Preparation of financial forecasts by Shyam Mehta

I am an expert in finance, having worked in big investment banks such as Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Shearson Lehman, and am a retired actuary (insurance/pensions financial mathematician). I have a maths degree from Cambridge University and have had multiple careers relating eg to M&A, investment analysis, pensions, insurance, property, investment, financial planning, banking, derivatives...I have written numerous cutting edge papers on these subjects. My favourite activity is to help businesses, small and large, on developing their business: writing a business plan, preparing financial forecasts, developing pricing tools for them such that they can better assess the prices they should be charging their customers, valuing their business, helping them to raise equity or debt finance. I have lectured on finance and investment at various leading universities. Written numerous papers which have had a major influence on how the insurance and pensions industries are run. I have been a senior investment banker advising on M&A, risk management, shareholder value optimization, and also investment analyst (banking, insurance, pharmaceuticals, smaller companies...). What distinguishes me is that I do NOT provide advice (!!). For example, I write a factual business plan. Or, I calculate how much your business is worth based on my knowledge and expertise, and information you supply. From this you can decide your best strategy, easily. I am real good at helping you decide also, for example, how much your home is worth, what investments suit you, whether interest rates are headed up or down, whether there is going to be a market crash or boom, which type of loan finance to select... In my opinion, companies stand to gain a lot of money in market value added terms from my work compared with other professionals. They have no understanding, in general, of statistics, of finance etc. They may be experts in their fields, but not in mine. I am NOT a solicitor, estate agent, IFA, mortgage broker…I am an investment expert who has 46 years’ experience researching and thinking about financial matters. I love valuing things (property, mortgages, shares…). My philosophy is to do work such as is required by a client but have a preference for them using a market value maximization rule. Are you better off in £ value terms by taking out the mortgage, buying or selling the property with or without a mortgage, selling the business at this price…? PLEASE NOTE. I AM NOT REGULATED UNDER THE PRA AND FCA, ALTHOUGH I USED TO BE WHEN I WAS WORKING. With any work undertaken by me, you are NOT covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). List of my clients over the last 46 years: 1. Insurance. Virtually all UK life insurers, 20 UK general insurers, 4 Lloyds syndicates, 7 Italian insurance companies, 5 French, 4 Dutch, 20 Spanish, 15-20 German, 5 American, 2 Trinidad, 1 Jamaican, Jamaican government insurance supervisor, 2 Hong Kong insurers 2. Pension funds. 100 UK schemes, 4 large French schemes (including 2 state schemes), 3 Italian, 5 Dutch, UK government actuaries department 3. Property. 1 Australian company, 1 South African company (Liberty International hired me to value their Lakeside and other major shopping centres for inclusion in their group accounts). Numerous small clients, individuals, insurers, one pension fund. 4. Investment (equities, bonds, gold, property, bitcoin...). Many unit trusts, investment trusts, pension funds, insurance companies, 2 hedge funds, countless individuals. Numerous investment managers mostly in the City of London 5. Personal financial planning: retirement, insurance, property...advices. Some 70 individuals on a formal paid basis, many unpaid informal. 6. Mortgage advice. Mostly for myself over the years, very detailed analyses covering the market. 4 to individuals on a paid basis, 3 unpaid. 7. Asset mix advice. Derivatives advice. Mostly to large companies, institutions, pension funds and insurers, a few to government treasury departments in Europe. 8. M&A deals. Many industrial small and larger companies. Many insurers. 7 FTSE 100 deals, many proposals, UK, Europe. 9. Credit analysis. Many transactions for a Ukrainian bank. Chief risk manager for a large Swedish multinational insurance company, Lloyds syndicates' regulatory body. One Australian bank. 10. Banking. Many projects for UK clearing banks, many for 2 Australian large banks 11. Small business appraisals and financial modelling. Many. Some 10 M&A transactions of small companies. In my profession as an actuary I received the the Jim Anderson award for Professional Excellence, and was awarded ‘VIP’ status by Worldwide Who's Who in 2014. In the actuarial profession, I had a high profile as a result of many influential papers including: • Financial Theory Of Defined Benefit Pension Schemes (“Eighteen years' ago today, Jon Exley, Shyam Mehta and Andrew Smith published what has been described as the most important and influential paper ever written on defined benefit (DB) pensions”) • ALLOWING FOR ASSET, LIABILITY AND BUSINESS RISK IN THE VALUATION OF A LIFE OFFICE • Asset Strategy For Defined Benefit Pension Schemes • Consistent Assumptions For Multinational Asset Models • Exley Mehta Smith Market Efficiency • Exley Mehta Smith Mean Reversion • Hedge Funds For Pension Funds • Pension Funds— A Company Manager's View • QUANTIFYING THE SUCCESS OF A LIFE OFFICE • Summary And Comparison Of Approaches Used To Measure Life Office Values • TAXATION IN THE ASSESSMENT OF PROFITABILITY OF LIFE ASSURANCE PRODUCTS AND OF LIFE OFFICE APPRAISAL VALUES • Life Assurance Sector Review: A Fresh Approach, Shearson Lehman Hutton • Pricing of Insurance Risk, Staple Inn Actuarial Society My work has been highly influential in creating change to the way insurance companies and pension funds are run across the world, particularly in the UK (so that, for example the risk borne by insurance companies is now far lower, and for pension funds it is now mandatory to publish and also carry out valuations to see whether the scheme is solvent). I am a yoga teacher with an advanced teaching certificate since 1977, having for example been a co-author of the best selling book "Yoga: the Iyengar Way". My favourite activity is watercolour painting.