Financial Feasibility

The Louis Berger Group (Berger) has prepared financial feasibility studies for various facility, infrastructure, and real estate projects. These studies employ modeling methods to estimate and forecast demand, revenues, capital and operating requirements and expenditures under different project alternatives. A major distinguishing strength of Berger's consulting practice is its ability to draw upon a diverse team of in-house specialists trained in economics, market research, finance, urban and regional planning, real estate development, transportation logistics, environmental science and civil and environmental engineering.

Drawing from a large and diverse pool of in-house disciplines, The Louis Berger Group offers its public and private sector clients the ability to be flexible, responsive and insightful about the numerous site, demand, competitive market, regulatory, institutional, investor profile and financial factors that must be tested prior to making a judgement about a project's financial returns. Berger approach is to assure ready access and in-house teaming arrangements to bring technical and financial specialists together to provide clients with both state-of-the-art information as well as the ability to customize modeling tools to be maximally responsive to scenario-testing and alternatives evaluation.

In an environment of scarce financial resources and rapid technological innovation, financial risk analysis is one tool that Berger frequently uses to probe the degree of uncertainty that is inherent to financial feasibility analysis: What is the project's likelihood of returning an investor-acceptable internal rate of return? How variable are the stated market share forecasts? How sanguine are our construction and maintenance cost estimates? Could there be extraordinary costs to site development due to the prior history and use of the property? What is the impact of a delay in permitting?

Financial Risk Analysis is a process whereby it provides the project's senior management with a broad range of financial and technical elements to address "what-if" questions that could threaten project feasibility. Berger employs a multitude of strategies to examine project risk including: intensive statistical modeling; financial and economic sensitivity scenario testing; expert panels; one-on-one interviews; focus groups; and surveys. Berger has found that risk assessment analysis, properly staged and communicated, provides an exceptional forum for developing risk mitigants, incorporating technical and financial alternatives, and providing a means for consensus-building to complex projects.

Beyond the question of risk asssessment, Berger maintains a strong orientation and expertise toward project implementation. Many of our financial feasibility studies include a detailed implementation plan addressing critical issues of concern and defining the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders in order to move the project forward. These implementation sections will typically identify major regulatory hurdles, institutional obstacles, available sources and uses of funding as well as formulate other strategies and actions, initiatives, project schedules and budgetary resource requirements to expedite the preferred project.

Our capabilities and services include:

• Demand Forecasting
• Cost Construction and Operations Cost Analysis
• Financial Implementation Plans
• Financial Risk Analysis
• Fiscal Forecasting and Impact Assessment
• Rate Impact Studies
• Toll Feasibility
• Consolidation and Service Sharing Studies
• Focus Groups
• Expert Panel "Risk Assessment Workshops"
• Operational Productivity -- "Stock and Flow" Models
• Cost Estimating
• "Brownfield" Financial Studies
• User's Guides, Training Assistance and Turnkey Financial Models

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