Frank Colombo, CFA
Verified Expert in Finance
Finance Expert
New York, NY, United States
Toptal member since November 13, 2019
As the global head of high yield research at UBS, Frank led a team of 21 analysts and was the lead analyst on over 40 new issues, raising over $6 billion. Currently, he is a founding partner of a new cannabis debt fund. As a freelancer, Frank enjoys helping a wide variety of clients with challenging capital raises, valuation, and financing strategy, leveraging his Stanford MBA and his extensive experience as an analyst and entrepreneur.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Certification Highlights
Case Studies
Industry Expertise
- Commercial & Residential Construction
- Capital Markets
- Trading
- Industrials
- Cannabis
- Steel Fabrication
Software Expertise
- IBM SPSS
Other Expertise
- Business Strategy
- Capital Raising
- Credit Analysis
- Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
- Valuation
Work Experience
Partner | Chief Risk Officer
Aspen Finance, LLC
- Founded a closed-end debt fund, with an anticipated final size of $200 million, to lend money to cannabis companies.
- Raised limited partner commitments for fund creation.
- Authored lending policies, loan operations procedures, due diligence checklists, and model loan documents.
- Approved all credit commitments as head of the commitment committee.
- Monitored and designed mitigation strategies for all major fund risks including credit, derivatives, legal, and operational risks.
- Supervised the construction and maintenance of financial projection models for all credits and monitor the performance of all portfolio investments.
- Created a unique lending product that is tailored to the cannabis industry, incorporating short-term secured notes and detachable cashless-exercise warrants.
- Built a dynamic fund model to analyze fund performance over a wide variety of debt and equity scenarios.
Adjunct Professor of Finance & Accounting
Concordia College
- Designed the curriculum and taught advanced valuation and credit class for senior accounting and finance majors.
- Instilled student competence in business strategy analysis techniques including SWOT, value chain, and Porter's 5 forces through the use of challenging Harvard cases.
- Utilized relatable examples like Netflix, Tesla, and Facebook to explain financial statement analysis techniques including financial ratios and vertical and horizontal analysis as well as more advanced concepts like bankruptcy prediction and financial manipulation detection.
- Developed students' skills in the construction of integrated 3-statement financial models for use in the analysis of credit ratings and debt repayment capacity.
- Taught sophisticated DCF valuation modeling including adjustments to historical financial statements.
- Cultivated skills in comparable company analysis for credit quality and valuation.
- Created and taught advanced data analysis class covering regression, time series analysis, logistic regression, factor analysis, and cluster analysis: class projects emphasized the role of "big data" in modern marketing and operations analysis.
Founder
FVC Consulting
- Led all phases of due diligence for a private equity purchase of minerals mining company, including on-site interviewing of target management, construction of comprehensive LBO model, valuation analysis, capital structure design, and negotiation with bank lenders.
- Researched, modeled, and valued wind turbine blade manufacturing IP.
- Built a complex corporate projection model for major Canadian trade finance company that was used to procure financing for a management buyout of the business.
- Conducted a comprehensive review of the office REIT industry with long and short trade ideas that were successfully implemented by a distressed debt hedge fund.
- Supported professors of psychology and criminology with innovative statistical analysis leading to academic journal articles.
- Aided doctoral students with statistical support for their PhD theses.
Managing Director, Head of Research
Seaport Group, LLC
- Served as a founding member in charge of research during the startup and growth of a highly successful distressed debt trading firm.
- Hired, trained, and supervised sophisticated distressed debt analysts.
- Conducted credit research and valuation analysis on companies in a wide variety of industries.
- Evaluated bankruptcy and restructuring plans and complex loan agreements for trade ideas.
- Designed creative inter-capital-structure arbitrage trade ideas.
- Authored widely read "Best Picks" publication with investment suggestions that outperformed the distressed debt market for two years running.
Partner
Pandion Capital
- Collaborated with a former fellow partner from Dillon Read to advise on challenging M&A transactions.
- Conducted due diligence, valuation analysis, modeling, and negotiation of bank financing for a $900 million acquisition of a public petroleum marketing company.
- Negotiated the valuation and terms and obtained financing for a $1.5 billion regional food company acquisition.
Global Head of High Yield Research
UBS Warburg Dillon Read
- Managed all high yield credit research and research publications worldwide.
- Hired, trained, and supervised a staff of 21 high yield analysts in New York and London.
- Participated as an active member of the high yield commitment committee.
- Performed as the lead analyst on over 40 new high yield issues across a wide variety of industries.
- Originated building product issues generating over $10 million in fees.
- Upgraded research staff by adding seven new analysts in NY and London.
- Built and maintained strong relationships with key buy-side portfolio managers and analysts.
- Led in the design of rating agency and roadshow presentations for over 40 new debt issues.
- Executed key role in restructuring negotiations as a member of two bankruptcy creditor committees.
Managing Director of Fixed Income and Credit Research
Dillon Read & Co., Inc.
- Managed all fixed income and credit research and research publications.
- Approved all high yield credit underwriting engagements as chief credit officer on the high yield commitment committee.
- Performed a key role in building Dillon Read into a top-ten underwriter of high yield bonds.
- Achieved excellent underwriting record in over 100 transactions.
- Executed capital markets role in the structuring and marketing of high yield bond transactions.
- Established strong relationships with high yield issuers and portfolio managers leading to increased underwriting and trading revenue.
Senior Vice President, High Yield Research
Dillon Read & Co., Inc.
- Researched and authored reports on a wide variety of industries including healthcare, retail, industrials, energy, and building products.
- Served as a senior analyst on over 40 new issues.
- Built a respected analyst research group of five which concentrated on home building, energy, retail, airlines, and distressed debt sectors.
- Contributed to making Dillon Read the #1 underwriter in homebuilding industry through widely followed research coverage.
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree in General Management
Stanford University - Palo Alto, CA, USA
Bachelor of Arts Degree (Summa Cum Laude) in Economics
University of Colorado Boulder - Boulder, CO, USA
Certifications
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
CFA Institute
Skills
Finance
Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Valuation, Credit Risk, Credit Analysis, Cost of Capital, Capital Budgeting, Comparable Company Analysis, Bank Covenants, Debt Raises, Three-statement Modeling, DCF Valuation, Fundraising, Capital Raising, Convertible Debt, Due Diligence, Corporate Finance, Fund Analysis, Funding Strategy, Risk Models, Lending, Equity Valuation, Pro Forma Financial Statements, Valuation Multiples, Intellectual Property Valuation, Five-year Projections, Fixed Income Analysis, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Debt Structuring, Embedded Derivatives, Capital Structure Analysis, Revenue & Expense Projections, International Finance, Leveraged Buyout Modeling, Valuation Modeling, Capital Structuring, Cash Flow Modeling
Output Software
Microsoft Excel, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Microsoft Word
Data & Analysis Software
Bloomberg, IBM SPSS, FactSet
Industry Expertise
Capital Markets, Industrials, Cannabis, Home Construction, Steelmaking
Other
Financials, Leveraged Finance, Debt Financing, Financial Forecasting, Financial Ratios, Business Strategy, Modeling, Company Research, Statistical Analysis, Bankruptcy & Insolvency, Leveraged Buyout (LBO), Research, Models, FRED, Factor Analysis, Logistic Regression, Clustering Algorithms, Warrants, Time Series Analysis, Credit Policy, Risk Management, Creativity, Statistics, Regression Modeling, Financial Statements, Credit Ratings, Distressed Assets, Research Reports, Supervisory, Trading, Management, Policy, Debt Issuance, Report Design, Portfolio Optimization, Term Sheet Negotiations, Structuring, Industry Analysis, Distressed/Special Situations, Loan Valuation, Arbitrage, Fund Accounting & Administration, Foreign Currency
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