sf_diegoxrock said:
did you all use WACC to answer the valuing of xxx ? or did you go through the different methods of valuing a project? (pay-back, accounting, etc)
how did you all respond to the random brainteaser-type questions? i've just messaged peanut, and i'd have no idea what to say to one of the riddle-like questions he said they asked :x
thanks for your help!
DCF is safest to stick to if its an applicable example. Something like the Harbour Bridge is relatively straightforward - tolls, traffic flow, operating and capital expenses. If you can predict these out reasonably reliably then you can use a DCF model with WACC as the discount factor.
For the really out-there questions like "how many petrol stations are there in Australia?" whats important is the thought process you show. The final answer is almost irrelevant. For the petrol station example you could start by guessing the number of petrol stations in a suburb you know well. You'd then extrapolate to the number of suburbs in a city, then to the relative numbers of cities in each State etc. Or you could do it by population. Or number of cars etc.
Make your reasoning logical and nobody really cares what answer you arrive at. These questions are pretty common in management consulting interviews, so if you want some practice at these type of case studies, Google search for MC interview examples.
As for examples of the brainteasers, I had "what's 99 squared (Mac love this question)", "how many footballs would fit in the MCG?", "how many golfballs would fit in the trunk of my car?" etc.
A lot of the technical questions will depend on what industry group you applied for. Property typcially ask DCF type question because thats how they model their projects (hint: lookup cap rates and vacancy rates). Something like TMET could ask multiples related valuation questions because they love that. Resources would probably ask something around valuing comapnies on the reserves they have in the ground and the risk in getting those to market.
I'd bone up on some industry specific news - the big deals, recent deals, what Macquarie has done recently in the sector etc.