Associate, Portfolio Valuation and Fund Advisory Services Multiple Locations

$100,000 - $160,000/Yr

Houlihan Lokey - Atlanta, GA

Full-time - Mid Level

Atlanta, GA

Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities

About the position

As an Associate in the Portfolio Valuation and Fund Advisory Services at Houlihan Lokey, you will be integral to our engagement teams, which typically consist of a Managing Director, Vice President, Associate, and one or more Financial Analysts. Your role will involve valuing illiquid debt, equity, and structured securities for some of the world's largest hedge funds, private equity funds, and business development companies. This position offers a unique opportunity to engage with a variety of financial and valuation advisory challenges, including the valuation of complex businesses and securities, as well as transaction structures. You will be responsible for presenting analyses and conclusions to both internal review committees and external clients, including senior management and boards of directors. Your primary activities will include designing and drafting client deliverables, constructing and reviewing financial models, and performing comprehensive financial statement and industry assessments. You will also attend due diligence meetings, communicate with client personnel, and assist with sales and marketing initiatives. The role requires a strong analytical mindset and the ability to direct the efforts of financial analysts, ensuring the delivery of accurate and thorough work products within required timeframes. The environment at Houlihan Lokey is collegial and entrepreneurial, rewarding Associates with substantial responsibility and interaction with senior-level professionals and clients.

Responsibilities

• Supporting portfolio valuation teams in providing valuations of illiquid debt and equity securities held by hedge funds, private equity funds, and business development companies.
• Assisting in the preparation of fee proposals to clients, including scoping discussions, pitch materials, and internal engagement pricing committee memoranda.
• Participating in deal team brainstorming discussions, preparing information request lists, designing, and drafting client deliverables.
• Reviewing client investment memoranda, board of directors' presentations, specific debt and equity agreements, and financial models to develop an understanding of the company or securities being analyzed.
• Directing the efforts of financial analysts and checking their work product to ensure the delivery of an accurate and thorough work product within the required timeframe.
• Reviewing and compiling published financial information, such as public company filings, press releases, reports from published research analysts, and Bloomberg data across a wide range of industries and sectors.
• Assisting in the preparation of pitch materials and information request lists to clients.
• Participating in telephonic and in-person due diligence meetings/discussions, communicating with clients and responding to auditor questions regarding valuation analyses prepared by Houlihan Lokey.
• Identifying relevant comparable public companies and M&A transactions within parameters established by FVA project teams, based upon information services such as S&P Capital IQ and Bloomberg.
• Researching and providing information on general economic conditions, industry-specific conditions and trends, acquisitions and divestitures within specific industries, and various investment attributes of publicly traded and privately held securities.
• Compiling statistical summaries of companies' financial information, developing, and computing financial ratios, and presenting the analyses in an organized manner and/or using our standard formats and presentations.
• Constructing and reviewing valuation and other financial analyses, including the guideline public companies, guideline precedent transactions, and discounted cash flow analyses, using Houlihan Lokey proprietary models.
• Presenting valuation analyses and conclusions internally to review committees, externally to our clients' senior management and boards of directors, and to fiduciaries.
• Performing financial statement analysis and other quantitative and qualitative assessments.
• Assisting in presenting valuation analyses and conclusions internally to review committees.
• Performing other ad-hoc research, analytics, and support for the FVA project teams as required.
• Coordinating with internal administrative support teams to prepare engagement invoices, working paper files, and other compliance/end-of-engagement close out procedures.
• Participating in discussions with in-house and outside legal counsel as required.
• Assisting with marketing initiatives for prospective and existing clients.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree (in Finance a plus)
• Minimum of 3-5+ years of valuation experience
• Strong analytical abilities
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Nice-to-haves

• Excellent understanding of financial statements analysis with the ability to work through key assumptions, implicit caveats, and limitations.
• A fundamental understanding of financial valuation theory, methodologies, and applications
• Strong knowledge of Excel modeling
• Demonstrated ability to work cooperatively with team members.
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment.
• An exceptional work ethic.
• Experience at Big Four or an Independent Valuation Advisory firm a plus.

Benefits

• Competitive total compensation package including discretionary incentive compensation.