New York Times’ scathing article on appraisers wins Polk Award
In our coverage of the New York Times article on the “friendly” valuations used to increase the fortune President Trump received from his father, we called it “brilliantly written and fascinating.”
YE2018 data—plus enhancements—now in the Cost of Capital Professional
Year-end 2018 equity risk premia and size premia are now available in BVR’s Cost of Capital Professional platform.
Letter to the Editor: Comments on the Cost of Capital Professional
A user who tested out BVR’s new platform for estimating the cost of capital has some very thought-provoking comments on the use of historical data for the equity risk premium.
Response to Eric Nath’s Comments on the Cost of Capital Professional
Comments in response to the need to develop a “truly forward-looking required rate of return system that gives appraisers an understanding of how to estimate cost of capital for private companies and interests in private companies.”
BVU News and Trends February 2019
A monthly roundup of key developments of interest to business valuation experts.
Damodaran posts his 2019 data updates
Professor Aswath Damodaran (New York University Stern School of Business) has so far posted a series of five data updates on his blog, “Musings on Markets.”
Improving on historical data for the cost of capital
There are shortcomings to using historical data in developing an equity risk premium (ERP) when estimating the cost of capital, points out Eric Nath (Eric Nath & Associates LLC) in the February issue of Business Valuation Update.
In Gatekeeper Role, Court Trains Attention on Expert Methodology, Not Conclusions
In ESOP case pivoting on valuation, court denies parties’ Daubert challenges; court notes “gatekeeping” means focusing “on principles and methodology, not the conclusions that [the experts] generate”; parties’ objections are mostly quarrels with opposing expert’s conclusions, court finds.
Acosta v. Wilmington Trust, N.A. (I) (Graphite)
In ESOP case pivoting on valuation, court denies parties’ Daubert challenges; court notes “gatekeeping” means focusing “on principles and methodology, not the conclusions that [the experts] generate”; parties’ objections are mostly quarrels with opposing expert’s conclusions, court finds.
Fernandez on badly explained finance topics
A number of topics relevant to business valuers including CAPM, WACC, betas, ERP, and returns are in the latest paper by Pablo Fernandez (University of Navarra, IESE Business School), "18 Topics Badly Explained by Many Finance Professors."
Failure to explain inputs gets expert excluded under Daubert
If more proof is necessary to show that courts across all legal fields dive deep into the details of valuation testimony, a recent damages case that arose in the context of a condemnation proceeding should do the trick.
Creative Destruction and the Perpetual Growth Assumption
In determining terminal value in a discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation, it is usually assumed that a mature company will grow at a constant rate in perpetuity. The impact of creative destruction and disruptive innovation interrupts and reverses historical growth patterns. If to the extent that the assumption of constant perpetual growth is invalid, the commonly used growth model in DCF analyses will overstate terminal value and cause overvaluations. The perpetual growth concept needs to ...
Rethinking the Traditional Levels of Value—Continuing the Conversation
While the representation of a hierarchy of value has served generations of business valuers well, it now needs to be reshaped. One concern is that the hierarchy has at its core the concept of the control premium, a concept that has become strained beyond the breaking point.
Major Changes Enhance the 2018 Edition of Mergerstat Review of M&A Activity
The recently released 2018 edition of Mergerstat Review has a number of important changes, including updates to historical data, new tables that show premiums paid over the targets’ enterprise values, and more.
BVU News and Trends November 2018
A monthly roundup of key developments of interest to business valuation experts.
New York Times serves up scathing look at appraisers in Trump exposé
“Friendly” valuations are the main characters in a brilliantly written and fascinating article in the New York Times about President Trump’s involvement in “dubious tax schemes” and “outright fraud” to increase the fortune he received from his father.
The Size Effect Continues To Be Relevant When Estimating the Cost of Capital
In this paper, I will review the size effect, potential reasons why one observes the size effect, and correct common misconceptions and address criticisms of the Size Premia (SP). Specifically, we demonstrate that the size premium critique by Cliff Ang is not warranted and that the alternative methodology proposed by that author is misleading and cannot be considered as an alternative to the Duff & Phelps’ SP. Subsequently, we will highlight some methodological issues with ...
Size-adjusting Volatility
Since the valuation of corporate securities with option-like features issued by the private companies requires an estimate of volatility based upon comparable public companies and the comparable companies are often larger, the use of unadjusted volatilities may understate the volatility of the subject private company. This article provides an up-to-date research review on the need for size-adjusting volatility. We also present a simple methodology to size adjust comparable companies that is easily updated with data ...
Expert’s Failure to Explain Basis for Compensation Analysis Renders Testimony Inadmissible
In condemnation case requiring fair market value analysis to determine compensation due to landowners, court excludes defense expert testimony, citing failure to follow mandated methodology and standard of value; court calls aspects of loss calculation based on income approach “disturbing.”
Rover Pipeline LLC v. 10.55 Acres
In condemnation case requiring fair market value analysis to determine compensation due to landowners, court excludes defense expert testimony, citing failure to follow mandated methodology and standard of value; court calls aspects of loss calculation based on income approach “disturbing.”
DOL urges court to uphold judgment against trustee in Brundle ESOP litigation
In the ongoing Brundle v. Wilmington Trust ESOP saga, which is now in the appeals stage, the Department of Labor recently filed an amicus brief in support of the district court’s $29.8 million judgment against the ESOP trustee. The case arose out of a plan participant’s claim that the ESOP trustee breached its fiduciary duties to the plan by causing the ESOP to pay more than fair market value for the employer’s stock.
How high were M&A premiums last year? See the five highest premiums offered
Discover how far last year’s M&A buyers were willing to go above the publicly traded share value with their offers. View a list of the five highest premiums offered for M&A transactions announced in 2017.
New research refutes notion of private-company discounts
There is no evidence that unlisted firms sell at discounts compared to listed firms, according to a new paper.
BVU News and Trends June 2018
A monthly roundup of key developments of interest to business valuation experts.
Letter to the Editor of BVWire re: control premiums
Your recent announcement about the 13th Annual Fair Value Conference in Los Angeles may leave unwary readers with the impression that the MPAP guidance on control premiums in VFR #3 applies to all business valuation work.