Business Valuation Update
- Perception Grows of Bias in U.S. Valuation Experts
- Popular Real Estate DLOC Database Is Not Going Away
- Key Points From Hitchner’s Annual BV Update
- What to Glean From the IRS Hiring Binge for BV Experts
A Tennessee Appellate Court Affirms the Allowance of a DLOM and Affirms Calculations Under the Income Approach
This case revolved around the value to be paid for a one-third interest in a business partnership for a business that produces and sells flavored “moonshine” liquor. The trial court initially resolved all issues and determined that the plaintiff was entitled to the fair value of his one-third interest in the partnership. Defendant appealed, among other things, the trial court determination of value for his interest. The appellate court remanded for elimination of the discount for lack of control. On this appeal, the plaintiff disagreed with the trial court value and believed the DLOM should also be eliminated. The appellate court affirmed the trial court. The value affirmed was a conclusion of value issued in a summary report.
An Actual Brand Valuation Report a Court Rejected as ‘Speculative’
Text (redacted) of a valuation report for the brand name of a local hotel and resort used in a dissenting shareholder case. Can you spot why the court rejected the valuation as being too speculative?
Highlights From the 2022 NYSSCPA BVLS Conference
Money laundering, earnouts, valuing debt, and SPAC enforcement are a few of the topics presented at the Business Valuation and Litigation Services (BVLS) conference hosted by the New York State Society of CPAs. Here are some key takeaways.
How Judges Compare Competing DCF Analyses
Two valuation experts are far apart in their opinion of value using the income approach. What does the judge focus on when comparing the two analyses?
Appraisers Have the Highest Exclusion Rate Under Daubert, Per PwC Study
A look at the latest study from PwC that analyzes challenges to financial expert witnesses (appraisers, accountants, economists, and others) under the Daubert standards from 2000 to 2020. Also, some classic advice on how to survive a Daubert challenge.
Misusing the Market Prices of High-Vote Shares When Estimating a Discount for Lack of Voting Rights
When analysts estimate a valuation discount for the lack of voting rights in the stock of a private company, they typically look to the public market. Many studies have compared the market prices of publicly traded high-vote shares with the market prices of publicly traded low-vote shares. Unfortunately, when the inputs into these studies are examined, the emperor has no clothes.
Why Analysts Should Consider the Asset Approach for Going Concerns
Weston Kirk and Robert Reilly, who are both with Willamette Management, urge analysts not to reject the asset approach for going concerns automatically. And they stress (multiple times) that the asset approach is not the same as the cost approach.
BV News and Trends July 2022
A monthly roundup of key developments of interest to business valuation experts.
Global BV News and Trends July 2022
Business valuation news from a global perspective.
Appellate Court Rules on the Value of the Marital Business as to Personal Goodwill, Minority, Liquidity, and Marketability Discounts
The primary issue in this appeal was the value of Surgical Imaging Specialists Inc. (SIS), a subchapter S corporation that the parties formed in 2002. Stephan Fair, the husband, was the sole registered shareholder of SIS. Darlene Fair, the wife, was listed on all tax returns as an equal owner. The trial court awarded all community property interest to the husband and eliminated 25% of SIS’ goodwill as personal goodwill. On appeal, the husband contended that the trial court undervalued the personal goodwill discount and failed to apply a discount for lack of marketability. The husband also appealed the separate property award of an IRA account and a reimbursement to the wife for additional salary payments made by SIS to the husband. The court of appeal affirmed the trial court value of SIS, remanded the issue of IRA gains, and affirmed the reimbursement for additional salary payments.
Cellular Telephone: An Interesting Decision for Valuation Practitioners
A recent Delaware decision in a breach of fiduciary duty case awarded more than triple the amount originally paid to partners who were squeezed out of their collective 1.881% interest in a partnership. Several aspects of this decision are of particular interest to valuation practitioners, especially those whose practice includes litigation services. The case is: In Re Cellular Tel. P’ship Litig.; 2022 Del. Ch. LEXIS 56 (Cellular).
Delaware Chancery Case on Shareholder Dissent Likely to Raise Eyebrows
A practitioner’s commentary on the Cellular case focuses on the tax-affecting issues in the case.
New Toolkit for Passive Appreciation Takes Shape
BVR and Dr. Ashok Abbott (West Virginia University) are developing an automated tool and supporting documentation that embodies his peer-reviewed methodology for separating active from passive appreciation of business assets in a divorce context.
Trugman’s Approach to Assessing Company-Specific Risk
This is an excerpt from the new sixth edition of Understanding Business Valuation, which has a companion website that includes a good selection of full sample valuation reports and other supporting material.
Coronavirus Updates for 24 U.S. Industries
The latest news from the Vertical IQ industry research platform.
DealStats Yields Insights on How Crises Impact Exit Values for Small Firms
Recently, BVR provided some assistance to researchers at Colorado State University who were examining the sales of small businesses in the wake of a crisis, such as the pandemic. Their study offers some new insight on how crises impact exit value and the selling process.
BV News and Trends June 2022
A monthly roundup of key developments of interest to business valuation experts.
Global BV News and Trends June 2022
Business valuation news from a global perspective.
New Jersey U.S. District Court Dismisses Plaintiffs’ Complaint That Public Company Defendant Overvalued Its Goodwill
In this securities putative class action litigation, plaintiff shareholders alleged that the defendants (Ascena) misrepresented the value of Ascena’s goodwill and trade names in order to inflate Ascena’s stock price artificially. In June 2017, Ascena announced an impairment charge to those assets of $1.3 billion “causing Ascena's already-declining share price to fall precipitously. Ascena ultimately declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2020.” The defendants moved to dismiss for failure to plead material misrepresentation or scienter or both. The court granted the motion to dismiss but allowed the plaintiffs to amend their complaint.
Bankruptcy Court Uses the ‘Replacement Value Standard’ as It Determines That Debtor ‘Enterprise Value’ Is Lower and Inappropriate
The debtor, S-Tek 1 LLC, submitted a motion to value to the Bankruptcy Court to determine the value of the collateral of Surv-Tek Inc. as to debt owed it by the debtor pledged as collateral for debt owed by S-Tek to Surv-Tek. The valuation was to be used in the confirmation of a Chapter 11 reorganization of S-Tek. The court used the replacement value standard of value instead of the “ongoing concern” value since the replacement value provided a value greater than the “enterprise value” (i.e., ongoing concern value).
Comments on an Article on Attracting More Practitioners to BV
An article in last month’s Business Valuation Update discussed the need to make business valuation a more recognized career path. This article includes some very thoughtful comments by Dr. Michael A. Crain, CPA/ABV, CFA, CFE, an academic and practitioner.
How Direct Loan Market Participants Are Handling the Handoff From LIBOR to SOFR
The transition from the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) to the secured overnight fund rate (SOFR) will continue to present challenges for private lenders and their operating and valuation teams as long as loan portfolios have a mix of LIBOR- and SOFR-based deals and as long as there are numerical differences between term SOFR and term LIBOR. The author is chairman of Valuation Research Corp. and head of its portfolio securities valuation practice.
A Lesson in Healthcare Supply and Demand—and Market Power, Part 2
This is Part 2 of a two-part article that follows up on the author’s landmark research on the fair market value of physician compensation. The issue of insurance market structure and the related impact on the negotiating of provider contracts was addressed in Part 1 of this article. Physician distribution and the impact of local payment rates that determine compensation is addressed in Part 2.
A Bird’s-Eye View of Major Intangible Asset Benchmarks
This is an analysis of over 30,000 intangible assets and the types most prevalent in acquisitions, including asset values, royalty rates/profit margins, and useful lives.
Breaking Into Bankruptcy Valuations With Little—or No—Experience
There are a lot of opportunities for business valuation analysts in the context of financially distressed or bankrupt companies. A veteran expert gives some advice on how to add this area to your practice regardless of your level of direct experience.