Apex Distribution Partners: A 90-Minute Simple-Form LBO Case Study
The simple-form LBO is the most common timed modeling test in private equity recruiting, and Apex Distribution Partners is a clean example of it. Ninety minutes, no balance sheet, a free-cash-flow bridge instead of a full three-statement build. The bar is not complexity — it is speed, clean architecture, and a model that flexes correctly when someone changes an input in the debrief.
This page walks through what the case contains, what it is actually testing, how to allocate your time, and the mistakes that most often sink candidates on it. For the broader context on how these exercises work, start with our guide to what a private equity case study looks like.
The Business
Apex is a regional foodservice distributor: low gross margins, high volume, and a business where working capital is not a rounding error but a core driver of returns. Distribution is a favorite case sector precisely because it forces you to take working capital seriously.
The margin structure is thin, which means small changes in gross margin assumptions move EBITDA a lot. That sensitivity is the point.
What This Case Tests
Build EBITDA from revenue and margin assumptions rather than being handed it. Small margin moves have large EBITDA consequences in a low-margin distributor.
Working capital assumptions change over the projection period rather than holding flat. You have to model the drift and let it hit cash.
The debt is issued below par. OID affects proceeds at close and accretes over the life of the loan — a detail that trips up candidates who have only built textbook LBOs.
Floating rates that rise over the projection. Interest expense must reference the correct year's rate.
Not one grid — three. Building them fast, and correctly, in a model with a debt sweep is a real time-management test.
Ninety minutes is not much. Every minute spent formatting is a minute not spent on returns.
How to Approach It
Fast. Get the capital structure and purchase price locked, including the OID adjustment to proceeds.
No balance sheet. Go straight from EBITDA to free cash flow: less cash interest, less taxes, less capex, less change in working capital.
Beginning balance, mandatory amortization, sweep, ending balance. Layer in the SOFR curve and OID accretion.
Exit EV, less net debt, equals exit equity. IRR and MOIC. Get a number on the page before you do anything else.
Only now. If you have a working model, the tables take ten minutes. If you don't, they take forever and produce nothing.
Common Mistakes on This Case
Nobody asked for one. It costs you thirty minutes you do not have.
It reduces net proceeds at close and accretes. Skipping it means your sources and uses is wrong from minute one.
The prompt explicitly gives you drifting days. Flat DSO/DPO means you did not read it.
Nobody has ever lost an offer for an unformatted model. Plenty have lost one for an unfinished model.
A data table on a broken model wastes the last ten minutes and produces nonsense.
Get the Case Packet
Get the Apex Distribution Partners case packet
The full Apex Distribution Partners packet — business overview, end markets, historical financials, and the complete set of transaction and operating assumptions — is available inside the PEPath app, along with a framework for what a strong answer looks like, the common mistakes, and discussion questions to self-assess against.
Related Guides
The candidates who clear cases like this one are rarely the smartest people in the room. They are the ones who have built enough models that the mechanics are automatic, which frees their attention for the judgment the interviewer is actually testing.
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