Capital Readiness Brief

What is actually being tested

Capital counterparties differ in appetite and structure. They converge on the same early tests.

• □Control: is the site or asset controlled, and for how long.
• □Approvals: what is granted, what is conditioned, what is assumed.
• □Cost basis: how the cost was built, by whom, and on what date.
• □Delivery: who executes, under what contract form, with what authority.
• □Governance: who decides what, and what happens when parties disagree.
• □Evidence: can each material claim be traced to a document or a named source.

Record, not narrative

• □Every material claim should point to a document, a person and a date.
• □Replace adjectives with the underlying fact, or drop the claim.
• □Separate what is signed from what is discussed. They are not the same standing.
• □Give the age of each report; a current-looking report that is stale is worse than none.
• □State where the record has gaps, and what the plan is to close them.

Numbers discipline

• □Label each figure verified, estimated or assumed, and keep the label attached.
• □Show the basis: quantities, unit source, date, and who produced it.
• □Carry contingency openly rather than burying it inside line items.
• □Do not present a projection as a result. A modelled outcome is an assumption.
• □Keep one register of assumptions and update it with dates, not by overwriting.

Governance a sponsor should be able to answer

• □Who has authority to sign, and up to what threshold.
• □How change orders and scope changes are approved.
• □How and when counterparties are informed, and in what format.
• □What conflicts exist between affiliated parties, and how they are disclosed.
• □What happens on default, delay, or a capital shortfall — before it occurs.