Here’s what you’ll see:

• “Practical Considerations in Normalizing the Risk-Free Rate” (Ronald D. DiMattia). Some valuation firms and practitioners have advocated that the risk-free rate of return (Rf) should be normalized when it is believed to be too low because of Federal Reserve Bank policies. Recent arguments for doing so have been based on technical economic analyses but have ignored practical aspects of normalizing Rf. This article is intended to address those practical considerations.

• “Do Fairness Opinions Adequately Address Fairness to Shareholders?” (Gilbert E. Matthews). This article concludes that opinions that speak to fairness of an acquisition to a SPAC are inadequate when they do not consider the impact on unaffiliated shareholders.

• “Heat Maps for Valuing Venture-Backed vs. Closely Held Firms” (BVR Editor). During a recent BVR webinar, Joe Orlando (Exit Strategies Group) and Eric Sundheim (Mercovus Valuations) presented some heat map charts that illustrate the differences between the due diligence, tools, and approaches to valuing a venture-backed firm versus a closely held company.

• “Valuers Suggest Enhancements to AI-Powered PDF-to-Excel Tool” (BVR Editor). BVR recently partnered with Nambri Technologies to offer Nambri TaxXL, an advanced AI enterprise SaaS software application designed to convert PDF tax returns into Excel spreadsheets. During a recent demonstration webinar, valuation practitioners suggested some enhancements, which triggered some planned updates to allow for the application to handle additional tax forms.

• “New Book Offers Template for Assessing ESG Impact on Firm Value” (BVR Editor). Based on some case studies, a new book includes a template that summarizes steps in assessing whether ESG factors are material enough to integrate into a valuation. The book is Valuation and Sustainability—A Guide to Include Environmental, Social, and Governance Data in Business Valuation, edited by Dejan Glavas (ESSCA, School of Management, Boulogne-Billancourt, France), who also wrote several chapters.

• “Valuation Matters Highlighted in the Estate of Cecil ” (Rajesh Khairajani and Kinjal Shah). A discussion and the valuation implications of several issues in this case: tax affecting an S corporation, applying an asset approach to value a going-concern business, reliance on a single comparable company, and discounts applied to arrive at per-share value.

The issue also includes:

• A full section of “BV News and Trends/Global BV News and Trends”;

• Regular features: “Ask the Experts” and “Tip of the Month”;

• BV data spotlight: “DealStats MVIC/EBITDA Trends,” “FactSet Mergerstat/BVR Control Premium Study,” “Economic Outlook for the Month,” and the “Cost of Capital Center”; and

• BVLaw Case Update: The latest court cases that involve business valuation issues with one case featured in a detailed analysis.

To stay current on business valuation, check out the October 2023 issue of Business Valuation Update.