Кәсіпорынды бағалау: әдістер мен мақсаты

Business valuation is a process and a set of procedures used to estimate the economic value of an owner's interest in a business. Here various valuation techniques are used by financial market participants to determine the price they are willing to pay or receive to effect a sale of the business. In addition to estimating the selling price of a business, the same valuation tools are often used by business appraisers to resolve disputes related to estate and gift taxation, divorce litigation, allocate business purchase price among business assets, establish a formula for estimating the value of partners' ownership interest for buy sell agreements, and many other business and legal purposes such as in shareholders deadlock, divorce litigation and estate contest. Specialized business valuation credentials include the Chartered Business Valuator (CBV) offered by the CBV Institute, ASA and CEIV from the American Society of Appraisers, plus the CVA and CBA by the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts; these professionals may be known as business valuators. In some cases, the court would appoint a forensic accountant as the joint expert doing the business valuation. Here, attorneys should always be prepared to have their expert's report withstand the scrutiny of cross examination and criticism. Business valuation takes a different perspective as compared to stock valuation,

which is about calculating theoretical values of listed companies and their stocks, for the purposes of share trading and investment management. This distinction derives mainly from the use of the results: stock investors intend to profit from price movement, whereas a business owner is focused on the enterprise as a total, going concern. A second distinction is re corporate finance: when two corporates are involved, the valuation and transaction is within the realm of "mergers and acquisitions", and is managed by an investment bank, whereas in other contexts, the valuation and subsequent transactions are generally handled by a business valuator and business broker respectively.

The evidence on the market value of specific businesses varies widely, largely depending on reported market transactions in the equity of the firm. A fraction of businesses are publicly traded, meaning that their equity can be purchased and sold by investors in stock markets available to the general public. Publicly traded companies on major stock markets have an easily calculated market capitalization that is a direct estimate of the market value of the firm's equity. Some publicly traded firms have relatively few recorded trades (including many firms traded over the counter or in pink sheets). A far larger number of firms are privately held. Normally, equity interests in these firms (which include corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, and some other organizational forms) are traded privately, and often irregularly. As a result, previous transactions provide limited evidence as to the current value of a private company primarily because business value changes over time, and the share price is associated with considerable uncertainty due to limited market exposure and high transaction costs. A number of stock market indicators in the United States and other countries provide an indication of the market value of publicly traded firms. The Survey of Consumer Finance in the U. S. also includes an estimate of household ownership of stocks, including indirect ownership through mutual funds. The 2004 and 2007 SCF indicate a growing trend in stock ownership, with 51% of households indicating a direct or indirect ownership of stocks, with the majority of those respondents indicating indirect ownership through mutual funds. Few indications are available on the value of privately held firms. Anderson (2009) recently estimated the market value of U. S. privately held and publicly traded firms, using Internal Revenue Service and SCF data. He estimates that privately held firms produced more income for investors, and had more value than publicly held firms, in 2004.

Before the value of a business can be measured, the valuation assignment must specify the reason for and circumstances surrounding the business valuation. These are formally known as the business value standard and premise of value. The standard of value is the hypothetical conditions under which the business will be valued. The premise of value relates to the assumptions, such as assuming that the business will continue forever in its current form (going concern), or that the value of the business lies in the proceeds from the sale of all of its assets minus the related debt (sum of the parts or assemblage of business assets). When done correctly, a valuation should reflect the capacity of the business to match a certain market demand, as it is the only true predictor of future cash flows.

Fair market value – a value of a business enterprise determined between a willing buyer and a willing seller both in full knowledge of all the relevant facts and neither compelled to conclude a transaction. Investment value – a value the company has to a particular investor. The effect of synergy is included in valuation under the investment standard of value. Intrinsic value – the measure of business value that reflects the investor's in depth understanding of the company's economic potential.

A business valuation report generally begins with a summary of the purpose and scope of business appraisal as well as its date and stated audience. Following is then a description of national, regional and local economic conditions existing as of the valuation date, as well as the conditions of the industry in which the subject business operates. A common source of economic information for the first section of the business valuation report is the Federal Reserve Board's Beige Book, published eight times a year by the Federal Reserve Bank. State governments and industry associations also publish useful statistics describing regional and industry conditions. Valuators use these as well as other published surveys and industry reports. The net present value (NPV) for similar companies may vary depending on the country because of the different time value of money, country risk and risk free rate.

The financial statement analysis generally involves common size analysis, ratio analysis (liquidity, turnover, profitability, etc. ), trend analysis and industry comparative analysis. This permits the valuation analyst to compare the subject company to other businesses in the same or similar industry, and to discover trends affecting the company and/or the industry over time. By comparing a company's financial statements in different time periods, the valuation expert can view growth or decline in revenues or expenses, changes in capital structure, or other financial trends. How the subject company compares to the industry will help with the risk assessment and ultimately help determine the discount rate and the selection of market multiples. It is important to mention that among the financial statements, the primary statement to show the liquidity of the company is cash flow. Cash flow shows the company's cash in and out flow.

The key objective of normalization is to identify the ability of the business to generate income for its owners. A measure of the income is the amount of cash flow that the owners can remove from the business without adversely affecting its operations. The most common normalization adjustments fall into the following four categories:
Comparability adjustments. The valuer may adjust the subject company's financial statements to facilitate a comparison between the subject company and other businesses in the same industry or geographic location. These adjustments are intended to eliminate differences between the way that published industry data is presented and the way that the subject company's data is presented in its financial statements. Non operating adjustments. It is reasonable to assume that if a business were sold in a hypothetical sales transaction (which is the underlying premise of the fair market value standard), the seller would retain any assets which were not related to the production of earnings or price those non operating assets separately. For this reason, non operating assets (such as excess cash) are usually eliminated from the balance sheet. Non recurring adjustments. The subject company's financial statements may be affected by events that are not expected to recur, such as the purchase or sale of assets, a lawsuit, or an unusually large revenue or expense. These non recurring items are adjusted so that the financial statements will better reflect the management's expectations of future performance. Discretionary adjustments. The owners of private companies may be paid at variance from the market level of compensation that similar executives in the industry might command. In order to determine fair market value, the owner's compensation, benefits, perquisites and distributions must be adjusted to industry standards. Similarly, the rent paid by the subject business for the use of property owned by the company's owners individually may be scrutinized.

In asset based analysis the value of a business is equal to the sum of its assets. The values of these assets must be adjusted to fair market value wherever possible. The value of a company's intangible assets, such as goodwill, is generally impossible to determine apart from the company's overall enterprise value (see tangible common equity). For this reason, the asset based approach is not the most probative method of determining the value of going business concerns. In these cases, the asset based approach yields a result that is probably less than the fair market value of the business. The asset based approach is the entry barrier value and should preferably be used in businesses having mature or declining growth cycle, and is more suitable for a capital intensive industry. In considering an asset based approach, the valuation professional must consider whether the shareholder whose interest is being valued would have any authority to access the value of the assets directly. Shareholders own shares in a corporation, but not its assets, which are owned by the corporation. A controlling shareholder may have the authority to direct the corporation to sell all or part of the assets it owns and to distribute the proceeds to the shareholders. The non controlling shareholder, however, lacks this authority and cannot access the value of the assets. As a result, the value of a corporation's assets is not the true indicator of value to a shareholder who cannot avail himself of that value. Adjusted net book value may be the most relevant standard of value where liquidation is imminent or ongoing; where a company earnings or cash flow are nominal, negative or worth less than its assets; or where net book value is standard in the industry in which the company operates. The adjusted net book value may also be used as a "sanity check" when compared to other methods of valuation, such as the income and market approaches.

Besides mathematical approaches for the valuation of companies a rather unknown method includes also the cultural aspect. The so called "cultural valuation method" (cultural due diligence) seeks to combine existing knowledge, motivation and internal culture with the results of a net asset value method. Especially during a company takeover uncovering hidden problems is of high importance for a later success of the business venture.

The market approach to business valuation is rooted in the economic principle of competition: that in a free market the supply and demand forces will drive the price of business assets to a certain equilibrium. Buyers would not pay more for the business, and the sellers will not accept less, than the price of a comparable business enterprise. The buyers and sellers are assumed to be equally well informed and acting in their own interests to conclude a transaction. It is similar in many respects to the comparable sales method that is commonly used in real estate appraisal. The market price of the stocks of publicly traded companies engaged in the same or a similar line of business, whose shares are actively traded in a free and open market, can be a valid indicator of value when the transactions in which stocks are traded are sufficiently similar to permit meaningful comparison. The difficulty lies in identifying public companies that are sufficiently comparable to the subject company for this purpose. Also, as for a private company, the equity is less liquid (in other words its stocks are less easy to buy or sell) than for a public company, its value is considered to be slightly lower than such a market based valuation would give. When there is a lack of comparison with direct competition, a meaningful alternative could be a vertical value chain approach where the subject company is compared with, for example, a known downstream industry to have a good feel of its value by building useful correlations with its downstream companies. Such comparison often reveals useful insights which help business analysts better understand performance relationship between the subject company and its downstream industry. For example, if a growing subject company is in an industry more concentrated than its downstream industry with a high degree of interdependence, one should logically expect the subject company performs better than the downstream industry in terms of growth, margins and risk.

The guideline public company method entails a comparison of the subject company to publicly traded companies. The comparison is generally based on published data regarding the public companies' stock prices and earnings, sales, or revenues, which is expressed as a fraction known as a multiple. If the guideline public companies are sufficiently similar to each other and the subject company to permit a meaningful comparison, then their multiples should be similar. The public companies identified for comparison purposes should be similar to the subject company in terms of industry, product lines, market, growth, margins and risk. However, if the subject company is privately owned, its value must be adjusted for lack of marketability. This is usually represented by a discount, or a percentage reduction in the value of the company when compared to its publicly traded counterparts. This reflects the higher risk associated with holding stock in a private company. The difference in value can be quantified by applying a discount for lack of marketability. This discount is determined by studying prices paid for shares of ownership in private companies that eventually offer their stock in a public offering. Alternatively, the lack of marketability can be assessed by comparing the prices paid for restricted shares to fully marketable shares of stock of public companies.

As above, in certain cases equity may be valued by applying the techniques and frameworks developed for financial options, via a real options framework. In general, equity may be viewed as a call option on the firm, and this allows for the valuation of troubled firms which may otherwise be difficult to analyse. The classic application of this approach is to the valuation of distressed securities, already discussed in the original Black–Scholes paper. Equity valuations here, may thus proceed likewise. A common application is to natural resource investments. Here, the underlying asset is the resource itself; the value of the asset is a function of both quantity of resource available and the price of the resource in question. The value of the resource is then the difference between the value of the asset and the cost associated with developing the resource. Where positive, "in the money", management will undertake the development, and will not do so otherwise, and a resource project is thus effectively a call option. A resource firm may therefore also be analysed using the options approach. Specifically, the value of the firm comprises the value of already active projects determined via DCF valuation (or other standard techniques) and undeveloped reserves as analysed using the real options framework. Product patents may also be valued as options, and the value of firms holding these patents—typically firms in the bio science, technology, and pharmaceutical sectors—can similarly be viewed as the sum of the value of products in place and the portfolio of patents yet to be deployed. As regards the option analysis, since the patent provides the firm with the right to develop the product, it will do so only if the present value of the expected cash flows from the product exceeds the cost of development, and the patent rights thus correspond to a call option. Similar analysis may be applied to options on films (or other works of intellectual property) and the valuation of film studios.

The valuation approaches yield the fair market value of the company as a whole. In valuing a minority, non controlling interest in a business, however, the valuation professional must consider the applicability of discounts that affect such interests. Discussions of discounts and premiums frequently begin with a review of the levels of value. There are three common levels of value: controlling interest, marketable minority, and non marketable minority. The intermediate level, marketable minority interest, is less than the controlling interest level and higher than the non marketable minority interest level. The marketable minority interest level represents the perceived value of equity interests that are freely traded without any restrictions. These interests are generally traded on the New York Stock Exchange, AMEX, NASDAQ, and other exchanges where there is a ready market for equity securities. These values represent a minority interest in the subject companies—small blocks of stock that represent less than 50% of the company's equity, and usually much less than 50%. Controlling interest level is the value that an investor would be willing to pay to acquire more than 50% of a company's stock, thereby gaining the attendant prerogatives of control. Some of the prerogatives of control include: electing directors, hiring and firing the company's management and determining their compensation; declaring dividends and distributions, determining the company's strategy and line of business, and acquiring, selling or liquidating the business. This level of value generally contains a control premium over the intermediate level of value, which typically ranges from 25% to 50%. An additional premium may be paid by strategic investors who are motivated by synergistic motives. Non marketable, minority level is the lowest level on the chart, representing the level at which non controlling equity interests in private companies are generally valued or traded. This level of value is discounted because no ready market exists in which to purchase or sell interests. Private companies are less "liquid" than publicly traded companies, and transactions in private companies take longer and are more uncertain. Between the intermediate and lowest levels of the chart, there are restricted shares of publicly traded companies. Despite a growing inclination of the IRS and tax courts to challenge valuation discounts, Shannon Pratt suggested in a scholarly presentation recently that valuation discounts are actually increasing as the differences between public and private companies is widening. Publicly traded stocks have grown more liquid in the past decade due to rapid electronic trading, reduced commissions, and governmental deregulation. These developments have not improved the liquidity of interests in private companies, however. Valuation discounts are multiplicative, so they must be considered in order. Control premiums and their inverse, minority interest discounts, are considered before marketability discounts are applied.

The first discount that must be considered is the discount for lack of control, which in this instance is also a minority interest discount. Minority interest discounts are the inverse of control premiums, to which the following mathematical relationship exists: MID = 1 – [1 / (1 + CP)] The most common source of data regarding control premiums is the Control Premium Study, published annually by Mergerstat since 1972. Mergerstat compiles data regarding publicly announced mergers, acquisitions and divestitures involving 10% or more of the equity interests in public companies, where the purchase price is $1 million or more and at least one of the parties to the transaction is a U. S. entity. Mergerstat defines the "control premium" as the percentage difference between the acquisition price and the share price of the freely traded public shares five days prior to the announcement of the M&A transaction. While it is not without valid criticism, Mergerstat control premium data (and the minority interest discount derived therefrom) is widely accepted within the valuation profession.

A "discount for lack of marketability" (DLOM) may be applied to a minority block of stock to alter the valuation of that block. Another factor to be considered in valuing closely held companies is the marketability of an interest in such businesses. Marketability is defined as the ability to convert the business interest into cash quickly, with minimum transaction and administrative costs, and with a high degree of certainty as to the amount of net proceeds. There is usually a cost and a time lag associated with locating interested and capable buyers of interests in privately held companies, because there is no established market of readily available buyers and sellers. All other factors being equal, an interest in a publicly traded company is worth more because it is readily marketable. Conversely, an interest in a private held company is worth less because no established market exists. "The IRS Valuation Guide for Income, Estate and Gift Taxes, Valuation Training for Appeals Officers" acknowledges the relationship between value and marketability, stating: "Investors prefer an asset which is easy to sell, that is, liquid." The discount for lack of control is separate and distinguishable from the discount for lack of marketability. It is the valuation professional's task to quantify the lack of marketability of an interest in a privately held company. Because, in this case, the subject interest is not a controlling interest in the company, and the owner of that interest cannot compel liquidation to convert the subject interest to cash quickly, and no established market exists on which that interest could be sold, the discount for lack of marketability is appropriate.

Several empirical studies have been published that attempt to quantify the discount for lack of marketability. These studies include the restricted stock studies and the pre IPO studies. The aggregate of these studies indicate average discounts of 35% and 50%, respectively. Some experts believe the lack of control and marketability discounts can aggregate discounts for as much as ninety percent of a company's fair market value, specifically with family owned companies.

Restricted stocks are equity securities of public companies that are similar in all respects to the freely traded stocks of those companies except that they carry a restriction that prevents them from being traded on the open market for a certain period of time, which is usually one year (two years prior to 1990). This restriction from active trading, which amounts to a lack of marketability, is the only distinction between the restricted stock and its freely traded counterpart. Restricted stock can be traded in private transactions and usually do so at a discount. The restricted stock studies attempt to verify the difference in price at which the restricted shares trade versus the price at which the same unrestricted securities trade in the open market as of the same date. The underlying data by which these studies arrived at their conclusions has not been made public. Consequently, it is not possible when valuing a particular company to compare the characteristics of that company to the study data. Still, the existence of a marketability discount has been recognized by valuation professionals and the courts, and the restricted stock studies are frequently cited as empirical evidence. Notably, the lowest average discount reported by these studies was 26% and the highest average discount was 40%.

In addition to the restricted stock studies, U. S. publicly traded companies are able to sell stock to offshore investors (SEC Regulation S, enacted in 1990) without registering the shares with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The offshore buyers may resell these shares in the United States, still without having to register the shares, after holding them for just 40 days. Typically, these shares are sold for 20% to 30% below the publicly traded share price. Some of these transactions have been reported with discounts of more than 30%, resulting from the lack of marketability. These discounts are similar to the marketability discounts inferred from the restricted and pre IPO studies, despite the holding period being just 40 days. Studies based on the prices paid for options have also confirmed similar discounts. If one holds restricted stock and purchases an option to sell that stock at the market price (a put), the holder has, in effect, purchased marketability for the shares. The price of the put is equal to the marketability discount. The range of marketability discounts derived by this study was 32% to 49%. However, ascribing the entire value of a put option to marketability is misleading, because the primary source of put value comes from the downside price protection. A correct economic analysis would use deeply in the money puts or single stock futures, demonstrating that marketability of restricted stock is of low value because it is easy to hedge using unrestricted stock or futures trades.

Another approach to measure the marketability discount is to compare the prices of stock offered in initial public offerings (IPOs) to transactions in the same company's stocks prior to the IPO. Companies that are going public are required to disclose all transactions in their stocks for a period of three years prior to the IPO. The pre IPO studies are the leading alternative to the restricted stock stocks in quantifying the marketability discount. The pre IPO studies are sometimes criticized because the sample size is relatively small, the pre IPO transactions may not be arm's length, and the financial structure and product lines of the studied companies may have changed during the three year pre IPO window.

The studies confirm what the marketplace knows intuitively: Investors covet liquidity and loathe obstacles that impair liquidity. Prudent investors buy illiquid investments only when there is a sufficient discount in the price to increase the rate of return to a level which brings risk reward back into balance. The referenced studies establish a reasonable range of valuation discounts from the mid 30%s to the low 50%s. The more recent studies appeared to yield a more conservative range of discounts than older studies, which may have suffered from smaller sample sizes. Another method of quantifying the lack of marketability discount is the quantifying marketability discounts model (QMDM).