inherent assets to be substantially more valuable than its current
market value. (All the reasons together result in the control premium, or the
premium over the current value.)
Of course, the target company can defend itself. Say Acme’s management
hires Goldman Sachs to make a counter bid to prevent a hostile takeover and
offers another tender at an even higher price. Sometimes this leads to an
auction situation (the famous RJR Nabisco case is an example of an
escalating auction, although no tenders were involved there).

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Mergers vs. Acquisitions
The terms merger and acquisition are often used loosely and
interchangeably. For example, a bit of tension arose in the Bankers
Trust/Deutsche Bank deal when Deutsche Bank officials became irked at
Bankers Trust execs’ continual referral to the deal as a merger when it was
in fact an acquisition. When two companies of relatively equal size decide
to combine forces, it is referred to as a merger of equals. Examples of this
type of deal are the recent Sears/Kmart merger or the Sprint/Nextel merger.
On the other hand, if one company buys out another, the deal is considered
a purchase or acquisition. Examples of this include JPMorgan Chase’s
acquisition of Bank One or Oracle’s acquisition of Peoplesoft.
Despite this sometimes loose definition of how we normally categorize
mergers and acquisitions, there are real legal and accounting differences
between the two which, it ends up, basically depend on the method used
for the transaction (stock swap, etc. as discussed above).

Will That Be Cash or Stock?
The choice of whether to make a cash deal or stock swap depends largely on
the tax factors discussed above. However, it can also depend on other
factors. For example, if the stockholders of the company being acquired
value the stock of their acquirer and believe that the merged company will
be a long-term industry leader (and is thus a company whose stock they
would like to receive), they will push for a stock swap. The volatility of the
stock market must also be considered; if the market is behaving like a roller
coaster, a company’s board of directors and shareholders may feel they can
not stomach a stock swap, and opt for a cash deal. Another factor that may
come into play is how soon an acquired company will receive cash in a cash
deal, and how badly it needs the cash. If we remember our discussion of net
present value, we know that cash today is worth more than cash tomorrow.

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Accretive vs. Dilutive Mergers
A merger can be either accretive or dilutive. A merger is accretive when the
acquiring company’s earnings per share will increase after the merger. A
merger is dilutive when the acquiring company’s earnings will fall after a
merger.
Let’s take a look at an example. Say a shoe company, Big Gun, wants to
acquire a fast growing competitor, Ubershoe. Also suppose that Big Gun’s
earnings are $10 million, that it has 1 million outstanding shares (and thus
has earnings of $10 per share), and that Ubershoe’s earnings are $2 million.
Whether the acquisition will be accretive or dilutive depends on the amount
Big Gun will pay for Ubershoe. Say that Big Gun agrees to a stock swap in
which it issues 500,000 shares which it will trade for all of Ubershoe’s
shares. The combined company will have 1.5 million shares and $12 million
in earnings. The new earnings per share are $8 per share. This deal is
dilutive to Big Gun’s earnings.
But say that the terms of the acquisition are different, and Big Gun agrees to
issue 100,000 new shares of stock instead of 500,000. The combined
company will have $12 million in earnings and 1.1 million shares, or
earnings of $10.91 per share. This deal is accretive to Big Gun’s earnings.
Figuring out whether a merger is accretive or dilutive can be accomplished
by adding up the companies’ earnings and shares (as we have done in this
case), but an easier way is to use the companies’ price to earnings ratios
(P/Es). The rule is as follows: When a company with a higher price to
earnings ratio (we’ll call the company “Company 1,” and label it’s P/E ratio
“P/E1”) acquires a firm, “Company 2” of a lower P/E ratio (which we will
label P/E2), it is an accretive merger.

If Company 1 acquires Company 2
Earnings Relationship

128

Merger Type

P/E1 > P/E2

Accretive

P/E1 < P/E2

Dilutive

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Mergers & Acquisitions

Questions
1. Describe a recent M&A transaction that youve read about.
If you are preparing for an I-banking interview, this is a must-prepare
question. Read the papers or search the Internet and have at least one
transaction thoroughly prepared. You should be able to cover various aspects
of the transactions. You should know what the structure of the transaction
was and who was buying whom.
For example, you could talk about the Sears/Kmart merger announced in late
2004. That cash and stock transaction was worth an estimated $11 billion.
Although the deal was advertised as a merger of equals and the Sears name
will remain, by the structure of the deal, it's clear that Kmart acted as an
acquirer. Sears shareholders were offered the choice between $50 in cash or
half of one share of Sears Holdings, the new parent company, which was
valued at $50.61. Kmart shareholders received one share of Sears Holding
for each of their shares, which closed the day before the deal was announced
at $101.22. To purchase the larger and more established Sears, Kmart used
the strong gains in its stock during the previous year and half leading up to
the deal, plus its almost $3 billion in excess cash. At the time of the
announcement, Sears and Kmart said they expect cost savings and increased
sales of $500 million a year, after the merger is completed.
2. What were the reasons behind an M&A transaction youve read
about? Does that transaction make sense?
Perhaps more important than understanding the mechanics of transactions is
understanding the factors that drive M&A activity. The Sears/Kmart deal,
for example, brought together two giant and struggling companies in hopes
that, combined, they'll be able to better compete with other leading retailers
such as Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot.
The Sears/Kmart deal created the third largest retailer in the country, behind
Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Kmart was strong in clothing and home
accessories and recently added name brands such as Thalia Sodi, Jaclyn
Smith, Joe Boxer and Martha Stewart Everyday. Sears, meanwhile, was
known for its appliances and tools, specifically for its Kenmore and
Craftsmen brands. The combined firm hopes to blend both of the firms'
strong suits, offering quality appliances and tools (and a reputation for good
service) to Kmart shoppers, and discount clothing and low prices to Sears
customers. The increased shopping convenience is expected to allow the
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combined firm to formidably battle against Wal-Mart, Home Depot and
Target, which lost its No. 3 retiler standing as a result of the deal.
Again, your interviewer will expect you to discuss both the financial
structure of a deal, its impact on earnings, as well as its strategic drivers.
3. Your client is a privately held human resources software company.
You are advising the company in the potential sale of the company.
Who would you expect to pay more for the company: Oracle Software
(a competitor), or Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (an LBO fund)?
Oracle. A strategic buyer like Oracle would typically pay more than a
financial buyer like KKR. Oracle would be able to derive additional
benefits and therefore higher cash flows from the purchase than would
KKR. For example, Oracle would be able to cut support and administrative
staff, combine the company’s R&D budget with Oracle’s, get lower costs on
supplies and manufacturing in larger volumes, etc.
4. Are most mergers stock swaps or cash transactions and why?
In strong markets, most mergers are stock swaps, largely because the stock
prices of companies are so high.
5. What is a dilutive merger?
A merger in which the acquiring company’s earnings per share decreases as
a result of the merger. Also remember the P/E rule: A dilutive merger
happens when a company with a lower P/E ratio acquires a company with a
higher P/E ratio.
6. What is an accretive merger?
The type of merger in which the acquiring company’s earnings per share
increase. With regard to P/E ratio, this happens when a company with a
higher P/E ratio acquires a company with a lower P/E ratio. The acquiring
company’s earnings per share should rise following the merger.
7. Company A is considering acquiring Company B. Company As P/E
ratio is 55 times earnings, whereas Company Bs P/E ratio is 30 times
earnings. After Company A acquires Company B, will Company As
earnings per share rise, fall, or stay the same?
Company A’s earnings per share will rise, because of the following rule:
When a higher P/E company buys a lower P/E company, the acquirer’s

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earnings-per-share will rise. The deal is said to be accretive, as opposed to
dilutive, to the acquirer’s earnings.
8. Can you name two companies that you think should merge?
Identifying synergies between two companies is only part of correctly
answering this question. You also need to ensure that the merger will not
raise antitrust issues with FTC. For example, you could say that Apple and
Microsoft should merge, but the combined company will have an unfair
monopoly on the operating system market and the FTC will not approve the
merger. (Moreover, the people running the two companies don’t like each
other and would not want to merge.)
9. What is a hostile tender offer?
If company A wants to acquire company B, but company B refuses,
company A can issue a tender offering. In this offer, company A will take
advertisements in major newspapers like The Wall Street Journal to buy
stock in company B at a price much above the market price. If company A
is able to get more than 50 percent of the stock that way, it can officially run
and make all major decisions for company B including firing the top
management. This is something of a simplistic view; there are scores of rules
and regulations from the SEC governing such activity.
10. What is a leveraged buyout? How is it different than a merger?
A leveraged buyout occurs when a group, by refinancing a company with
debt, is able to increase the valuation of the company. LBOs are typically
accomplished by either financial groups such as KKR or company
management, whereas M&A deals are led by companies in the industry.
11. If Company A buys Company B, what will the Balance Sheet of the
combined company look like?
In this accounting, simply add each line item on the Balance Sheet.

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BRAINTEASERS
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GUESSTIMATES

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Brainteasers and Guesstimates

Stress Tests
Perhaps even more so than tough finance questions, brainteasers and
guesstimates can unnerve the most icy-veined, well-prepared finance
candidate. Even if you know the relationships between inflation, bond prices
and interest rates like the back of a dollar bill, all your studying may not help
you when your interviewer asks you how many ping pong balls fit in a 747.
That is partly their purpose. Investment bankers and other finance
professionals need to be able to work well under pressure, so many
interviewers believe that throwing a brainteaser or guesstimate at a
candidate is a good way to test an applicant’s battle-worthiness. But these
questions serve another purpose, too interviewers want you to showcase
your ability to analyze a situation, and to form conclusions about this
situation. It is not necessarily important that you come up with a correct
answer, just that you display strong analytical ability

Acing Guesstimates
We’ll start by discussing guesstimates, for which candidates are asked to
come up with a figure, usually the size of a market or the number of objects
in an area. Although guesstimates are more commonly given in interviews
for consulting positions, they do pop up in finance interviews as well.
Practicing guesstimates is a good way to begin preparing for stress questions
in finance interviews, as they force candidates to think aloud precisely
what interviewers want to see. The most important thing to remember about
brainteasers, guesstimates, or even simple math questions that are designed
to be stressful is to let your interviewer see how your mind works.
The best approach for a guesstimate question is to think of a funnel. You
begin by thinking broadly, then slowly narrowing down the situation
towards the answer. Let’s look at this approach in context. Let’s go back to
the question of how many ping pong balls fit in a 747. The first thing you
need to determine is the volume of the ping pong ball and the volume of a
747.
For any guesstimate or brainteaser question, you will need to understand
whether your interviewer will be providing any direction or whether you
will have to make assumptions. Therefore, begin the analysis of a
guesstimate or brainteaser question with a question to your interviewer, such
as, “What is the volume of a single ping pong ball?” If the interviewer does
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not know or refuses to provide any answer, then you must assume the
answer. If they do provide the information, you may ask a series of followup questions. For this example, let’s assume your interviewer wants you to
make the assumptions. Your answer might go something like this:
Let’s assume that the volume of a ping pong ball is three cubic inches. Now
let’s assume that all the seats in the plane are removed. I know that an
average refrigerator is about 23 cubic feet, and you could probably fit two
average people in the space occupied by that refrigerator, so let’s say that the
volume of an average person is 12 cubic feet, or 20,736 cubic inches
Okay, so a 747 has about 400 seats in it, excluding the galleys, lavatories,
and aisles on the lower deck and about 25 seats on the upper deck. Let’s
assume there are three galleys, 14 lavatories, and three aisles (two on the
lower deck and one on the upper deck) and that the space occupied by the
galleys is a six-person equivalent, by the lavatories is a two-person
equivalent, and the aisles are a 50-person equivalent on the lower deck and
a 20-person equivalent on the upper deck. That’s an additional 18, 28, and
120 person-volumes for the remaining space. We won’t include the cockpit
since someone has to fly the plane. So there are about 600 personequivalents available.
In addition to the human volume, we have to take into account all the cargo
and extra space the belly holds, the overhead luggage compartments, and
the space over the passengers’ heads. Let’s assume the plane holds four
times the amount of extra space as it does people, so that would mean extra
space is 2,400 person-equivalents in volume. (Obviously, this assumption is
the most important factor in this guesstimate. Remember that it’s not
important that this assumption be correct, just that you know the assumption
should be made.)
Therefore, in total we have 3,000 (or 600 + 2,400) person-equivalents in
volume available. 3,000 x 20,736 cubic inches means we have 62,208,000
cubic inches of space available (we can round to 60 million). At three cubic
inches per ball, a 747 could hold about 20 million balls. However, spheres
do not fit perfectly together. Eliminate a certain percentage spheres lose
about 30 percent when packed and cut your answer to about 14 million.
You might be wondering how you would calculate all these numbers in your
head! No one expects you to be a human calculator, so you should be writing
down these numbers as you develop them. Then you can do the math on
paper, in front of the interviewer, which will further demonstrate your
analytical abilities.

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You choose the numbers, so pick nice round numbers that are easy for you
to manipulate. Even if you just read a study that states that there are 270
million people in the United States, no interviewer will flinch if you estimate
the number of Americans as 300 million.
Note: The extra step
Don’t forget to add the “extra step” that often pop into guesstimates. In our
previous example, this step involved reducing our estimate of ping pong
balls because spheres do not pack perfectly together. If you’re trying to
figure out how many blocks there are in New York City, remember to
eliminate blocks covered by Central Park (and other parks). If you’re
determining the number of black cars in the United States, once you’ve
estimated the number of cars in America, make sure you estimate what
percentage of them are black.

Brainteasers
Now we’ll turn our attention to brainteasers, which are often used in finance
interviews. Some of these, like the legendary, “Why is the manhole round?”
question which reportedly originated at Microsoft, have no definite answer.
Others do have answers, but even with these, interviewers are more
interested in assessing creativity, composure, and your ability to deconstruct
a problem and ask directed and relevant questions.
Remember, brainteasers are very unstructured, so it is tough to suggest a
step-by-step methodology. However, there are a couple of set rules. First,
take notes as your interviewer gives you a brainteaser, especially if it’s
heavy on math. Second, think aloud so your interviewer can hear your
thought process. This may seem unnatural at first; the examples at the end
of this chapter will show you how to logically attack these questions, and
how you should vocalize your analysis. In addition to the riddle-type
brainteasers, finance interviewers will often throw out simple mathematical
questions designed to see how quick thinking you are. The math questions
are most often given to analyst applicants. The best way to prepare for these
questions (other than to find out which of these questions are most common,
which we’ve happily done for you), is simply to know that you might get
one of them. That way, if you do get one, you won’t be quite as surprised or
unprepared.

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Questions
1. How many gallons of white house paint are sold in the U.S. every
year?
THE “START BIG” APPROACH: If you’re not sure where to begin, start
with the basic assumption that there are 270 million people in the U.S. (or
25 million businesses, depending on the question). If there are 270 million
people in the United States, perhaps half of them live in houses (or 135
million people). The average family size is about three people, so there
would be 45 million houses in the United States. Let’s add another 10
percent to that for second houses and houses used for other purposes besides
residential. So there are about 50 million houses.
If houses are painted every 10 years, on average (notice how we deftly make
that number easy to work with), then there are 5 million houses painted
every year. Assuming that one gallon of paint covers 100 square feet of wall,
and that the average house has 2,000 square feet of wall to cover, then each
house needs 20 gallons of paint. So 100 million gallons of paint are sold per
year (5 million houses x 20 gallons). (Note: If you want to be fancy, you can
ask your interviewer whether you should include inner walls as well.) If 80
percent of all houses are white, then 80 million gallons of white house paint
are sold each year. (Don’t forget that last step!)
THE “START SMALL” APPROACH: Take a town of 27,000 (about
1/10,000 of the population). If you use the same assumption that half the
town lives in houses in groups of three, then there are 4,500 houses, plus
another 10 percent, which makes 5,000 houses. Painted every 10 years, 500
houses are being painted in any given year. If each house has 2,000 square
feet of wall, and each gallon of paint covers 100 square feet, then each house
needs 20 gallons so 10,000 gallons of house paint are sold each year in
your typical town. Perhaps 8,000 of those are white. Multiply by 10,000 you
have 80 million gallons.
Your interviewer may then ask you how you would get an actual number, on
the job. Use your creativity contacting major paint producers would be
smart, putting in a call to HUD’s statistics arm could help, or even
conducting a small sample of the second calculation in a few representative
towns is possible.

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Brainteasers and Guesstimates

2. What is the size of the market for disposable diapers in China?
Here’s a good example of a market sizing. How many people live in China?
A billion. Because the population of China is young, a full 600 million of
those inhabitants might be of child-bearing age. Half are women, so there
are about 300 million Chinese women of childbearing age. Now, the average
family size in China is restricted, so it might be 1.5 children, on average, per
family. Let’s say two-thirds of Chinese women have children. That means
that there are about 300 million children in China. How many of those kids
are under the age of two? About a tenth, or 30 million. So there are at least
30 million possible consumers of disposable diapers.
To summarize:
1 billion people x 60% childbearing age = 600,000,000 people
600,000,000 people x 1/2 are women = 300,000,000 women of childbearing
age
300,000,000 women x 2/3 have children = 200,000,000 women with
children
200,000,000 women x 1.5 children each = 300,000,000 children
300,000,000 children x 1/10 under age 2 = 30 million
3. How many square feet of pizza are eaten in the United States each
month?
Take your figure of 300 million people in America. How many people eat
pizza? Let’s say 200 million. Now let’s say the average pizza-eating person
eats pizza twice a month, and eats two slices at a time. That’s four slices a
month. If the average slice of pizza is perhaps six inches at the base and 10
inches long, then the slice is 30 square inches of pizza. So four pizza slices
would be 120 square inches. Since one square foot equals 144 square inches,
let’s assume that each person who eat pizza eats one square foot per month.
Since there are 200 million pizza-eating Americans, 200 million square feet
of pizza are consumed in the US each month.
To summarize:
300 million people in America
200 million eat pizza
Average slice of pizza is six inches at the base and 10 inches long = 30
square inches (height x half the base)
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Average American eats four slices of pizza a month
Four pieces x 30 square inches = 120 square inches (one square foot is
144square inches), so let’s assume one square foot per person
1 square foot x 200 million people = 200 million square feet a month
4. How would you estimate the weight of the Chrysler building?
This is a process guesstimate the interviewer wants to know if you know
what questions to ask. First, you would find out the dimensions of the
building (height, weight, depth). This will allow you to determine the
volume of the building. Does it taper at the top? (Yes.) Then, you need to
estimate the composition of the Chrysler building. Is it mostly steel?
Concrete? How much would those components weigh per square inch?
Remember the extra step find out whether you’re considering the building
totally empty or with office furniture, people, etc.? (If you’re including the
contents, you might have to add 20 percent or so to the building’s weight.)
5. Why are manhole covers round?
The classic brainteaser, straight to you via Microsoft (the originator). Even
though this question has been around for years, interviewees still encounter
it.
Here’s how to “solve” this brainteaser. Remember to speak and reason out
loud while solving this brainteaser!
Why are manhole covers round? Could there be a structural reason? Why
aren’t manhole covers square? It would make it harder to fit with a cover.
You’d have to rotate it exactly the right way. So many manhole covers are
round because they don’t need to be rotated. There are no corners to deal
with. Also, a round manhole cover won’t fall into a hole because it was
rotated the wrong way, so it’s safer.
Looking at this, it seems corners are a problem. You can’t cut yourself on a
round manhole cover. And because it’s round, it can be more easily
transported. One person can roll it.
6. If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between
the hour and the minute hands?
The answer to this is not zero! The hour hand, remember, moves as well. The
hour hand moves a quarter of the way between three and four, so it moves a

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quarter of a twelfth (1/48) of 360 degrees. So the answer is seven and a half
degrees, to be exact.
7. You have a five-gallon jug and a three-gallon jug. You must obtain
exactly four gallons of water. How will you do it?
You should find this brainteaser fairly simple. If you were to think out loud,
you might begin by examining the ways in which combinations of five and
three can come up to be four. For example: (5 - 3) + (5 - 3) = 4. This path
does not actually lead to the right answer, but it is a fruitful way to begin
thinking about the question. Here’s the solution: fill the three-gallon jug with
water and pour it into the five-gallon jug. Repeat. Because you can only put
two more gallons into the five-gallon jug, one gallon will be left over in the
three-gallon jug. Empty out the five-gallon jug and pour in the one gallon.
Now just fill the three-gallon jug again and pour it into the five-gallon jug.
(Mathematically, this can be represented 3 + 3 - 5 + 3 = 4)
8. You have 12 balls. All of them are identical except one, which is either
heavier or lighter than the rest. The odd ball is either hollow while the
rest are solid, or solid while the rest are hollow. You have a scale, and
are permitted three weighings. Can you identify the odd ball, and
determine whether it is hollow or solid?
This is a pretty complex question, and there are actually multiple solutions.
First, we’ll examine what thought processes an interviewer is looking for,
and then we’ll discuss one solution.
Start with the simplest of observations. The number of balls you weigh
against each other must be equal. Yeah, it’s obvious, but why? Because if
you weigh, say three balls against five, you are not receiving any
information. In a problem like this, you are trying to receive as much
information as possible with each weighing.
For example, one of the first mistakes people make when examining this
problem is that they believe the first weighing should involve all of the balls
(six against six). This weighing involves all of the balls, but what type of
information does this give you? It actually gives you no new information.
You already know that one of the sides will be heavier than the other, and by
weighing six against six, you will simply confirm this knowledge. Still, you
want to gain information about as many balls as possible (so weighing one
against one is obviously not a good idea). Thus the best first weighing is four
against four.

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Secondly, if you think through this problem long enough, you will realize
how precious the information gained from a weighing is: You need to
transfer virtually every piece of information you have gained from one
weighing to the next. Say you weigh four against four, and the scale
balances. Lucky you! Now you know that the odd ball is one of the
unweighed four. But don’t give into the impulse to simply work with those
balls. In this weighing, you’ve also learned that the eight balls on the scale
are normal. Try to use this information.
Finally, remember to use your creativity. Most people who work through this
problem consider only weighing a number of balls against each other, and
then taking another set and weighing them, etc. This won’t do. There are a
number of other types of moves you can make you can rotate the balls
from one scale to another, you can switch the balls, etc.
Lets look at one solution:
For simplicity’s sake, we will refer to one side of the scale as Side A, and the
other as Side B.
Step 1: Weigh four balls against four others.
Case A: If, on the first weighing, the balls balance
If the balls in our first weighing balance we know the odd ball is one of those
not weighed, but we don’t know whether it is heavy or light. How can we
gain this information easily? We can weigh them against the balls we know
to be normal. So:
Step 2 (for Case A): Put three of the unweighed balls on the Side A; put
three balls that are known to be normal on Side B.
I. If on this second weighing, the scale balances again, we know that
the final unweighed ball is the odd one.
Step 3a (for Case A): Weigh the final unweighed ball (the odd one)
against one of the normal balls. With this weighing, we determine
whether the odd ball is heavy or light.
II. If on this second weighing, the scale tips to Side A, we know that
the odd ball is heavy. (If it tips to Side B, we know the odd ball is
light, but let’s proceed with the assumption that the odd ball is heavy.)
We also know that the odd ball is one of the group of three on Side A.

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Step 3b (for Case A): Weigh one of the balls from the group of three
against another one. If the scale balances, the ball from the group of three
that was unweighed is the odd ball, and is heavy. If the scale tilts, we can
identify the odd ball, because we know it is heavier than the other. (If the
scale had tipped to Side B, we would use the same logical process, using
the knowledge that the odd ball is light.)
Case B: If the balls do not balance on the first weighing
If the balls do not balance on the first weighing, we know that the odd ball is
one of the eight balls that was weighed. We also know that the group of four
unweighed balls are normal, and that one of the sides, let’s say Side A, is
heavier than the other (although we don’t know whether the odd ball is heavy
or light).
Step 2 (for Case B): Take three balls from the unweighed group and use
them to replace three balls on Side A (the heavy side). Take the three balls
from Side A and use them to replace three balls on Side B (which are
removed from the scale).
I. If the scale balances, we know that one of the balls removed from
the scale was the odd one. In this case, we know that the ball is also
light. We can proceed with the third weighing as described in step 3b
from Case A.
II. If the scale tilts to the other side, so that Side B is now the heavy
side, we know that one of the three balls moved from Side A to Side
B is the odd ball, and that it is heavy. We proceed with the third
weighing as described in step 3b in Case A.
III. If the scale remains the same, we know that one of the two balls
on the scale that was not shifted in our second weighing is the odd
ball. We also know that the unmoved ball from Side A is heavier than
the unmoved ball on Side B (though we don’t know whether the odd
ball is heavy or light).
Step 3 (for Case B): Weigh the ball from Side A against a normal ball. If
the scale balances, the ball from Side B is the odd one, and is light. If the
scale does not balance, the ball from Side A is the odd one, and is heavy.
As you can see from this solution, one of the keys to this problem is
understanding that information can be gained about balls even if they are not
being weighed. For example, if we know that one of the balls of two groups
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that are being weighed is the odd ball, we know that the unweighed balls are
normal. Once this is known, we realize that breaking the balls up into
smaller and smaller groups of three (usually eventually down to three balls),
is a good strategy and an ultimately successful one.
9. You are faced with two doors. One door leads to your job offer (that’s
the one you want!), and the other leads to the exit. In front of each door
is a guard. One guard always tells the truth. The other always lies. You
can ask one question to decide which door is the correct one. What will
you ask?
The way to logically attack this question is to ask how you can construct a
question that provides the same answer (either a true statement or a lie), no
matter who you ask.
There are two simple answers. Ask a guard: “If I were to ask you if this door
were the correct one, what would you say?” The truthful guard would
answer yes (if it’s the correct one), or no (if it’s not). Now take the lying
guard. If you asked the liar if the correct door is the right way, he would
answer no. But if you ask him: “If I were to ask you if this door were the
correct one, what would you say,” he would be forced to lie about how he
would answer, and say yes. Alternately, ask a guard: “If I were to ask the
other guard which way is correct, what would he say?” Here, the truthful
guard would tell you the wrong way (because he is truthfully reporting what
the liar would say), while the lying guard would also tell you the wrong way
(because he is lying about what the truthful guard would say).
If you want to think of this question more mathematically, think of lying as
represented by -1, and telling the truth as represented by +1. The first
solution provides you with a consistently truthful answer because (-1)(-1) =
1, while (1)(1) = 1. The second solution provides you with a consistently
false answer because (1)(-1) = -1, and (-1)(1) = -1.
10. A company has 10 machines that produce gold coins. One of the
machines is producing coins that are a gram light. How do you tell
which machine is making the defective coins with only one weighing?
Think this through clearly, every machine will have to produce a sample
coin or coins, and you must weigh all these coins together. How can you
somehow indicate which coins came from which machine? The best way to
do it is to have every machine crank a different number of coins, so that
machine 1 will make one coin, machine 2 will make two coins, and so on.
Take all the coins, weigh them together, and consider their weight against
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the total theoretical weight. If you’re four grams short, for example, you’ll
know that machine 4 is defective.
11. The four members of U2 (Bono, the Edge, Larry and Adam) need to
get across a narrow bridge to play a concert. Since it’s dark, a flashlight
is required to cross, but the band has only one flashlight, and only two
people can cross the bridge at a time. (This is not to say, of course, that
if one of the members of the band has crossed the bridge, he can’t come
back by himself with the flashlight.) Adam takes only a minute to get
across, Larry takes two minutes, the Edge takes five minutes, and
slowpoke Bono takes 10 minutes. A pair can only go as fast as the
slowest member. They have 17 minutes to get across. How should they
do it?
The key to attacking this question is to understand that Bono and the Edge
are major liabilities and must be grouped together. In other words, if you
sent them across separately, you’d already be using 15 minutes. This won’t
do. What does this mean? That Bono and the Edge must go across together.
But they can not be the first pair (or one of them will have to transport the
flashlight back).
Instead, you send Larry and Adam over first, taking two minutes. Adam
comes back, taking another minute, for a total of three minutes. Bono and
the Edge then go over, taking 10 minutes, and bringing the total to 13. Larry
comes back, taking another two minutes, for a total of 15. Adam and Larry
go back over, bringing the total time to 17 minutes.
12. What is the decimal equivalent of 3/16 and 7/16?
A commonly-used Wall Street interview question, this one isn’t just an
attempt to stress you out or see how quick your mind works. This question
also has practical banking applications. Stocks often are traded at prices
reported in 1/16s of a dollar. If you don’t know the answer off the top of your
head, an easy way to start is with what you do know. You know ¼ = .25, so
dividing each side by 2, 1/8 = .125 and 1/16 = .0625. Just multiple that to
get what you’re looking for, so 3/16 = .1875 and 7/16 = .4375.
13. What is the sum of the numbers from one to 50?
Another question that recent analyst hires often report receiving. This is a
relatively easy one: pair up the numbers into groups of 51 (1 + 50 = 51; 2 +
49 = 51; etc.). Twenty-five pairs of 51 equals 1275.

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14. You have a painting that was $320 which is now selling for 20
percent off. How much is the discounted price?
Calculate quickly: What’s 80 percent of $320? The answer is $256. Even in
a question like this, if you are good with numbers and use shortcuts, don’t
be afraid to talk aloud. For example: 80 percent of $320 can be broken down
to a calculation like 80 percent of $80 x $4, or $256.
15. How many Delta Airlines planes will take off in the next hour in
United States?
There are several ways to attack this question. One way is to start by
figuring out the number of airports in the United States. Most states have
one or two large airports from which a major carrier departs. So on average,
you can assume that there are 1.2 large airports per state. Finally, if you say
that one Delta plane departs every 10 minutes, you can see that there 6 take
off per hour from each airport, so you can estimate that there are
1.2 x 50 x 6, or 360 Delta planes taking off this hour.
16. A straight flush beats a four-of-a-kind in poker because it is more
unlikely. But think about how many straight flushes there are if you
don’t count wraparound straights, you can have a straight flush
starting on any card from two to 10 in any suit (nine per suit). That
means there are 36 straight flushes possible. But how many four of a
kinds are there only 13. What’s wrong with this reasoning?
Immediately, you should think about the difference between a straight flush
and a four-of-a-kind. One involves five cards, and the other involves four.
Intuitively, that’s what should strike you as the problem with the line of
reasoning. Look closer and you’ll see what that means: for every four of a
kind, there are actually a whole bunch of five-card hands: 48 (52 - 4) in fact.
There are actually 624 (48 x 13) of them in all.
17. If you have seven white socks and nine black socks in a drawer, how
many do you have to pull out blindly in order to ensure that you have a
matching pair?
Three. Let’s see if the first one is one color, and the second one is the other
color, the third one, no matter what the color, will make a matching pair.
Sometimes you’re not supposed to think that hard.

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18. Tell me a good joke that is neither sexist nor racist.
Have a few good, tasteful jokes ready.
19. If I were to fill this room with pennies, how many pennies would fit
in?
A literally in-your-face guesstimate.
20. Say you are driving two miles on a one-mile track. You do one lap at
30 miles an hour. How fast do you have to go to average 60 miles an
hour?
This is something of a trick question, and was recently received by a
Goldman candidate. The first thought of many people is to say 90 miles an
hour, but consider: If you have done a lap at 30 miles an hour, you have
already taken two minutes. Two minutes is the total amount of time you
would have to take in order to average 60 miles an hour. Therefore, you can
not average 60 miles an hour over the two laps.

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Final Analysis

Don’t be scared off by the horror stories you may have heard about finance
interviews. True, some interviewers will get tough don’t be shocked if you
encounter a few screamers, rapid-fire math questions or questions designed to
catch you off guard just remember most people are just trying to get to know
you. They want to find out if you can handle the job, if you’re interested in
finance and if you’re the kind of person they want to have around the office,
especially if you have to pull an all-nighter. Remember to study the relevant
finance topics. If you’re interviewing for an equity position, know what the stock
market is doing. If you’re auditioning for the M&A department, get to know the
particulars of a deal that you’ve found interesting, especially if the deal was done
by the firm at which you’re interviewing. Overall, make sure you have a good
grasp of basic finance concepts and convince your interviewer that you have the
ability to learn the more complex aspects of the job.
You should also be ready for the more laid-back interviews. Be ready to talk
about yourself. You’ll tell them about your hobbies and interests, your
experience and your education, among other things. Remember why you want
to go into banking (or asset management, or venture capital, etc.) and why you’re
interested in that particular firm.
Overall, be confident. If you’ve practiced your answers and done your research,
most of the questions should be answerable if you take the time to think about
what they’re looking for. Remember to dress and act professionally, which
includes showing up on time. Good luck!

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Finance Glossary
Accretive merger: A merger in which the acquiring company’s earnings per
share increase.
Balance Sheet: One of the four basic financial statements, the Balance
Sheet presents the financial position of a company at a given point in time,
including Assets, Liabilities, and Equity.
Beta: A value that represents the relative volatility of a given investment
with respect to the market.
Bond price: The price the bondholder (the lender) pays the bond issuer (the
borrower) to hold the bond (i.e., to have a claim on the cash flows
documented on the bond).
Bond spreads: The difference between the yield of a corporate bond and a
U.S. Treasury security of similar time to maturity.
Buy-side: The clients of investment banks (mutual funds, pension funds and
other entities often called “institutional investors”) that buy the stocks,
bonds and securities sold by the investment banks. (The investment banks
that sell these products to investors are known as the “sell-side.”)
Callable bond: A bond that can be bought back by the issuer so that it is not
committed to paying large coupon payments in the future.
Call option: An option that gives the holder the right to purchase an asset
for a specified price on or before a specified expiration date.
Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM): A model used to calculate the
discount rate of a company’s cash flows.
Commercial bank: A bank that lends, rather than raises money. For
example, if a company wants $30 million to open a new production plant, it
can approach a commercial bank like Bank of America or Citibank for a
loan. (Increasingly, commercial banks are also providing investment
banking services to clients.)
Commercial paper: Short-term corporate debt, typically maturing in nine
months or less.
Commodities: Assets (usually agricultural products or metals) that are
generally interchangeable with one another and therefore share a common

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price. For example, corn, wheat, and rubber generally trade at one price on
commodity markets worldwide.
Common stock: Also called common equity, common stock represents an
ownership interest in a company (as opposed to preferred stock, see below).
The vast majority of stock traded in the markets today is common, as
common stock enables investors to vote on company matters. An individual
with 51 percent or more of shares owned controls a company and can
appoint anyone he/she wishes to the board of directors or to the management
team.
Comparable transactions (comps): A method of valuing a company for a
merger or acquisition that involves studying similar transactions.
Convertible preferred stock: A type of equity issued by a company,
convertible preferred stock is often issued when it cannot successfully sell
either straight common stock or straight debt. Preferred stock pays a
dividend, similar to how a bond pays coupon payments, but ultimately
converts to common stock after a period of time. It is essentially a mix of
debt and equity, and most often used as a means for a risky company to
obtain capital when neither debt nor equity works.
Capital market equilibrium: The principle that there should be
equilibrium in the global interest rate markets.
Convertible bonds: Bonds that can be converted into a specified number of
shares of stock.
Cost of Goods Sold: The direct costs of producing merchandise. Includes
costs of labor, equipment, and materials to create the finished product, for
example.
Coupon payments: The payments of interest that the bond issuer makes to
the bondholder.
Credit ratings: The ratings given to bonds by credit agencies. These ratings
indicate the risk of default.
Currency appreciation: When a currency’s value is rising relative to other
currencies.
Currency depreciation: When a currency’s value is falling relative to other
currencies.
Currency devaluation: When a currency weakens under fixed exchange
rates.
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Currency revaluation: When a currency strengthens under fixed exchange
rates.
Default premium: The difference between the promised yields on a
corporate bond and the yield on an otherwise identical government bond.
Default risk: The risk that the company issuing a bond may go bankrupt and
“default” on its loans.
Derivatives: An asset whose value is derived from the price of another
asset. Examples include call options, put options, futures, and interest-rate
swaps.
Dilutive merger: A merger in which the acquiring company’s earnings per
share decrease.
Discount rate: A rate that measures the risk of an investment. It can be
understood as the expected return from a project of a certain amount of risk.
Discounted Cash Flow analysis (DCF): A method of valuation that takes
the net present value of the free cash flows of a company.
Dividend: A payment by a company to shareholders of its stock, usually as
a way to distribute some or all of the profits to shareholders.
EBIAT: Earnings Before Interest After Taxes. Used to approximate earnings
for the purposes of creating free cash flow for a discounted cash flow.
EBIT: Earnings Before Interest and Taxes.
EBITDA: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization.
Enterprise Value: Levered value of the company, the Equity Value plus the
market value of debt.
Equity: In short, stock. Equity means ownership in a company that is
usually represented by stock.
The Fed: The Federal Reserve Board, which manages the country’s
economy by setting interest rates.
Fixed income: Bonds and other securities that earn a fixed rate of return.
Bonds are typically issued by governments, corporations and municipalities.
Float: The number of shares available for trade in the market times the
price. Generally speaking, the bigger the float, the greater the stock’s
liquidity.

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Floating rate: An interest rate that is pegged to other rates (such as the rate
paid on U.S. Treasuries), allowing the interest rate to change as market
conditions change.
Forward contract: A contract that calls for future delivery of an asset at an
agreed-upon price.
Forward exchange rate: The price of currencies at which they can be
bought and sold for future delivery.
Forward rates (for bonds): The agreed-upon interest rates for a bond to be
issued in the future.
Futures contract: A contract that calls for the delivery of an asset or its cash
value at a specified delivery or maturity date for an agreed upon price. A
future is a type of forward contract that is liquid, standardized, traded on an
exchange, and whose prices are settled at the end of each trading day.
Glass-Steagall Act: Part of the legislation passed during the Depression
(Glass-Steagall was passed in 1933) designed to help prevent future bank
failure - the establishment of the F.D.I.C. was also part of this movement.
The Glass-Steagall Act split America’s investment banking (issuing and
trading securities) operations from commercial banking (lending). For
example, J.P. Morgan was forced to spin off its securities unit as Morgan
Stanley. Since the late 1980s, the Federal Reserve has steadily weakened the
act, allowing commercial banks to buy investment banks.
Goodwill: An account that includes intangible assets a company may have,
such as brand image.
Hedge: A balance on a position in the market in order to reduce risk.
High-yield bonds (a.k.a. junk bonds): Bonds with poor credit ratings that
pay a relatively high rate of interest, or can be bought for cents per dollar of
face value.
Holding Period Return: The income earned over a period as a percentage
of the bond price at the start of the period.
Income Statement: One of the four basic financial statements, the Income
Statement presents the results of operations of a business over a specified
period of time, and is composed of Revenues, Expenses, and Net Income.
Initial Public Offering (IPO): The dream of every entrepreneur, the IPO is
the first time a company issues stock to the public. “Going public” means
more than raising money for the company: By agreeing to take on public
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shareholders, a company enters a whole world of required SEC filings and
quarterly revenue and earnings reports, not to mention possible shareholder
lawsuits.
Investment grade bonds: Bonds with high credit ratings that pay a
relatively low rate of interest, but are very low risk.
Leveraged Buyout (LBO): The buyout of a company with borrowed
money, often using that company’s own assets as collateral. LBOs were the
order of the day in the heady 1980s, when successful LBO firms such as
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts made a practice of buying companies,
restructuring them, and reselling them or taking them public at a significant
profit.
Liquidity: The amount of a particular stock or bond available for trading in
the market. For commonly traded securities, such as large cap stocks and
U.S. government bonds, they are said to be highly liquid instruments. Small
cap stocks and smaller fixed income issues often are called illiquid (as they
are not actively traded) and suffer a liquidity discount, i.e., they trade at
lower valuations to similar, but more liquid, securities.
The Long Bond: The 30-year U.S. Treasury bond. Treasury bonds are used
as the starting point for pricing many other bonds, because Treasury bonds
are assumed to have zero credit risk take into account factors such as
inflation. For example, a company will issue a bond that trades “40 over
Treasuries.” The 40 refers to 40 basis points (100 basis points = 1 percentage
point).
Market Cap(italization): The total value of a company in the stock market
(total shares outstanding x price per share).
Money market securities: This term is generally used to represent the
market for securities maturing within one year. These include short-term
CDs, Repurchase Agreements, Commercial Paper (low-risk corporate
issues), among others. These are low risk, short-term securities that have
yields similar to Treasuries.
Mortgage-backed bonds: Bonds collateralized by a pool of mortgages.
Interest and principal payments are based on the individual homeowners
making their mortgage payments. The more diverse the pool of mortgages
backing the bond, the less risky they are.
Multiples method: A method of valuing a company that involves taking a
multiple of an indicator such as price-to-earnings, EBITDA, or revenues.

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Municipal bonds: Bonds issued by local and state governments, a.k.a.,
municipalities. Municipal bonds are structured as tax-free for the investor,
which means investors in muni’s earn interest payments without having to
pay federal taxes. Sometimes investors are exempt from state and local
taxes, too. Consequently, municipalities can pay lower interest rates on muni
bonds than other bonds of similar risk.
Net present value (NPV): The present value of a series of cash flows
generated by an investment, minus the initial investment. NPV is calculated
because of the important concept that money today is worth more than the
same money tomorrow.
Non-convertible preferred stock: Sometimes companies issue nonconvertible preferred stock, which remains outstanding in perpetuity and
trades like stocks. Utilities are the most common issuers of non-convertible
preferred stock.
Par value: The amount a bond issuer will commit to pay back, the principal,
when the bond expires.
P/E ratio: The price to earnings ratio. This is the ratio of a company’s stock
price to its earnings-per-share. The higher the P/E ratio, the faster investors
believe the company will grow.
Prime rate: The average rate U.S. banks charge to companies for loans.
Put option: An option that gives the holder the right to sell an asset for a
specified price on or before a specified expiration date.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): A federal agency that, like
the Glass-Steagall Act, was established as a result of the stock market crash
of 1929 and the ensuing depression. The SEC monitors disclosure of
financial information to stockholders, and protects against fraud. Publicly
traded securities must first be approved by the SEC prior to trading.
Securitize: To convert an asset into a security that can then be sold to
investors. Nearly any income-generating asset can be turned into a security.
For example, a 20-year mortgage on a home can be packaged with other
mortgages just like it, and shares in this pool of mortgages can then be sold
to investors.
Selling, General & Administrative Expense (SG&A): Costs not directly
involved in the production of revenues. SG&A is subtracted as part of
expenses from Gross Profit to get EBIT.
Spot exchange rate: The price of currencies for immediate delivery.
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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Finance Glossary

Statement of Cash Flows: One of the four basic financial statements, the
Statement of Cash Flows presents a detailed summary of all of the cash
inflows and outflows during a specified period.
Statement of Retained Earnings: One of the four basic financial
statements, the Statement of Retained Earnings is a reconciliation of the
Retained Earnings account. Information such as dividends or announced
income is provided in the statement. The Statement of Retained Earnings
provides information about what a company’s management is doing with the
company’s earnings.
Stock: Ownership in a company.
Stock swap: A form of M&A activity in whereby the stock of one company
is exchanged for the stock of another.
Strong currency: A currency whose value is rising relative to other
currencies.
Swap: A type of derivative, a swap is an exchange of future cash flows.
Popular swaps include foreign exchange swaps and interest rate swaps.
10K: An annual report filed by a public company with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC). Includes financial information, company
information, risk factors, etc.
Tender offers: A method by which a hostile acquirer renders an offer to the
shareholders of a company in an attempt to gather a controlling interest in
the company. Generally, the potential acquirer will offer to buy stock from
shareholders at a much higher value than the market value.
Treasury securities: Securities issued by the U.S. government. These are
divided into Treasury bills (maturity of up to 2 years), Treasury notes (from
2 years to 10 years maturity), and Treasury bonds (10 years to 30 years). As
they are government guaranteed, often treasuries are considered risk-free. In
fact, while U.S. Treasuries have no default risk, they do have interest rate
risk; if rates increase, then the price of UST’s will decrease.
Underwrite: Most commonly, the valuing of a pre-IPO stock performed by
investment banks when they help companies issue securities to investors.
Technically, the investment bank buys the securities from the company and
immediately resells the securities to investors for a slightly higher price,
making money on the spread.
Weak currency: A currency whose value is falling relative to other
currencies.
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Vault Guide to Finance Interviews
Finance Glossary

Yield to call: The yield of a bond calculated up to the period when the bond
is called (paid off by the bond issuer).
Yield: The annual return on investment. A high-yield bond, for example,
pays a high rate of interest.
Yield to maturity: The measure of the average rate of return that will be
earned on a bond if it is bought now and held to maturity.
Zero coupon bonds: A bond that offers no coupon or interest payments to
the bondholder.

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About the Authors
D. Bhatawedekhar is the pen name of an associate with one of Wall Street’s
bulge bracket investment banking firms. He is a graduate of the University
of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, and majored in finance.
Dan Jacobson is a writer and editor who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
from Cornell University in 1997 and received his MBA from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002. Dan has worked at Merrill
Lynch in its real estate principal investment group and, prior to business
school, as a management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Hussam Hamadeh is co-founder of Vault. He holds a BA in economics
from UCLA and a JD/MBA from the Wharton School of Business and the
University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was an editor on Law
Review. He is a member of the New York Bar and is a member of the Board
of Managers of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

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