A conclusion that can be no
Fees are fixed before the work starts and do not depend on the project going ahead. A negative finding costs you a study and saves you a plant.
Valuation & Research
Project Research & Feasibility Studies
Techno-commercial feasibility work and detailed project reports for new plants, lines and market entries, covering demand assessment, project cost, means of finance and the returns a lender will test.
Capital projects rarely fail on the technology. They fail on a demand assumption nobody tested, an implementation schedule that ignored approvals, or a working capital cycle that was modelled at thirty days and ran at ninety.
Overview
A commitment is close. A new plant, a second line, a warehouse, a hospital wing, a market you have not sold into before. The equipment quotations are in and the number at the bottom is large enough that it will define the balance sheet for several years. What is usually missing at this point is an independent view of whether the output can be sold at the price the model assumes, and whether the cash flow services the debt through a bad year as well as a good one.
Feasibility work supplies that view. We build the demand case from published data and structured interviews rather than from the supplier’s forecast, cost the project from your own quotations, and model it in a way a credit committee will recognise. The conclusion is allowed to be negative, and the fee is fixed in advance so that it can be.
Scope of engagement
- Market and demand assessment: sector size and growth from published production, capacity, import and export data, addressable demand for your specific product and geography, and a bottom-up build from customers, capture rate and realisable price.
- Project cost build: land and site development, civil works, plant and machinery against your quotations, utilities, contingency, pre-operative expenses, interest during construction and margin money for working capital.
- Means of finance: promoter contribution, term debt sizing, debt-equity ratio, moratorium and door-to-door tenure, and the effect of each on the servicing profile.
- Working capital assessment and CMA data in the standard forms, including the operating statement, analysis of the balance sheet, the comparative statement of current assets and liabilities, the maximum permissible bank finance computation and the fund flow statement.
- An integrated three-statement financial model: monthly through construction, annual through operations, with capacity ramp, realisation, input cost, conversion cost and the working capital cycle as visible drivers.
- Returns and servicing analysis: project internal rate of return and equity internal rate of return, net present value, discounted payback, year-wise and average debt service coverage ratio, interest coverage, and break-even expressed as a percentage of installed capacity.
- Sensitivity and scenario analysis on realisation, volume, principal input cost, capital cost overrun, implementation delay and, where inputs or offtake are imported, exchange rate.
- Approvals and implementation schedule: consent to establish and consent to operate under the Water Act 1974 and the Air Act 1981, environmental clearance category under the EIA Notification 2006 where applicable, factory licence, fire clearance and power connection, sequenced against the construction timeline.
Deliverables
- A feasibility report with a conclusion stated in the first two pages, including the conditions under which the conclusion would change.
- A detailed project report in lender format where the project is proceeding, covering promoter background, project description, cost, means of finance, implementation schedule and financial projections.
- The financial model as a working spreadsheet, with a single assumptions sheet, scenario switches and no hidden hard-coding inside the calculations.
- CMA data in the standard forms for the working capital component of the facility.
- A sensitivity pack showing debt service coverage and equity returns across the tested range, with the break point for each variable identified.
Process
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Scoping
The decision being tested, the product and geography, the interview set, and the form the output has to take. If the project report is going to a specific lender, their format is confirmed now.
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Research
Published data collected and reconciled, competitor and capacity mapping completed, expert interviews conducted and logged. Contradictions between sources are recorded rather than smoothed away.
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Cost and finance build
Project cost assembled from your quotations, means of finance structured, working capital cycle assessed, and the drawdown and repayment profile set.
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Modelling and testing
The three-statement model is built and run through the sensitivity set. The break point for each variable is identified so you can see how much room the project actually has.
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Draft and challenge
A working session with you and your technical advisers to challenge the assumptions before the report is finalised. Assumptions that survive that session are the ones a lender will also test.
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Final report and lender support
Final report and model issued, followed by responses to lender queries during appraisal within the agreed support window.
Benefits
Two independent builds
Top-down and bottom-up demand are built separately and then compared. Where they disagree, you see the gap instead of an averaged number.
Break points, not best cases
The sensitivity work identifies the realisation and volume at which coverage fails, so the covenant you agree to is one you can live with.
Industries served
The variables that decide feasibility are sector-specific. Manufacturing projects turn on capacity utilisation, conversion cost per unit, power and fuel, and freight economics against the location chosen. Healthcare projects turn on catchment population, bed and equipment utilisation, clinician availability and payer mix, with a ramp that is slower than promoters expect. Real estate and infrastructure projects turn on absorption rate, approval timelines, construction finance drawdown and the cash flow shape between milestone collections.
Typical timeline
- Scoping and information request: 2-3 business days
- Market research and expert interviews: 2-3 weeks
- Project cost, means of finance and working capital assessment: 1 week
- Financial modelling and sensitivity analysis: 1-2 weeks
- Draft, challenge session and final report: 1 week
- Lender query support during appraisal: as required within the agreed window
A single-location expansion with quotations already in hand completes in about three weeks. A greenfield project in an unfamiliar market, or one needing environmental clearance analysis, runs to eight.
Engagement model
Engagements are contracted on a fixed fee for a defined scope, quoted after the scoping call, with the product, geography, interview count, output format and lender support window recorded in the engagement letter. The fee does not vary with the conclusion reached or with whether funding is sanctioned.
Delivery is virtual, with a site visit arranged where the location itself is material to the case. You get a named lead, a written status at each stage, and a challenge session before the report is finalised rather than a finished document arriving without warning. The model is delivered with formulae intact and the assumption sheet left editable.
What is not included
These sit outside the engagement unless separately scoped and agreed in writing.
- Engineering work of any kind: process design, equipment sizing, plant layout, civil or structural drawings, and technical specifications. These come from your suppliers and consultants.
- Soil investigation, topographic survey, environmental impact assessment by a NABET-accredited consultant, and any laboratory or field testing.
- Filing or pursuing applications for environmental clearance, consent to establish, factory licence, power connection or any other approval.
- Preparing or submitting subsidy and incentive claims under a state industrial policy or a central scheme, and any representation to the sanctioning authority.
- Approaching lenders on your behalf, negotiating terms, or acting as a loan syndication agent. Support is limited to answering queries on our report during appraisal.
- Large-sample consumer surveys, retail audits and field enumeration, and the purchase of subscription market data unless costed separately at scoping.
Projections rest on assumptions stated in the report. Actual results will differ; the sensitivity analysis shows the direction and scale of that difference.
Bring the equipment quotation and the demand assumption you are least sure about. Those two usually decide whether the rest of the study is worth commissioning.
Frequently asked questions
A feasibility study answers whether the project should be done, and can conclude that it should not. A detailed project report assumes the decision and documents the project for a lender or an authority in the form they expect, with project cost, means of finance, implementation schedule and the servicing analysis. Most clients need the feasibility work first, then convert it into a project report once the decision is made.
It is prepared to the structure lenders work with, including project cost and means of finance, promoter contribution, debt service coverage, break-even at capacity and sensitivity analysis, with CMA data in the standard forms where the facility includes working capital. Credit decisions remain the lender's and depend on your credit history, security and their internal policy. No consultant controls that outcome.
Structured expert interviews are included, with the number agreed in scoping, typically covering distributors, existing users, equipment suppliers and channel participants. Large-sample consumer surveys, retail audits and field enumeration are not part of the standard scope. Where the demand case genuinely depends on primary data, we will say so and either scope a survey partner or state the limitation in the report.
From the top down and the bottom up, then reconciled. The top-down view uses published production, capacity, import and export data, industry association output and consumption trends. The bottom-up view builds from addressable customers, realistic capture rate and achievable price. Where the two disagree materially, that gap is shown in the report rather than resolved by choosing the more attractive number.
Yes. The model reflects depreciation under Schedule II of the Companies Act 2013 and separately under the Income-tax Rules block of assets, the concessional corporate rate under Section 115BAA where it is opted for, MAT applicability, and GST input tax credit on capital goods including credits blocked under Section 17(5). State incentives are modelled as declared under the applicable industrial policy, with eligibility flagged rather than assumed.
Then that is what the report says, with the specific variables that fail and the conditions under which the project would become viable. A study that finds every project attractive tells you nothing about any of them. Our fee is fixed at the outset and does not change with the conclusion, which is the only way that outcome stays available.
Your equipment suppliers, process consultants and architects. We take their specifications, quotations and layouts as the technical basis and build the commercial and financial case on top. We do not design plant, size equipment, prepare drawings or certify engineering assumptions, and the report identifies the source of every technical input.
Related services
Business Valuation Services
Where the project sits inside a company being valued, sold or refinanced, a valuation prepared under the ICAI Valuation Standards.
Investment Research
Sector and company research where the question is where to deploy capital rather than how a single project performs.
Lead Advisory Services
Raising the equity or structured capital the project needs, from preparation through term sheet to allotment and filing.