How to structure the IC deck

Why the deck is different from the memo

The memo is read. The deck is presented, usually with someone interrupting. A good deck lets the committee follow your argument even when you get pulled off course, because each slide makes one point and the slides build in a clear order.

The deck and the memo must agree. Same recommendation, same numbers, same conditions. A mismatch is the fastest way to lose a committee's trust.

Write action titles

Every slide title should be a full sentence that states the takeaway. If someone reads only the titles, they should get the whole argument.

The order a committee expects

1. Title slide. Borrower, facility, date.
2. Agenda.
3. Transaction overview and recommendation. The ask, the terms and your call, on one slide.
4. Sources and uses.
5. Company snapshot. What the business does and what drives cash flow.
6. Financial summary. Historical trend and pro forma credit metrics.
7. Base and downside cases. Side by side, with covenant headroom.
8. Structure and covenants. What protects the lender, and what you'd change.
9. Recovery. What the lender gets back if it goes wrong.
10. Risks and mitigants. Ranked, with the mitigant next to each risk.
11. Recommendation and conditions. Restate the call and the conditions.
12. Appendix. Detail that supports the story but would slow it down.

One message per slide

• If a slide needs two titles, it needs to be two slides.
• Use one chart or one table per slide, and highlight the number that proves the title.
• Put sources and footnotes in small type at the bottom.
• Move anything you won't talk through to the appendix.

Tables and charts

Credit committees like tables more than you might expect. A clean table of leverage, coverage and free cash flow by year, base and downside side by side, often does more work than any chart.

• Right-align numbers and use the same number of decimals in a column.
• Show negatives in parentheses.
• Label units once, in the header.
• Use colour only to draw attention, for example a breached covenant in red.

Common mistakes

• Topic titles like "Overview" or "Financials" that tell the reader nothing.
• A recommendation slide at the end only. Put the call on the first content slide, then again at the end.
• Dense slides that copy paragraphs from the memo.
• Numbers on slides that don't match the memo or the model.
• No downside slide, or a downside that only appears in the appendix.

Checklist before you present

1. Read the titles alone. Do they tell the whole story?
2. Check every number against the model.
3. Make sure the recommendation and conditions match the memo word for word.
4. Time yourself. Most IC presentations get ten to fifteen minutes before the questions start.

Prepare for the questions

The case page's IC deck template follows this order, with space for an action title on every slide and the case historicals and term sheet already in place.

The committee will push on your weakest slide. Before you present, write down the three questions you'd least like to be asked and prepare an answer with a number in it. Then practice answering them out loud.

The IC grill is built for exactly this: six follow-ups aimed at the weakest parts of your memo.