ESOP trustee’s failure to vet valuation causes significant overpayment
Inadequate trustee performance was at the center of a recent case, featuring a nontraditional ESOP structure. The court found that, if the trustee had engaged with the underlying valuation, it would have discovered numerous weaknesses and prevented the ESOP from overpaying for the company stock.
Brundle v. Wilmington Trust N.A. (I)
Court finds ESOP trustee liable for allowing overpayment for company shares; trustee rushed transaction and failed to scrutinize financial advisor’s valuation ignoring red flags related to projections, use of control premium, beta, rounding up of values.
Trustee Liable for Inadequate ESOP Valuation Vetting
Court finds ESOP trustee liable for allowing overpayment for company shares; trustee rushed transaction and failed to scrutinize financial advisor’s valuation ignoring red flags related to projections, use of control premium, beta, rounding up of values.
Chancery Bases Fair Value Calculation on Income-Based Model
Flawed sales process makes merger price an unreliable indicator of fair value for statutory appraisal, Chancery finds; in accord with party experts, court uses discounted net income approach and adopts most of respondent expert’s inputs for its valuation.
Damodaran updates data-rich cost of capital spreadsheets
Professor Aswath Damodaran (New York University Stern School of Business) has released new data posts and data sets updated for 2017 related to valuation and the cost of capital, including historical stock returns, implied equity risk premiums, country risk premiums, and more.
Chancery Recognizes Reality of Control Premium in Third-Party Offers
Court says special committee’s accepting controlling shareholder’s lower bid over third-party’s higher offer is not sign of bad-faith dealing but of reality that “buyers of corporate control will be required to pay a premium” to acquire the whole company.
Merion Capital L.P. v. Lender Processing Servs.
In appraisal action, Chancery says final merger consideration best represents fair value, noting sales process led to “meaningful price discovery”; court says with DCF too much depends on assumptions; small changes may have outsize impact on value range.
Chancery Says Solid Sales Process Lends Credibility to Deal Price
In appraisal action, Chancery says final merger consideration best represents fair value, noting sales process led to “meaningful price discovery”; court says with DCF too much depends on assumptions; small changes may have outsize impact on value range.
Chancery says bids in squeeze-out merger are not comparable
The Delaware Court of Chancery recently cut short a challenge to a going-private merger when it dismissed the plaintiffs' complaint. The plaintiffs unsuccessfully argued the defendants breached their fiduciary duties when they favored the controller's lower bid over a third-party bidder's higher offer.
Chancery Relies on ‘Simple and Powerful’ DCF for Fair Value
Chancery finds gap separating fair value determinations of three valuation experts in a merger involving a privately held company “alarmingly” wide; court says only the DCF, “a simple and powerful concept,” achieves a reliable indicator of fair value.
Dunmire v. Farmers & Merchants Bancorp of W. Pa.
Flawed sales process makes merger price an unreliable indicator of fair value for statutory appraisal, Chancery finds; in accord with party experts, court uses discounted net income approach and adopts most of respondent expert’s inputs for its valuation.
Chancery Bases Fair Value Calculation on Income-Based Model
Flawed sales process makes merger price an unreliable indicator of fair value for statutory appraisal, Chancery finds; in accord with party experts, court uses discounted net income approach and adopts most of respondent expert’s inputs for its valuation.
Defense expert testimony supports ESOP valuation and fairness opinions
A recent ESOP decision involving allegations of breach of fiduciary duty and engaging in a prohibited transaction turned on whether the ESOP trustee’s financial advisor had performed proper due diligence and issued defensible fairness and valuation analyses.
In re Books a Million Stockholders Litig.
Court says special committee’s accepting controlling shareholder’s lower bid over third-party’s higher offer is not sign of bad-faith dealing but of reality that “buyers of corporate control will be required to pay a premium” to acquire the whole company.
Chancery Recognizes Reality of Control Premium in Third-Party Offers
Court says special committee’s accepting controlling shareholder’s lower bid over third-party’s higher offer is not sign of bad-faith dealing but of reality that “buyers of corporate control will be required to pay a premium” to acquire the whole company.
Two Theories of Control
This paper identifies two different theories of control premiums: One theory supposes control only benefits controlling shareholders; the other supposes control benefits all shareholders. We first examine the logical implications of each theory. We then examine the implications of each theory on the relationship between the magnitude of a control premium percentage and the percentage of controlling ownership. We analyze a database that is commonly used to quantify control premium percentages and do not find ...
Chancery achieves fair value with three imperfect valuation techniques
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Perhaps Chancellor Bouchard thought of Aristotle when he recently ruled in a statutory appraisal action that, even though the results of three common valuation techniques were unreliable indicators of value, in combination they established fair value.
Chancery Rejects Deal Price Based on Unquantifiable ‘Sales Process Mispricing’
For statutory appraisal, Chancery says sales process related to management buyout “functioned imperfectly as a price discovery tool” and gives no weight to final merger price; court relies exclusively on DCF analysis to derive fair value of the company.
In re ISN Software Corp. Appraisal Litig.
Chancery finds gap separating fair value determinations of three valuation experts in a merger involving a privately held company “alarmingly” wide; court says only the DCF, “a simple and powerful concept,” achieves a reliable indicator of fair value.
Chancery Relies on ‘Simple and Powerful’ DCF for Fair Value
Chancery finds gap separating fair value determinations of three valuation experts in a merger involving a privately held company “alarmingly” wide; court says only the DCF, “a simple and powerful concept,” achieves a reliable indicator of fair value.
The Size Effect—It Is Still Relevant
Practitioners commonly incorporate a size premium when developing their cost of capital estimates using the modified capital asset pricing model (MCAPM). This article is intended to correct common misconceptions about the size premium and demonstrate that data from recent periods support the continued use of a size premium.
In re Appraisal of Dell Inc.
For statutory appraisal, Chancery says sales process related to management buyout “functioned imperfectly as a price discovery tool” and gives no weight to final merger price; court relies exclusively on DCF analysis to derive fair value of the company.
Affirmation of DLOM Rulings Augurs End to Shareholder Fight
In dissenting shareholder suit, appeals court upholds trial court’s finding that prevailing DCF analysis did not account for illiquidity by way of a separate marketability discount, as well as court’s finding that appropriate DLOM rate was 25%.
Two Methods to Adjust Observed Control Premia for Valuation Purposes
The greater a target company’s leverage, the less cash, or acquirer’s shares, a buyer needs to control the target enterprise. Based on this idea, the Appraisal Foundation Working Group’s Discussion Draft, The Measurement and Application of Market Participant Acquisition Premiums, recommends as a best practice that appraisers adjust takeover premia for leverage. Previous recent research found empirical results consistent with this, namely, that higher equity takeover premia are related to higher pre-deal leverage levels, controlling ...
Court Rebuffs Attempt to Allocate Excess Value to Intangible Assets
Bankruptcy Court rejects proposition that sales price increase has to be attributed to one debtor’s business, as goodwill, because other debtor’s real property allegedly remains constant in value; court denies request to change allocation of proceeds.