Читать книгу See-Through Modelling - Dominic Robertson - Страница 62

Models describe the economics of projects and entities from various points of view. To explain I think it is easiest to consider the example of a project finance company and a model of that company.

The great majority of the model is written from the point of view of the project company or the directors of the project company. There are, however, occasions when other points of view are used:

 rate of return on the investment of shareholders

 positive value of the senior debt repayments

 positive value of the interest paid on the senior debt

 present value of streams of cash flows such as supplier fees (called operating costs by the company)

The shareholder investment cash flows are the clearest example of how the sign flips from positive to negative as the point of view changes. Whereas the equity invested in the project company is a positive for the company accounts, it is a negative for the shareholders. The reverse is true of the dividends that reward the investors for the initial investment; dividends are negative for the company accounts, but most certainly a positive for the investors.

The modeller must beware not to mix up different points of view into the same calculations. In particular, each result will be from one single point of view and all flows and balances that are used to calculate that result must also be from the same point of view.

It is paramount that the modeller is always clear on which point of view is being modelled. This point of view knowledge will make it far easier to carry out precise modelling as the sign of the flows in question will be much more obvious.