A Practitioner's Guide to FFO, AFFO, NAV and the Public–Private Bridge in Listed Real Estate
Julian R. Sterling
The five Excel workbooks that go with the book, corrected where they were wrong: Chapter 19’s complete analysis,
the template, the two practice cases, the checklist and Appendix F’s loop. Every figure Chapter 19 publishes is a live
formula — FFO of 532.0, AFFO of 381.0, net asset value of $42.97 a share, an implied cap rate of 6.21%, net debt to
EBITDA of 4.76× and a payout ratio of 81.3% — and five that were printed wrong are corrected. Around them: two of the
models with the inputs emptied, thirteen working documents to print, forty questions that mark themselves, and three cases
the book names and never takes to a number. Nothing is locked, protected or watermarked.
Free to download. No sign-up, no email address, nothing to fill in.
Eleven workbooks, the printable documents and the read-me. Each group below can also be
downloaded on its own. Last revised 24 September 2026.
The five workbooks
These carry the book’s own figures, so that every number it prints can be traced to a live
formula. Each now closes on a checks sheet that reads ALL OK.
Download these five96 KB
Chapter 19
Meridian Industrial Trust — the complete analysis
Nine sheets working from the filings to the recommendation: every input in one place, the
FFO and AFFO bridges, net asset value and the implied cap rate, leverage and coverage, the
dividend, the cost of capital and development, the sensitivity, and a checks sheet that holds
every figure of the chapter. Change the cap rate in row 26 of the Assumptions sheet and watch
net asset value move while the implied cap rate does not — the argument of Chapters 7 and 8.
Revised: the thresholds Step 9 and Step 10 print are computed (135 basis points of exit
cap rate widening, not “about 70”; $34.50 at the implied cap rate, not $35.90), the
discount halving is worth 3.9% a year as the book says (the first file showed 3.6), and the lease
roll of Step 7 is costed.
The same structure, empty, for a REIT of your own. Every formula is wrapped so that a
blank column shows blanks rather than a screen of errors — you can open it, look at
how it is built, and fill it in later. The FFO and AFFO bridges, the NAV build, the
leverage tests and the dividend coverage are already wired. Revised: your column now stays
blank until you type into it, and four rows are added — the accretion frontier of
Appendix F, capitalized overhead, and net debt to enterprise value.
Two timed cases with the brief, a working area and a live solution: FFO and AFFO built
from a net-lease income statement, and a net asset value, implied cap rate and accretion
test for an open-air retail company that looks cheap and is not. Both reproduce the
appendix exactly; a checks sheet now carries all 27 of its figures. Work them against a clock before
opening the solution block.
All 54 items with a status dropdown, a notes column and a counter, in the appendix’s
ten groups: structure, portfolio, earnings, operating trend, valuation, the balance sheet,
the dividend, capital allocation, governance, and before you conclude. A "no" is the next question
to ask on the call.
Chapter twelve describes a feedback loop between the share price and the business, calls
both directions self-reinforcing, and prints one table at one moment in time. This file
turns the loop: three years, both directions, on Meridian's own figures. It reproduces the
chapter's three lines to the basis point first, then finds where the accretion frontier
actually sits — not at net asset value, but at a 6.2 per cent discount on the test the
table uses and an 11.6 per cent discount on the test the chapter prescribes three pages
later. Forty-six controls, eight of which name a finding rather than a pass, and a last line
that reads ALL OK. Revised: the archive carried a copy with French quotation marks; this
is the English one, and the two conventions Appendix F uses without naming — the
$50.00 start of the upward loop and the half of accretion added to growth — are inputs.
Two of the workbooks with every company input emptied. The checks sheets count what is still missing and test what holds for any inputs.
Chapter 19 · Appendix F
Your company, through Meridian’s analysis and the loop
The complete analysis with its 30 inputs emptied: fill the Assumptions sheet and every sheet computes, from FFO and AFFO to the implied cap rate, the accretion test, the development threshold and the lease roll. The loop keeps its conventions and empties the fifteen company figures. The cap rate steps and share prices of the grids stay.
The book’s inputs are listed in a text file inside the archive. Type them back in and the book’s figures come back with them: $42.97 of net asset value, 6.21% implied, a frontier at $40.32.
Blank_Model_Set.zip · two XLSX files and the inputs
The documents the chapters describe
Thirteen pages to print and use. A4, with margins wide enough for US Letter.
Chapters 1 to 19 · Appendices A and B
Thirteen working documents
The five facts and the reading order, with the share count. FFO and AFFO rebuilt on one definition, with Meridian beside your column. Same-store NOI decomposed. Occupancy, leasing and the expiry profile on one page. Net asset value line by line, with the corrected sensitivity. The implied cap rate and the six explanations of a discount. The six-column comparison.
The dividend on one line. The balance sheet page with the maturity ladder and covenant headroom. The cost of capital line, the frontier and the four ways out. Management and governance. The development pipeline and capital recycling. The note in five questions, with the four break-evens.
A workbook that marks itself. Answer in the yellow cells; the marking fills in as you go.
All parts of the book
Forty questions on the book
Seven on FFO and AFFO, seven on net asset value and the discount, seven on multiples, the dividend and the balance sheet, seven on the cost of capital and Appendix F, six on operations, structure and the bridge, and six on the three cases below. Numbers are marked to a tolerance, multiple choice to the letter, and the score sheet counts your errors part by part.
New material, not a restatement. Three situations the chapters name and never take to a number. Each case is one workbook: the note is the first sheet, the model is the rest, and a checks sheet closes it. Type your own figures in and every finding recomputes.
Chapters 11 and 17 · Case one
Meridian’s four break-evens
Chapter 17 asks for four thresholds and Chapter 19 computes none. With a maturity ladder and covenant levels ADDED: refinancing the next three years costs 7.3 cents a share and lifts the payout to 84.2%. The dividend breaks first, at a same-store fall of 14.0%; the leverage covenant at an EBITDA fall of 32.1%; refinancing only above 26.2% on the maturing debt.
Chapter 13 · Case two
Meridian, externally managed
The same buildings run on a 0.75% base fee on assets (ADDED). The structure costs 16.5% of NOI against 8.1%; the fee stream capitalizes to $8.26 a share; the termination fee takes NAV to $41.67. An equity-funded acquisition at $30.00 cuts AFFO per share 2.4% and raises the fee 4.8%. Internalizing costs $1.30 and removes $4.66.
Chapters 6 and 10 · Case three
The office REIT that has to issue shares
Chapter 6 says an office company often cannot fund its own re-letting from retained cash, and never shows one. Costed from the expiry schedule, the roll takes 136.8 against 70 deducted: AFFO per share falls to $0.968 and the payout from 84.9% to 124.0%. A 12% headline spread is -0.4% net of free rent, and Appendix A’s formula misses 28.9% of the roll.
the last sheet of every workbook with figures: each control states its own verdict, and the file ends ALL OK
ADDED
a figure the book does not give, used in the cases and marked wherever it appears
One honest note
Chapter 19 publishes a NAV sensitivity table of $45.86 and $40.36 at cap rates 25 basis points
either side of the base case. The live build in the workbook returns $45.72 and $40.47. The first
version of this page called that a rounding difference; it is an error in the printed table, and a
quarter point moves the answer by about six percent, not seven. The base case of $42.97 reproduces
to the cent. Three more printed figures are corrected in the files: the pipeline stops creating value
at 135 basis points of cap rate widening, not about 70; net asset value at the implied cap rate is
the share price, $34.50, not $35.90; and Appendix A’s formula for that widening is simply the spread.
Both sets of figures are shown side by side on the sensitivity sheet, with the variance
displayed. A companion file that quietly adjusted its own output to match a printed table
would teach the opposite of what the book teaches.
Reader list
Optional. One email when a companion file is corrected or a new worked case goes up, and a short note when a new book comes out. Nothing on this page needs it.
The workbooks open in Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets and Numbers; the PDF
prints on A4 or US Letter. They use no macros and no add-ins, so nothing needs to be enabled or trusted. If your spreadsheet asks
to update links on opening, decline — there are none.
What changed, and when
24 Sep 2026
The five workbooks corrected and given checks sheets. Chapter 19’s sensitivity is $45.72 and $40.47, an error in the printed table rather than rounding; the development threshold is 135 basis points, not about 70; net asset value at the implied cap rate is $34.50, not $35.90; the discount-halving return is 3.9%, as printed (the file showed 3.6). The Loop Run replaced by its English version. Added: a blank set, thirteen working documents, forty questions that mark themselves, and three cases.
Closing the DealTwo defensible bridges 20.70 million apart, a peg worth 7.00 million, and the six choices that remove 6.60 of a 12.00 earn-out.
CMBS and CRE CLOsWhere the loss actually lands, from appraisal reduction to realised severity, and what the B-piece is really being paid for.
How to Read a Commercial LeaseThe three refinements chapter 19 names and never performs, and the renewal rate below which the mark-to-market is worth nothing.
How to Read a Credit AgreementWhere the default actually comes from, the cure that costs 5.5 times the other, and the capacity nobody adds up.
How to Read a Real Estate Loan AgreementThe cure ratio in closed form, the four-point window in which the cheap cure works, and the cure sized to the wrong threshold.
Office Real EstateA six per cent yield that returns 3.2 per cent once the re-letting cycle is paid for, and the headline-to-net-effective rent arithmetic.
Private Equity Real EstateBoth worked waterfalls to the dollar, the two capital stacks, and the arithmetic of the promote made changeable.
Private Markets PerformanceThirty-one of the thirty-three figures chapter 19 publishes reproduce exactly — and the two that do not are named rather than quietly adopted.
Raising a Real Estate FundThe chapter 17 funnel run on a calendar — when the first close actually lands, and why more travel does not help.
Real Estate FinanceFour people look at one building and reach four numbers; the lender is whole only above 105,109,489, twelve per cent below today’s value rather than forty.
Real Estate Financial ModelingProperty, development and fund models built line by line, and the modelling test worked end to end.
Real Estate Fund ManagementThe waterfall of 6.11, the build-to-core of 8.7 and the proceeds gap, reproduced as live formulas rather than asserted.
Retail Real EstateThe occupancy cost of every unit in a centre, the sixteen per cent of the rent roll no tenant can sustain, and the right-size-convert-or-hold decision priced.
Sale and LeasebackA €179.5 million transaction end to end, with rent cover measured on the entity that actually signs the lease.
Self-Storage Real EstateThe cohort engine behind a 590-unit store, and the rate increase on existing customers priced against the move-outs it causes.
The Fund Finance ProfessionalChapter 8 builds the reported-to-eligible NAV bridge; chapter 9 computes every ratio without it. Two points at every state — and what a subscription line does to the IRR.
The Growth Equity InvestorWhat a pro rata cheque really costs, and the band where defending your ownership loses money.
The Private Credit InvestorThe two coverage ratios are not measured on the same thing: the erosion is 47.7 per cent, not the 28.7 the headline implies.
The Private Equity Fund Controller PlaybookThe book defines IRR, DPI, RVPI and TVPI, tells you to update them at the exit, and prints not one value. Computed: a 1.833× deal inside a fund at 0.892 TVPI.
The Venture Capital AssociateWhat defending a position costs, and how many companies a reserve pool actually defends.
Financial Risk ManagementA fund inside every limit that cannot meet a redemption — and the number that decides it is the one with no currency attached.
Business ValuationThree advisers land 26.8 per cent apart on one company, and the whole gap turns out to be 1.96 points of perpetual growth.
Quantitative FinanceThree models agree to a quarter of one per cent about a number that one unobservable input moves a hundred and three times as much.
Asset ManagementFour people quote four returns for one mandate, all correct and 2.7017 points apart — forty-eight times the manager’s net skill.
Alternative InvestmentsA manager reports 13.29 per cent and the endowment earns 6.26 — both correct, and only a third of the advertised advantage arrives.
Credit AnalysisFour defensible EBITDAs on one borrower give leverage from 3.19x to 6.47x — and the add-back argument is fifty times the covenant headroom.
Venture CapitalOne company out of twenty-eight returns 56.7 per cent of the fund, and half the capital goes in after the decision — at half the return.
Machine Learning for FinanceFive people quote the accuracy of one credit model, all five are right, and the number that decides how much money it makes is none of them.
Commercial Real Estate InvestingThe equity earned 8.6647 per cent and the investor received exactly 8.0000 — the preferred return, and nothing above it.
Mergers and AcquisitionsThe board paper says the deal creates 13,436,667 of value. The arithmetic says it destroys 17,530,855. Nobody is lying.
DerivativesThe treasury report says the hedge cost 1,233,698. That is the interest differential, not a cost.
Treasury ManagementFive cash balances for one company, all correct and 145,600,000 apart — and the revolver that is two-thirds of the liquidity leaves at a revenue fall of 8.4127 per cent.
Financial Planning and AnalysisRevenue 3.0190 per cent above budget and operating profit 16.3209 per cent below it, in the same quarter, with every figure correctly stated.
Energy TradingA position report that is 91.7031 per cent hedged and correctly computed, on a book that is short 2,542,000 MWh — and a margin call of 198,400,000 the next morning.
Construction Cost ControlA contract sum of 26,301,102 became a final account of 29,153,363 on the building that was drawn — and 85.8 per cent of what was lost was knowable on the day it was signed.
Trade FinanceSix routes to payment on one 4,200,000 export order cost between 178,040 and 223,268, a spread worth 14.8 per cent of the margin, and a day of buyer credit costs 1,031.76.
Cost AccountingOne factory costed twice on the same 13,440,000 of overhead, and 4,053,091 moves between four product families.
Pricing StrategyA list price of 148.00, a pocket price of 112.51, and the nine deductions in between — with what one point of price is actually worth.
Contract ManagementA bid 5.50 a unit cheaper, signed on paper worth 9.81 a unit more — and 94.68 per cent of it was knowable on the day of signature.
Capital MarketsFour defensible readings of one bond, the cost of an issue under each convention, and the placement discount computed at a constant discount.
Financial RegulationThree ratios pass and the fourth is in breach by 1,956.0 million: the output floor, the liquidity buffer after encumbrance, and the loan split.
Bank ManagementFour defensible readings of one balance sheet, the deposit beta measured two ways, and the liquidity that lasts 3.9 days.
The Real Estate WorkoutFour ways out of one broken loan, discounted to today, and the 58.7 cents at which a payoff beats enforcement.
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