Valuation Excel

Shortcuts
Author: Drs. J.J.P. (Joris) Kersten RAB
16th February 2021
Contents

Introduction Kersten Corporate Finance .................................................. 2

Excel shortcuts and the computer mouse ................................................ 3
Shortcuts for general windows ............................................................... 3
Navigating in excel ................................................................................ 4
Editing in excel ...................................................................................... 4
Shortcuts for formulas in excel ............................................................... 5
Checking your work in excel ................................................................... 6
Formatting your cells ............................................................................. 7
Further reading on excel shortcuts and financial modelling....................... 7
New office Kersten CF from April 2021 .................................................... 8
2 new M&A Analysts from April 2021 .................................................... 10
M&A Consulting of Kersten Corporate Finance ....................................... 11
M&A Training of Kersten Corporate Finance .......................................... 12
M&A training Dubai ............................................................................. 13

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Introduction Kersten Corporate Finance
Kersten Corporate Finance is an independent M&A consulting firm in The
Netherlands.
Deal segment: Middle sized and SME companies. So companies with an
Enterprise Value (EV) of in between 2 million euro and 50 million euro @ The
Netherlands and Benelux.
Activities:
1. Selling companies;
2. Buying companies;
3. Business Valuation & Financial Modelling;
4. Financing of acquisitions with bank loans and/ or private equity firms;
5. Buy & Build strategies for strategic buyers and private equity;
6. Searching & selecting acquisition targets;
7. Finding multiples for precedent M&A transactions in a certain field.
Website M&A consulting: www.kerstencf.nl
Website M&A training: www.joriskersten.nl
M&A training:
o Business Valuation & Deal Structuring – 6 day training – 7 until 13
April 2021 – Location: Hotel van der Valk Uden/ The Netherlands –
Also online available on live stream. 29 PE points for Registered
Valuators (RV) from NIRV;
o Business Valuation & Deal Structuring – 6 day training – 29
September until 5 October 2021 – Location: Crown Plaza Hotel
Amsterdam South – Also online available on live stream. 29 PE points
for Registered Valuators (RV) from NIRV.
In addition, Joris provides valuation training all over the globe on (bulge
bracket) investment banks and universities in: New York, London, Hong
Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Mongolia, Surinam and Peru.
130 references on M&A
training: https://www.joriskersten.nl/nl/reviews

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Excel shortcuts and the computer mouse
When you work in excel to build valuation models (DCF, LBO, M&A etc) it is
better to NOT USE THE MOUSE. This just works very inefficiently
In The Netherlands, my home country, I still see a lot of valuation
consultants who use the mouse to build financial models instead of the
keyboard.
When you try to get rid of the mouse, you will see that things will just run
more smoothly.
To use the keyboard, please put excel in “English/ United Kingdom”.
I will now give you a few excel shortcuts in order to get you set up for the
basics.
Most of the below excel shortcuts are described clearly
in the brilliant book of Danielle Stein Fairhurst.
Using excel for business and financial modelling: A
practical guide. Third edition (2019). Danielle Stein
Fairhurst. Wiley Publishing company. 9781119520382.
Later in this blog you will find more info on this great
book on financial modelling.

Shortcuts for general windows

Typ in:
Alt + tab to switch program;
Ctrl + tab to switch workbooks;
Alt + F4 to close program;
(check whether your computer has a FN key, next to ctrl. If yes, then you
need to press FN as well for the function keys F1-F12).
Ctrl + N for a new workbook;
Shift + F11 for a new worksheet;
Ctrl + W to close worksheet;
Alt + E + L to delete a sheet;
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Alt + W + F + F to freeze (and un-freeze) panes;
Alt + W + Q to zoom in or zoom out.
Source: Danielle Stein Fairhurst (2019). Using excel for business and
financial modelling: A practical guide. Third edition.

Navigating in excel
Also with navigating inside excel there is no need to use the mouse.
Your keyboard is very good able to navigate you around in excel. Here are a
few shortcuts you need to know:
Arrows keys: Use them to move around;
Ctrl + pg up/ down to switch worksheets;
Ctrl + arrow keys to go to end of continuous range and select cell;
Shift + arrow keys to select a range;
Shift + ctrl + arrow to select a continuous range.

And here are a few more:

Home to move to the beginning of the line;
Ctrl + home to move to cell “A1”;
Shift + enter to move to the cell above;
Tab to move to cell to the right;
Shift + tab to move to cell to the left;
Alt + down arrow to display a drop down list.
Source: Danielle Stein Fairhurst (2019). Using excel for business and
financial modelling: A practical guide. Third edition.

Editing in excel
Again, for editing counts the same: Do NOT USE THE MOUSE.
You keyboard can do this job for you, you only need to remember some
shortcuts.

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In practise it means that you need to apply the shortcuts stubbornly (remove
you mouse) and after a while you really do not want to go back.
The basic shortcuts for editing are:
Ctrl + S to save your workbook;
Ctrl + C to copy;
Ctrl + V to paste;
Ctrl + X to cut;
Ctrl + Z to undo;
Ctrl + Y to redo;
Ctrl + A to select all;
Ctrl + R to copy the far left cell across the range. You can set this range with
holding “shift”;
Ctrl + D to copy the top cell down the range. You can set this range with
holding “shift”;
Ctrl + B for bold;
Ctrl + 9 to hide row;
Shift + ctrl + 9 to un-hide row;
Shift + spacebar to highlight row (and ctrl + shift and + for another row);
Ctrl + spacebar to highlight column (and ctrl + shift and + for another
column);
Ctrl + minus sign to delete selected cells.
Source: Danielle Stein Fairhurst (2019). Using excel for business and
financial modelling: A practical guide. Third edition.

Shortcuts for formulas in excel

As you might guess, also when using formulas in excels, NO MOUSE PLEASE!
This is what you need to know!
And please practice with this a lot:
F2 (or ctrl + ‘) to edit a formula/ showing precedent cells;
Alt + enter to start a new line in the same cell;
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Shift + arrow to highlight within cells;
F4 change absolute referencing (“$”);
Esc to cancel a cell entry;
= to start a formula;
Alt + = to automatic sum selected cells;
Ctrl + ‘ to copy formula from above cell;
Ctrl + ~ to show formulas;
F9 to recalculate all workbooks.
Source: Danielle Stein Fairhurst (2019). Using excel for business and
financial modelling: A practical guide. Third edition.

Checking your work in excel

Excel has some great build in tools in order to check your financial valuation
models.
Needless to say that there are shortcuts for these checking functions as well!
Here are a few very powerful ones:
Alt + M + P to trace immediate precedents;
Alt + M + D to trace immediate dependents;
Alt + M + A + A to remove tracing arrows;
Ctrl + [ to highlight precedent cells;
Ctrl + ] to highlight dependent cells;
F5 + enter to go back to the original cell (for example after you jumped back
with “ctrl + [“);
Shift + ctrl + { to trace all precedents;
Shift + ctrl + } to trace all dependents.
Source: Danielle Stein Fairhurst (2019). Using excel for business and
financial modelling: A practical guide. Third edition.

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Formatting your cells
And at last, for formatting the most powerful basic shortcuts are:
Ctrl + 1 for the format box;
Alt + H + 0 to increase decimal;
Alt + H + 9 to decrease decimal;
Shift + ctrl + ~ for a general format;
Shift + ctrl + ! for a number format;
Shift + ctrl + # for a date format;
Shift + ctrl + $ for a currency format;
Shift + ctrl + % for a percentage format;
Alt + H + H to color a cell;
Alt + H + O + I to fit width to cell;
Alt + I + R to insert a row;
Alt + I + C to insert a column;
Alt + H + B + A to add a border.
Source: Danielle Stein Fairhurst (2019). Using excel for business and
financial modelling: A practical guide. Third edition.

Further reading on excel shortcuts and financial

modelling
For further reading I suggest you to read the book below. I have mentioned
this book already since it is just a brilliant book. The book will learn you all
on financial modelling with shortcuts and with advanced techniques.
Using excel for business and financial modelling: A practical guide. Third
edition (2019). Danielle Stein Fairhurst. Wiley Publishing company.
9781119520382.

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New office Kersten CF from April 2021
Right now the office gets furnished !

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2 new M&A Analysts from April 2021
M&A Analyst: Pieter Trouwborst
Right now he is finishing his master in Corporate Finance @ Tilburg
University/ The Netherlands
Will start April 2021 as M&A Analyst intern @ Kersten CF

M&A Analyst: Luke Lentjes

Right now he is finishing his master in Corporate Finance @ Tilburg
University/ The Netherlands
Will start April 2021 as M&A Analyst intern @ Kersten CF

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M&A Consulting of Kersten Corporate Finance

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M&A Training of Kersten Corporate Finance

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M&A training Dubai

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