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We share our latest thinking and discuss current topics in project finance. We welcome your contribution – feel free to comment online or contact the blogger with your comments.

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Financial Modelling for Resources project, Asia Mining Congress 2010

By Nick Crawley on March 17 2010

During March I have had the pleasure of speaking at the Australian Institute of Geo-scientists quarterly gathering in Brisbane to an unexpectedly large audience.

Avoiding circular references when modelling DSRA with sculpted principal repayments.

By Nick Crawley on December 10 2009 | No comments I generally don’t post the many questions that I respond to directly from readers but this one I think would an useful insight into something that causes so many model builders, auditors and managers sleepless nights. There is no rocket science (sorry!) just a healthy dose of experience and practicality.... Read more

fimodo - a solid gold financial modelling resource!

By Nick Crawley on November 17 2009 | No comments There are several financial modelling forums available on the web but there have been none that I have felt with the quality and focus required for Navigator to formally publisice our services on or upon which to share my views on an ongoing meanginful basis. I am pleased to say this has changed, since August I have been a member of the financial modelling domain, fimodo.com which carries the straight forward strap line “financial modelling experts sharing their knowledge’.... Read more

A matter of “principal”.

By Nick Crawley on November 15 2009 | No comments Having spent the majority of my professional life involved in the modelling and analysis of project finance transactions it is fair to say that I have spent, more time than most, thinking about and calculating the repayment of debt. This time has also been spent looking at how the calculations can be simplified, made more thorough, easier to understand, more flexible and adaptable for when a transaction progresses.... Read more

Calling all African PF’ers - I am in Lagos until 3/11/09.

By Nick Crawley on October 29 2009 | No comments I rarely write about my trips, often due to confidentiality or lack of time, however I am currently en route to Lagos, Nigeria and I thought this would be an interesting insight into those of you interested in the way we operate at Navigator.... Read more

Mineral Asset Reporting and Valuation.

By Nick Crawley on September 25 2009 | No comments I was asked to present a financiers perspective of the mining valuation process at the Mineral Asset Reporting and Valuation conference organised by the Australian Institute of Geoscientists in Perth on Monday the 19th of October. The AIG is a not run to make a significant financial gain and so all parties are contributing their time voluntarily.... Read more

Attack of the Mac!

By Nick Crawley on September 23 2009 | No comments There are plenty of people looking at the pro’s and con’s of modelling on an Apple Mac at the moment so I won’t write a thesis on the matter but thought I would share with you a question that was aked of me earlier today. ... Read more

Avoiding the OFFSET function

By Kenny Chew on September 2 2009 | No comments Continuing from Nick’s recent post on the multi lingual translator, I have recently learnt that for some reason the German version of Excel does not translate the OFFSET function, which makes it difficult although not impossible to use. There are of course add-on packs and macros that can be written to replace this function but not everybody in every organisation will be able to use this approach. So the challenge was to find a way of avoiding the use of OFFSET when building models for a German audience.... Read more

PPP Asia 2009 - A brilliant conference!

By Nick Crawley on August 25 2009 | No comments The location for the Singapore event was, Royal Plaza on Scott was a great training location, upmarket but well positioned for companies with a close eye on costs. The marketing, by LexisNexis, of the two day event was intelligent and drew a great audience from the Asia Pacific region along with a good line up of speakers.... Read more

Make your Excel formula bar larger!

By Kenny Chew on August 25 2009 | No comments Make your formula bar larger and present a financial model well. 6 tips for a smooth modelling presentation. ... Read more

Focus paper on modelling the DSCR, LLCR and PLCR metrics

By Nick Crawley on August 19 2009 | 1 comment We got our pens and pencils out and have produced a 20+ page focus paper which solely deals with the intricacies, tips and tricks and commons errors of calculating the key senior debt ratios, the DSCR, LLCR, PLCR and lesser known RLCR.... Read more