Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Business valuation'

Background:

In Sweden Internet was introduced in 1983 and IT became a popular phe-nomenon in the 1990s. In the middle of this decade IT-companies had a prosperous period. Many companies acquired competitors frequently dur-ing these years in order to build brand names and stay competitive. More than 400 IT-companies went bankrupt during 2001, due to the burst of the IT-bubble. Today, there is no doubt that IT-companies are willing to acquire other companies in the industry. Before an acquisition both the purchaser and seller do a careful valuation of the current company, using different valuation methods. Lately, there are some IT-companies in the area of Jönköping and its surroundings that have carried out acquisitions.

Purpose:

In this thesis IT-companies in the area of Jönköping are considered in or-der to describe what valuation methods that are used when valuing these before an acquisition. Intangible assets are of great importance for this in-dustry. Therefore the aim is also to find out which these are and how they are valued.

Method:

In order to fulfill the purpose a qualitative research is maintained. Primary data is collected from two telephone interviews and six face-to-face inter-views. Three of the interviews are conducted with people working at IT-companies that have carried out an acquisition between 2006 and 2008. The other interviews were performed with people working with business valuation on a daily basis.

Conclusion:

When valuing IT-companies as well as the intangible assets, where good-will is significant due to synergies, the net present value approach is most commonly used. The relative valuation approach is also useful, especially for companies in the early phase of the life cycle since these do not show any historical facts. Within the IT-industry; P/S, P/E, and value per em-ployee, are all useful. The net asset value approach is the most common before a direct acquisition. In this research indirect acquisitions are most often applied.

Bakgrund:

I Sverige introducerades internet 1983 och IT blev ett populärt fenomen under 1990-talet. I mitten av decenniet hade IT-företagen en blomstrande period. Många företag förvärvade konkurrenter ofta för att skapa varu-märke och fortsätta vara konkurrenskraftiga. Över 400 IT-företag gick i konkurs under 2001 på grund av IT-bubblan. Idag är det ingen tvekan om att IT-företag är villiga att förvärva andra företag i denna industri. Innan ett förvärv genomför både förvärvaren och säljaren en noggrann värdering av det aktuella företaget med användning av olika värderingsmetoder. Det finns några IT-företag i Jönköpingsregionen som genomfört företagsför-värv på sista tiden.

Syfte:

Syftet i denna uppsats är att beskriva vilka värderingsmetoder IT-företag i Jönköpingsregionen använder vid värdering innan ett företagsförvärv. Immateriella tillgångar är viktiga i denna industri. Därför är syftet även att identifiera dessa och se hur de värderas.

Metod:

För att uppfylla syftet används en kvalitativ metod. Primärdata är insamlad från två telefonintervjuer och de andra sex på intervjuobjektens kontor. Tre intervjuer genomfördes med personer som arbetar på IT-företag som genomfört företagsförvärv mellan 2006 och 2008. De andra intervjuerna genomfördes med personer som arbetar med företagsvärdering dagligen.

Slutsats:

Vid värdering av IT-företag såväl som de immateriella tillgångarna, främst goodwill tack vare synergier, används i första hand avkastningsvärdering. Relativvärdering är också användbar, särskilt för företag i det tidiga skedet av livscykeln då ingen historisk information finns att tillgå. Inom IT-industrin är; P/S, P/E och värde per anställd, alla användbara. Substans-värdering är vanligast vid ett direkt förvärv. I denna studie är indirekta förvärv oftast förekommande.

Bakgrund

Majoriteten av alla svenska företag är familjeföretag. Forskning inom området har inte bedrivits i någon större utsträckning förrän på senare år. Därtill kommer att forskning inom värdering av familjeföretag är närmast obefintlig. Familjeföretag skiljer sig på många sätt från icke-familjeföretag, t.ex. när det gäller kultur, ägande och ledning. Härav finns det anledning att tro att familjeföretag värderas annorlunda än icke-familjeföretag.

Syfte med uppsatsen

Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva hur värdering av familjeföretag går till från ett uppköpande företags synvinkel.

Metod

För att utföra denna uppsats har ett kvalitativt, hermeneutiskt tillvägagångssätt använts för att förstå helheten av fenomenet familjeföretags värdering. Vi har genomfört en fallstudie bestående av tre familjeföretags uppköp gjorda av Företag X som noggrant har studerats.

Slutsats

När ett familjeföretag värderas är det avgörande att ha erfarenhet, branschkännedom, intuition och framför allt kunskap och erfarenhet om familjeföretag. De immateriella tillgångarna i ett familjeföretag, som till exempel rykte, kultur och kunskap bidrar tillsammans med olika värderingsmodeller till ett rättvist värde av familjeföretaget.

Background

The vast majority of all Swedish companies are family businesses. Research within the field of family businesses has not until recent years been developed. Moreover, the research regarding valuation of family businesses is close to non-existing. Family businesses differ in many ways from non-family businesses, for example when it comes to culture, ownership and management. Hence, there is a possibility that family businesses are valuated differently from non-family businesses.

Purpose of this thesis

The purpose with this thesis is to describe how valuation of family businesses is done from the perspective of an acquiring company.

Method

For this thesis a qualitative, hermeneutic approach was applied in order to understand the whole picture of the valuation of the family business phenomenon. A case study approach was carried out by carefully studying three acquisitions of small private family businesses in the service sector made by Company X.

Conclusions

The crucial skills to possess are experience, industry knowledge, intuition and most of all family business knowledge and experience when determining a fair value of a family business. The intangible assets of a family business, for instance reputation, culture and knowledge, together with different valuation methods contribute to the estimation of the value of a family business.

Internet business valuation is a challenge because internet business has unique features and thus, needs to consider other issues than the traditional income statement and balance sheet numbers. Furthermore, many of the internet companies have generated negative accounting income in spite of extraordinarily high stock price. Given these circumstances, the advanced valuation model for internet business with consideration of the high growth potential capacity is apparently needed. This paper is designed primarily to review previous researches on the corporate valuation models as the theoretical background and then to select a possibly best suited valuation model for internet business among the presented models. Secondly, I apply the selected valuation model to two Swedish and two Korean leading internet businesses in order to check out the reliability of this valuation model as the empirical study. When it comes to the internet business, both countries have a pretty good internet infrastructure and a high internet penetration in both private life and business environment. Therefore, it could be interesting to compare how different the value of internet companies which have such common conditions is estimated with each other. For the empirical study, I employ the adjusted DCF valuation model and select four internet companies. Two Swedish internet Companies – Net on Net and Unibet - and two Korean internet companies – Interpark and Neowiz – are selected and each company is listed on the respective stock exchange – OMXS and KOSDAQ. The adjusted DCF valuation model is the traditional DCF model with capitalization of R&D costs and marketing expenses as investments. the adjusted DCF valuation model suits best for the valuation of the selected internet companies since they are online gambling provider and online retailer which put large sums in marketing expenditures. This intensive marketing effort in the end contributes to the high future growth. In this sense, the marketing expenditures should be considered as investment rather than costs. By the calculation of the NPV and the comparison with the stock price, I found that the companies with the high growth potential generate the higher NPV than the value derived from the stock price. On the other hand, the NPV of the companies with the moderate growth rate and the mature market situation remains at the almost same level of the stock price value. This empirical result shows that the adjusted DCF model gives the reasonable number and so indicates the high forecast capacity. Except Net on Net of which the NPV seems to be too high, the NPVs of the companies are well-consistent with the present stock price and the stock price change.

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the methods used for valuating private limited knowledge based companies and if a new approach is required, create or modify a foundation that will constitute as a base within the valuation process.

Method This is a qualitative study using interviews to obtain primary data. People working in the valuation industry were contacted and we got eight respondents. The questions were designed to answer our purpose and research questions. Telephone interviews were chosen due to the fact that we believed the response would be higher.     

Frame of References The theories used in this section is divided into three parts; the financial analysis including traditional valuating methods such as the Discounted Cash Flow model and relative valuating and multiples. The non-financial analysis focus on the underlying analysis consistent of structural- and intellectual capital and also value drivers that are creating value for the firm. In the end other theories concerning the analysis are presented, such as the risk-return trade-off, risk rating systems and analytical hierarchy process.            

Empirical Findings In this section the presentations of the respondents’ answers and

and Analysis a brief analysis related to each question. After this an extended analysis is presented focusing on the subject and our risk scheme and guidelines we created/modified. The extended analysis is connected to the respondents’ answers. The purpose of this section is to have a better understanding about the risk of transient intellectual capital and give recommendations how to handle it. Also, guidelines of how to weight different value driver are discussed.

Conclusion We concluded that all valuations utilize more than one approach in order to estimate the most accurate value for the company. For knowledge based companies the biggest risk with a M&A transaction is the probability of diminishing the intellectual capital. We constructed a model that will manage this risk based on our interviews and established theories.

This thesis is concerned with exploring the equity market price discovery process, the translation and incorporation of new information into stock prices, by studying both what information is included in this process and which valuation methods are used to translate that information into a value.

The overarching research question posed in this thesis is: How is equity valued? The overarching question is broad and has been divided into the following sub questions:

What valuation methods do companies use when valuing takeover targets?

What valuation methods do sell-side analysts use when valuing equity?

What factors explain the variation in the use of valuation methods by sell-side analysts?

To what extent do sell-side analysts utilize non-financial information in their reports?

These questions are addressed in four separate essays. Findings of the thesis emphasized that valuation behavior is contextual to several specific circumstances. Findings showed that companies valuing takeover targets used sophisticated valuation methods to a higher extent than did sell-side analysts. Findings also showed systematic differences in the choice of valuation methods among sell-side analysts.

With regards to the use of non-financial information and information on Intellectual Capital this thesis showed that the context of the target firm dictates which information is relevant for predicting future performance, and hence is used by analysts. Additionally, the accessibility of information is an important factor affecting what information is used in the valuation process.

Understanding the valuation behavior of the different actors on the capital market is to understand the pricing process of the market, and as such the contribution of this thesis has been to shed more light on the cornerstone of market efficiency- the ability of market actors to identify and buy (sell) under priced (over priced) stocks.

Background: Today, an increased need to value patents is expressed in several different situations. For example, banks more frequently accept patents as collateral for loans and patents are being exchanged more often between companies. It is argued that a hindrance for the recognition of the value of patents, and other assets lacking physical form, is that the current methods of valuation are not developed for this type of assets.

Purpose: Our objective is to investigate the practical relevance of four theoretical valuation approaches in the context of patent valuation and to point out crucial factors affecting the choice of valuation approach.

Procedure: Interviews were conducted with professionals working in the field of corporate finance and with an expert in the field of patents and intellectual property rights.

Results: The respondents are not of the same opinion whether relevant approaches for patent valuation exist at all. Among the respondents who find it possible to value patents, the income approach is the dominating approach. The theoretical correctness of this approach, derived from the definition of value, is stressed as the primary argument for the use of it. Methods such as Decision Tree Analysis, within the income approach, and Relief from Royalty, a hybrid of the market- and income approach, are used as complements.

This paper examines the possible relationship the earnings yield and long term government bond yield for a number of emerging markets. An adjusted Fed-model is used to judge whether stock prices are too high, too low or at their fair value. The paper examines the relationship between return, earnings yield and long term government bond yield as proposed by the adjusted Fedmodel. The difference between the earnings yield and real bond yield is a shorthand measure for expected returns and I examine the predictive power of this measure by regression analysis. The results show that, when it comes to forecasting returns, the model fails.