Twice a year
6 months part-time
Live online instructor-led sessions, 45 hours
€2,999
Instalment payment plan available
Pay in 6 x monthly instalments using your credit or debit card with Paythen.
2 hours per week live classes (plus additional study time)
Average 20 students for personalised 1‑to‑1 attention
The Certified Financial Modelling & Private Equity Analyst™ certification program teaches you in-depth financial modelling with a focus on Private Equity and Investment Banking.
Financial modelling is a critical skill to have in Private Equity as it forms the basis on which decisions are taken. These financial models are applied to multiple levels of an investment: from forecasting the impact of a decision on a business’s cash flow, to forecasting the underlying Fund or even the embedded remuneration received by Private Equity managers (carried interest).
You will undergo rigorous training that will equip you with the key skills to perform the following:
This instructor-led certification program consists of four courses comprising 26 modules including an assessed Capstone project.
LFA provides the training and the skills that will deliver the most commercial impact for employers. Our instructors are at the top of their fields and are practicing professionals so you will always have access to their market knowledge, professional experience and the key developments currently happening in the Private Equity industry.
Analyst (1–3 years)
Associate (4–7 years)
Vice-president (8–12 years)
Source: mergersandacquisitions.com (2021)
* Base salary and annual cash bonus. Excludes annual carried interest allocations
Access to Microsoft Excel in English and a broadband Internet connection. Prior knowledge or experience in Finance is beneficial but not necessary. Using a PC over a Mac is preferable.
You will familiarise yourself with the layout, navigation, and basic building blocks of Excel. Learn the main formulas, keyboard shortcuts, formatting, and formula extension techniques.
Master the use of Excel formulas that depend on conditions & variables: IF statements, SUMIFS, SUMPRODUCT, logical functions, AND, OR, TRUE, FALSE, COUNTIFS etc. Learn to apply the correct formula to the right situation. Work through real-life Finance applications.
Learn how to modify and extract meaningful information that is usually coming out as text format from financial databases like Oracle/SAP. Learning how to clean large data sets is a key skill that is expected from analysts in Investment Banking & Private Equity industries.
Master formatting in Excel and apply a set of design rules. Learn and apply the main financial formulas such as XIRR, XNPV or EOMONTH.
Master the use of Lookup functions such as INDEX/MATCH, VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP – essential formulas behind exploiting data sets in Financial Models. ‘Goal seek’ your way to a solution and learn how to create a data table. Understand how to audit calculations using Formula Auditing.
Customise Excel to suit your needs – become faster with customised shortcuts etc. Learn to make a Discounted Cash Flow (‘DCF’) analysis swiftly. Apply lookup and search functions to create ‘Trial Balances’ and Financial Statements quickly.
Understand why financial modelling is so important in finance and business. Discover the use cases of financial models. Learn the Do’s & Don’ts of Financial Modelling. Source the required financial and qualitative information on companies & analyse the data before starting to model.
Condense real world financial data from annual reports into Investment Banking standard financial statements (Income statement, Balance sheet and Cash Flow statement). Derive the key financial ratios needed for Financial Modelling. Build your ‘dashboard’ – the main worksheet that will drive your model.
Learn how to create forecasted Financial Statements from scratch.
Understand and model opex, working capital and Property, Plant & Equipment.
Understand the main financial debt instruments used by companies and learn how to forecast debt in a model. Analysing historical capital (leverage & dividend) policy of a company and forecast both dividends and leverage.
Model company taxation accurately. Build the Discounted Cash Flow (‘DCF’) valuation worksheet. Understand the key drivers behind a DCF and best practices behind choosing the most reasonable assumptions.
Identify the mathematical drivers behind revenue and COGS of your target company and model these correctly. Understand how revenue and COGS in different industries would be modelled.
Learn to build a reasonable valuation case. Analyse and assess the result with your cohort and build defensible arguments against outside scrutiny. Experience a real Investment Banking underwriting session.
Learn how build seamless scenarios and sensitivity analyses (data tables) into your Model.
Understand and explore the Private Equity industry space and learn about the different segments within it. Gain awareness of recent developments and trends. Discover the variety of job roles within the Private Equity industry.
Learn what drives the returns of a Private Equity investment. Understand the main Corporate Structuring strategies and modelling implications. Discover leveraged finance instruments and techniques.
Master the modelling of complicated debt structures (or capital stacks) with preferred waterfalls. Understand the complex debt instruments such as PIK/Mezz etc. Learn to build bankruptcy remote models.
Understand how corporate taxation really works and implement corporate structures into Financial Models. Learn to build a real taxation model that can be applied to any company.
Learn to build an advanced Leveraged Buyout model that incorporates complex debt structures and real life taxation into it.
Learn to put multiple deals together into a fund model. Understand the life phases of a Private Equity fund and learn how to model management fees and fund level expenses.
Understand the main types of carried interest and asset manager promote in Private Equity. Learn to model these into your forecast.
Introduction to the Capstone project and requirements. Q&A session on assignment and deliverable.
All submitted assignments will receive detailed feedback from the instructor after submission.
Length: 6 months (excluding holidays)
Days: Monday
Time: 8pm – 10pm (CET),
7pm – 9pm (UK)
Holiday breaks: 25.12.2023 & 01.01.2024
Students: Max. 20
Mode: Live online
Cost: €2,999
Length: 6 months (excluding holidays)
Days: Monday
Time: 8pm – 10pm (CET),
7pm – 9pm (UK)
Students: Max. 20
Mode: Live online
Cost: €2,999
Holiday breaks: 25.12.2023 & 01.01.2024
Length: 6 months (excluding holidays)
Days: Monday
Time: 8pm – 10pm (CET),
7pm – 9pm (UK)
Holiday breaks: 01.04.2024
Students: Max. 20
Mode: Live online
Cost: €2,999
Length: 6 months (excluding holidays)
Days: Monday
Time: 8pm – 10pm (CET),
7pm – 9pm (UK)
Students: Max. 20
Mode: Live online
Cost: €2,999
Holiday breaks: 01.04.2024
Nikhil Gupta
CFO, Kadens Capital, Private Equity (current)
Managing Director, Peakside Capital Advisors, Private Equity (past)
M&A Investment Banker, Rothschild & Co., Investment Bank (past)
Nikhil Gupta is a seasoned Private Equity and Investment Banking Senior Executive. He is currently the CFO of Kadens Capital, a Private Equity firm. Prior to this, Nikhil was a Managing Director at Peakside Capital Advisors, where he completed more than $3 billion in real estate transactions.
For the past several years, Nikhil has shared his knowledge and expertise gained over the last 15 years in Private Equity and Investment Banking, through coaching and teaching students.
Nikhil is an External Lecturer at ESSEC Business School, France where he teaches Private Equity financial modelling to Master’s in management and Master’s in finance students. He also teaches the MBA students at IMD Lausanne, Switzerland and at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Upon successful completion of the course and the Capstone project, Leap Finance Academy grants a verified digital certificate to its participants. You will also receive a digital badge that can be posted on social media sites like LinkedIn.
Your digital certificate and badge will be tied to your identity information. We may request for official identification information before issuing your certification. All images are for illustrative purposes only and may be subject to change at the discretion of Leap Finance Academy.
Please fill check your inbox shortly for the course syllabus.