Interview Model Test Question: EBITDA vs Net Income

I was building an LBO model for a model test and the interviewer asked if I could build to FCF from EBITDA instead of Net Income. Could someone explain how to do this? (without just building down to Net Income from EBITDA)

9 Comments
 

But this is essentially just building to net income. The interviewer asked not to build to net income first. said you can go directly from EBITDA to FCF without intermediary of net income first

 

My question here is, since taxes are based off of EBIT, don't we need to subtract D&A to get to EBIT anyways? Not sure what the point would be of not just building to Net Income first

 

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