Writing a One-Page Investment Memo for a Saudi Property Asset

How to compress a Saudi property case into one page that supports a decision: the order of the sections, what belongs in each, and what must be left out.

An investment memo exists to let someone decide, not to demonstrate how much work was done. One page forces the discipline that longer documents avoid: naming the assumptions that carry the answer and the conditions under which the answer changes. The sequence below is the order in which a reader needs the information, which is not the order in which you assembled it.

Before stage one

Write the memo after the model and the diligence, never in parallel. A memo drafted while the analysis is still moving becomes a narrative that the analysis is then shaped to support. You should be able to state the recommendation in one sentence before you start writing, and if you cannot, the work is not finished.

• A completed model with a signed assumptions page and clean check cells.
• A diligence log with every finding classified as priceable or fundamental.
• The stress case and the break points already calculated.
• A stated recommendation, including the price and conditions you are recommending.
• Clarity on who decides, so the memo answers their question rather than a general one.

Stage 1: Open with the recommendation and the price

The first three lines state what you are recommending, at what price, with what equity and on what conditions. A reader who stops there should still know your position. Memos that build to a conclusion force the decision maker to reconstruct the argument, and in practice they skip to the end anyway, so place the end at the beginning.

• Deliverable: A three-line recommendation naming the asset, the price, the equity and the conditions.
• Owner: Whoever owns the recommendation, not an analyst drafting on their behalf.
• Approval gate: The recommendation is a decision, not a summary of considerations.

Stage 2: Describe the asset in four lines

Location, type, size, age, unit count and tenure. No adjectives. The purpose is to let a reader picture the building accurately, not to sell it. Where a single physical fact dominates the case, such as a plant replacement due or a single tenant occupying everything, that fact belongs here rather than buried later.

• Deliverable: A factual description short enough to read in fifteen seconds.
• Owner: Analyst.
• Approval gate: No promotional language survives the final edit.

Stage 3: Show the income in its own small block

Gross potential rent, vacancy and bad debt, other income, operating costs and net operating income, as a short vertical list. This is the one place where numbers are better than prose. Add one line stating what proportion of income comes from the largest tenant and when the earliest material expiry falls, because those two facts describe the income risk more clearly than any paragraph.

• Deliverable: A six-line income block plus the concentration and expiry note.
• Owner: Analyst.
• Approval gate: Every figure in the block ties exactly to the model.

Stage 4: State the return and the structure together

Give the net yield on total capital, the unlevered and levered returns over the intended hold, the equity multiple, the facility amount and its cost, and base case cover. Reporting the unlevered figure alongside the levered one prevents the common misreading in which a reader attributes financing performance to the asset.

• Deliverable: A return block showing asset return and investor return separately.
• Owner: Analyst.
• Approval gate: No return figure appears without its unlevered counterpart.

Stage 5: Name the three assumptions that carry the answer

List the three inputs that most influence the outcome, with the value used, the evidence behind each and the level at which each one breaks the case. This is the most valuable part of the memo and it is the part most often omitted, because it invites challenge. Inviting challenge is the point: a decision taken without it is not a decision, it is an acceptance.

• Deliverable: Three lines, each naming an assumption, its evidence and its break point.
• Owner: Analyst with the decision maker.
• Approval gate: Each break point is compared against the asset's own history in the same line.

Stage 6: Give the stress case in two lines

State the combined downside and what survives it: cover, cash to equity and whether a capital call would be required. Two lines are enough if they are the right two. A memo that reports a base case without a stress case is presenting an outcome rather than a risk, and the reader has no way to judge the margin.

• Deliverable: A two-line stress summary with the figures that matter under it.
• Owner: Analyst.
• Approval gate: The stress case is the one built from the asset's history, not a round percentage.

Stage 7: List the conditions and the open items

Set out what must be true before completion: retentions, works, documents outstanding, confirmations required from the relevant authorities, and any advice still awaited. Separate these from the priceable findings already reflected in the offer. Anything fundamental and unresolved should appear here as a condition rather than as a risk the buyer absorbs.

• Deliverable: A short conditions list distinguishing conditions from accepted risks.
• Owner: Analyst with legal input.
• Approval gate: No fundamental open item is presented as an accepted risk.

Stage 8: Close with what would change the recommendation

Two lines naming the findings or events that would cause you to withdraw. This converts the memo into a standing instruction rather than a one-off opinion, and it makes a later withdrawal the execution of a plan rather than a reversal. It also tells the reader exactly how firm your position is.

• Deliverable: A two-line statement of the circumstances in which the recommendation changes.
• Owner: Decision owner.
• Approval gate: The statement is specific and measurable rather than a general caveat.

Handovers between stages

The memo travels further than its author expects, often reaching a lender, a co-investor or a partner who was never in the discussion. Date it, version it and state the assumptions page it relies on, so a reader three months later knows what it was based on. Keep the model, the diligence log and the memo as one versioned set, because a memo separated from its model becomes an assertion.

How you know it is finished

The memo is finished when it fits on one page, states a recommendation in its first lines, names three assumptions with their break points, reports a stress case and lists what would change the answer. Anything tax, legal or Sharia related should be flagged as requiring the relevant licensed adviser or qualified scholars rather than answered in the memo, and because requirements in this area are revised over time, note the date on which the regulatory position was confirmed.

Domira builds the numbers on a Saudi property with you before you commit: rent and cost evidence, condition and capital expenditure, the appraisal and the sensitivities that decide whether the deal survives a bad year. The investment decision stays yours, and so does the advice of your licensed tax and legal advisers.