Below we list some of our assignments, which can range from a one year fund raising mandate, to a one week transaction support role.
Metro Mining engaged Rock Financial Advisory to obtain project finance debt funding from Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) to fund expansion of their Bauxite Hills mine near Weipa. Approval was received on 12th of November 2019 for $47m.
The funding is to buy a new floating shiploader. Such a vessel will allow loading of larger ships (Panamax and Cape versus Utramax) and also at a faster rate, thus delivering lower opex costs on a $/ t basis. The loan will enable the expansion to proceed, thus lead to 50 more jobs across mine and port, and more than $500 million of public benefits to the local and Cairns areas, over the life of the mine.
The loan from NAIF is at concessional rates, and long repayment tenor (7 years) thus also reducing Metro’s cost of funding.
Our role encompassed all aspects of dealing with NAIF and legal counsel, from creating the project finance financial model to writing all the various documents NAIF require (such as public benefit analysis, indigenous engagement strategy, Australian industry participation plan, and the investment proposal), Loan structuring and negotiation, all legal documentation, and review of, or arranging, all due diligence required (as typical in a project finance loan: market, technical, environmental, social and governance, insurance, legal).
If you have a project in Northern Australia which requires funding, which has an infrastructure element and can also illustrate substantial public benefit – feel free to contact us. We can explain the complete NAIF debt process.
Adani engaged Rock Financial Advisory to assist in a wide range of matters related to construction of the Carmichael Coal project and 382km rail line, including
This required execution of a wide range of tasks: financial modelling, dealing with all potential lenders (NAIF , ECA’s, banks), term sheet review, finalisation of BFS for both mine and rail (38 chapters), daily liaison with our engineers across mine and rail, investor facing role/answering all DD questions from our global Investors, and assisting the CFO in all matters. We had ownership of the financial model which aggregated >AUD$4bn of Capex and Opex across the 3 sub-projects of Mine, Below Rail, and Above Rail, which contained > AUD$3bn p.a. in revenues. We were also was responsible for all financial information disseminated externally re this project. We also worked on funding of the solar farms Adani is building in Australia at Rugby Run (NSW) and Whyalla (SA).
Link Housing engaged Rock Financial Advisory to assist in their bid to access the SAHF Fund (NSW Govt) and debt financing from CEFC. This required execution of a wide range of tasks, from interrogation of all inputs to creating the financial model, and liaising with banker CEFC (Clean Energy Finance Corporation).
One of Italy’s premier commercial real estate firms JLL Italia, engaged RFA to audit and improve their template financial model/ valuation tool, they use when approached to provide independent valuations. Our role was to audit and improve this model, which was overly-complex, with many unnecessary formulae and macros, which made it difficult for JLL staff to understand and thus explain to their clients. We created a much easier-to-understand, and transparent model, (removing all VBA code/ macros and overly complex formulae) which clearly shows how inputs lead to outputs, and thus easier for JLL staff to explain the valuation outcomes to their clients.
BHP’s coal division, BMA, engaged RFA in 2014/2015 in the Brisbane business analysis/ evaluation team. Main tasks were to conduct valuations on existing and potential projects, with particular projects being:
Rock Financial Advisory was engaged by Guildford Coal (was ASX: GUF, now ASX: TER www.terracomresources.com) to execute various tasks:
Rock Financial Advisory delivered 2 days advanced corporate finance training to a Julius Bär staffmember, one of Switzerlands leading private banks, where the course was tailored to her specific requirements, and taught in German.
Rock Financial Advisory delivered 5 days intensive training to Glencore staff in Investment Banking, Private Equity, and Mining Valuation. The course was tailored to the clients requirement in terms of both content and level of complexity.
Rock Financial Advisory gave 5 days intensive financial training to financial staff from Barrick Gold, PNG and Zambia, who flew to Cairns for the training. We were able to illustrate how
Siemens AG, Head Office in Nuremberg, Germany engaged Rock Financial Advisory to assist in creating a new template financial model for their global health division that they could use going forward when bidding on projects globally. We delivered an easier-to-use, and more transparent model where users could clearly see the link between inputs and outputs, as well as conduct easy scenario and sensitivity analysis. This will allow Siemens to submit bids faster and also better explain the outcomes to their clients. We also gave training to the team in Advanced Financial Modelling.
On 28 August 2012, we held a launch function for our first European office in Milano, Italia. The function was held at the Milano Park Hyatt, and thankyou to all who came. We had attendees from the Italian Banking, Private Equity, Real Estate and Industry.
The Founder of RFA, Emma McPherson, has been appointed President, Consultative Council for Australian Business. Se sei un Italiano che vuole fare affari in Australia-possiamo aiutare, chiama noi in Italia on: +39 348 534 3475.
Rock Financial Advisory audited and added project finance calculations to UCL’s operational cashflow model for their marine phosphate mine in Namibia, in preparation for discussions with banks re PF.
Rock Financial Advisory was was engaged to:
Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) was the result of various companies merging (NQM and Catalpa and Conquest), and thus ended up owning five gold mines but also 5 different, non-uniform financial models, created by different people. Rock Financial Advisory was engaged to complete 7 separate modelling assignments:
Rock Financial Advisory was engaged by Serco plc to create the financial model for their joint bid with Laing O’Rourke and Bombardier, for the operations contract of the Sydney Metro underground rail system. This required extensive interrogation of data across all elements of the bid
RFA created the financial model for Serco’s winning bid for the 20 year operations contract of the new Fiona Stanley Hospital, to be built in Murdoch (Perth, Australia). The model aggregated inputs over 23 service lines and required detailed interrogation of all data and discussion with all subject-matter experts. It also required extensive calculations re the revenue mechanism which depended on KPI’s being met as well as abatement regime.
Serco was announced preferred bidder in November 2011, and the global bid team moved from London and Sydney to Perth for 7 months where we finalised the contract with the client (the West Australian Dept of Health), and extensive changes were required to the model as we further refined the inputs, and the calculations in the contract changed.
RFA audited, amended and updated the existing financial model, and added valuation and project finance pages, re coal mines owned by Resource Generation, in Botswana, South Africa.
The founder of RFA, Emma McPherson was appointed to the panel for Kaplan’s subject Mining Valuation: Emma wrote and marked the exam, where students had to create a financial model based on the Annual Report of Avoca Resources (subsequently purchased by Anatolia Minerals).
Euromoney Training plc sub-contracted RFA to give 4 days training in Hong Kong, to 20 bankers from Korean bank, Shinhan, in the subject: “Financial Modelling for Mergers & Acquisitions”. The attendees gave an overall rating of 90% for the trainer (Emma McPherson) and all responded that they would recommend the course to others.
