Project Elysium: A Story of Financial Modeling Excellence 

Introduction 

Mr. B joined Feed Nigeria Limited as Financial Controller in 2020. He had spent several years working with Greater Nigeria Plc, a leading conglomerate in Nigeria, as the Head of Finance for an agribusiness subsidiary.  

Mr. B’s path crossed with Leonine in 2019 when Greater Nigeria (his previous employer) appointed Leonine to support all its subsidiaries in building financial forecast models for annual budgeting and strategic planning. 

During the project, Leonine secured a place in Mr. B’s heart by demonstrating a high level of professionalism, delivering high-quality work promptly, and cultivating effective relationships with the team. The experience will remain with Mr. B as he progressed in his career and life. 

Feed Nigeria Limited 

Feed Nigeria Limited is a chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. The Company’s manufacturing plant, with a capacity of 150,000MT per annum, is in a South-western State in Nigeria. The Company generates revenue of NGN50bn+ and employs over 500 people. 

The Problem 

Despite working in such a remarkable company, Mr. B and the rest of the finance team had a painful experience during the budget season in 2020. There were many sleepless nights on weekdays, weekends, and even public holidays – like Christmas day and the new year – when they had to be at the office working on the financial plan and liaising with the CFO – who was in India for the holiday season. It was a nightmare for them. 

Feed Nigeria’s financial planning was taking too long due to the complex supply chain, pricing, and financing arrangements (incl. multiple debt tranches and currencies). As well as multiple data sources and users with different information requirements and expectations. 

The Fix 

Luckily, Mr. B had experienced the joy Leonine’s financial model brings to finance, management and other stakeholders. He wasted no time in recommending Leonine to build a financial model to support Feed Nigeria’s annual budgeting process plus a 4-year forecast period (“Project Elysium”). Leonine delivered a financial model that: 

  1. Simplifies assumptions 
  1. Automates calculations 
  1. Analyzes financial performance 
  1. Presents outcomes and insights elegantly on a dashboard 
  1. Incorporates scenarios and sensitivity analyses for better decision making 

Impact 

Some of the benefits realized by the Feed Nigeria team includes: 

  1. Completion of the budget one month ahead of the typical schedule. 
  1. Super flexibility in making changes around budget assumptions or requirements. 
  1. Management was better able to devise a strategy to lower costs and drive profitability. 
  1. Management had more confidence in the budget due to the proven integrity of the model. The Financial Controller later commented that “I felt like a star during the group-wide budget presentation”. 
  1. Mr. B was able to take a short break during a typically busy period. The CFO (travelled to India) and the rest of the team had a stress-free holiday celebration. 

Conclusion  

Elysium was a delightful project to work on. Feed Nigeria’s finance and management team understood their business thoroughly. They also knew they required support in implementing better financial planning practices and solutions that would save time and drive actionable strategies. 

At Leonine, we take pride in empowering businesses to maximize value by providing cutting-edge financial advisory, training, and tech-enabled finance solutions. 

Thanks to Ridwan Usman who played a key role in executing Project Elysium. 

Note: Names used in this story are pseudo for confidentiality purposes. 

Written by:
Haneef Abbas

CEO, Leonine Investment Services

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