Matija Petrovic
Verified Expert in Management Consulting
Management Consulting Expert
New York, NY, United States
Toptal member since April 19, 2018
Matija's executed $2+ billion in transactions—including a Latin American joint venture with Santander Bank—and delivered financial insights as an M&A advisor and finance director at Zurich Insurance. A former investment banker, he's created financial models, business plans, and strategic growth initiatives for corporates and startups. He joined Toptal to use his financial acumen to help clients generate sustainable growth and profitability.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Case Studies
Valuation Model Template
Strategic Option Review
Intangible Asset Valuation
Dental Practice Fairness Opinion
Industry Expertise
- Accounting Services
- Advertising & Marketing
- Finance
- Banking
- Venture Capital & Private Equity
- Insurance
- Branding
- Financial Modeling
Software Expertise
- Microsoft Excel
- R
Other Expertise
- Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
- Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
- Startups
Work Experience
Co-founder
Vammily
- Co-founded a company that creates next-generation emoji applications for celebrities, entertainment professionals, and other categories.
- Developed an investor presentation and pitched the digital marketing concept to prospective investors including high-profile celebrities and professional athletes.
- Led licensing agreement negotiations, securing favorable terms for a long-term royalty contract.
- Managed a team of offshore designers and programmers, successfully delivering a high-quality software application within a two-month timeframe.
- Modeled the estimated conversion of social media traffic using paid advertising spend to calculate net revenue. The net revenue estimates were critical inputs to the cost-benefit analysis which substantiated the monetization potential of the platform for prospective investors.
Finance Director FP&A
Zurich North America
- Developed the annual financial plan for a $2.2 billion revenue company, coordinating with business unit leaders and supporting them with insightful analytics to help define financial and operational priorities.
- Calculated a benefits model and developed an investment thesis for a $10 million software acquisition. Management approved the transaction despite facing significant budget constraints.
- Worked with cross-functional teams to address profitability challenges as part of a turnaround plan that included improving pricing strategies, exiting unprofitable segments and establishing reinsurance agreements. The changes helped enable the business unit to achieve the yearend financial targets.
- Led a project team in the assessment of the effectiveness of the FP&A function and created a framework to streamline and improve workflows. The time savings from the efficiency gains were used to train well-qualified personnel for higher value roles to increase the impact of their contributions on the business.
- Developed financial models and KPI dashboards that improved the reliability of forecasts and the visualization of performance trends.
- Led special projects including divisional reviews, presentations to investors and credit rating agencies, and meetings with employees and executive leadership in support of the divisional president and COO, helping the executives to surpass their budgeted financial targets in multiple years.
- Mentored and developed five analysts—teaching financial modeling, sensitivity analysis, and various valuation methods.
Project Manager M&A
Zurich Insurance Group
- Worked across transaction stages on a $1.7 billion joint venture between Zurich and Santander in Latin America, establishing Zurich as the largest foreign insurance company in the region. Shared responsibility for financial modeling and due diligence, deal structuring, valuation analysis, and post-acquisition accounting and integration.
- Built and maintained valuation models, leveraging the analysis to identify critical sensitivities, assess scenarios and risk, and determine fair value to inform valuation discussions.
- Co-managed external due diligence advisory support, coordinating with finance, tax, and legal advisors to manage project workflow and integrate workstreams.
- Synthesized primary diligence findings into presentations and presented recommendations to management for deal approvals.
- Managed finance integrations, delivering purchase price adjustments and allocation analysis, opening financial statements, and investor disclosure notes.
- Managed relationships with the finance teams of acquired entities as well as third parties including investments banks, transaction service providers, audit firms, and investor relation counterparties.
M&A Analyst
Sal. Oppenheim Bank
- Performed financial and business due diligence for various buy-side mandates in the travel and leisure industry.
- Created investment memoranda and presentations for the $120 million sale of a market-leading online pharmacy.
- Developed robust financial models for various companies that included complex valuation modeling as well as sensitivity analysis, scenario planning, and return analysis.
- Led the preparation of a fairness opinion for a public takeover bid of an abrasives company, enabling the board of directors to approve a strategic transaction.
- Developed analyst training materials and processes for insurance-specific valuation models that were used to onboard new analysts.
- Co-led the preparation of a report that reviewed the strategic and financial restructuring options for a leather chemicals company. The valuation assessment of ~$100 million provided management with a solid foundation to proceed with the sale of the business.
Education
Master's Degree in Finance
University of St. Gallen - St. Gallen, Switzerland
Bachelor's Degree in Economics
University of Basel - Basel, Switzerland
Skills
Finance
Private Company Valuation, Due Diligence, Pro Forma Financial Statements, Accounting, M&A Reporting, Equity Valuation, Valuation Modeling, Budgeting, Financial Asset Impairment Models, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Financial Modeling, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Three-statement Modeling, DCF Valuation, Purchase Price Allocation, Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC), Valuation Multiples, Valuation, Intangible Asset Valuation, Private Equity, Reinsurance, CFO, Cross-border M&A, M&A Earn-out Agreements, Economic Value Added, Purchase Price Adjustments, Capital Budgeting, Finance Strategy, Management Accounting, Financial Reporting, Data Analysis, Ratio Analysis, Profitability Analysis, Transaction Structuring, Fairness Opinion Reports, Discounted Cash Flow (DCF), Comparable Company Analysis, Cost of Capital, Market Research, Transaction Modeling, Revenue Modeling, Balance Sheets, P&L Forecasting, Dividend Policy, Asset Valuation, Financial Restructuring, Equity Research Analysis, Investment Memoranda, Blockchain
Output Software
Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Prezi, Adobe Illustrator
Data & Analysis Software
R, Bloomberg, Capital IQ, Tableau
Industry Expertise
Banking & Finance, Technology, Financial Services, Insurance Technology (Insurtech), Insurance, Dodd-Frank, Export Credit Insurance, Facebook, Venture Capital, IFRS 17
Geographic Expertise
Montenegro, Serbia, Austria, United States, Switzerland, Germany
Other
RStudio Shiny, Multicultural, Web Research, Relative Valuation, NPV, Financial Statements, Startups, Communication, IAS36, P&C Insurance, Finance, Joint Ventures, MacOS, Windows, People Management, Share Purchase Agreements, Investor Presentations, Secondary Research, Investment Banking, IFRS Financial Reporting, Pitch Preparation, Pitch Decks, Business Planning, Public Company Reporting, B2B, CV Design, Digital Marketing, Analytics, Myers-Briggs, Cryptocurrency, Regression Modeling, Business Strategy, Strategic Planning & Execution, Microsoft Power BI, Emerging Markets, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Relationship Management, People Development, Post-merger Integration, Digital Advertising, Branding, iOS, Development, Web Development, Product Licensing, DCF Modeling, IRR, NPV Calculation, Cash Flow Analysis, Market Research & Analysis, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Transaction Comparables, Precedent Transaction Analysis, Buyer Lists, Liquidation Analysis, Discounted Cash Flow Analysis, Client Presentations, Dental Services Organizations, Freelancing, SAP HANA, Instagram Ads, Facebook Ads, Real Options Reasoning, Limited Partnerships, SAP BusinessObjects (BO), Macroeconomic Forecasting, Macro Driver Analysis
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