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Analysing, Planning
and Valuing
Private Firms
New Approaches to
Corporate Finance
Federico Beltrame
Alex Sclip
Analysing, Planning and Valuing Private Firms
Federico Beltrame · Alex Sclip
Analysing, Planning
and Valuing Private
Firms
New Approaches to Corporate Finance
Federico Beltrame Alex Sclip
Department of Economics Department of Management
and Statistics University of Verona
University of Udine Verona, Italy
Udine, Italy
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither
the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Introduction
Every asset and firm has a value. One of the goals of corporate finance is
to analyze and value companies and their assets. Corporate finance text-
books usually focus on the valuation of firms and assets traded in public
markets. However, over the past decade, the number of private companies
and the amount of private investments have risen, while the number of
public listed firms has been falling since 1997 (Gupta and Van Nieuwer-
burgh, 2021). As the fraction of wealth in the form of private investments
is growing, the importance of developing and applying appropriate valu-
ation techniques is increasing. This book aims to provide a framework
for the valuation of private corporations. Starting from the analysis of
financial statements to understand where value comes from, to the appli-
cation of valuation methods, this book tries to provide a list of tools
and techniques to solve practical application drawbacks. Regarding the
financial statement analysis, despite the consolidated use of financial ratios
and scores, sometimes it is difficult to provide a complete picture of the
company’s economic, financial, and strategic dynamics. The process of
valuing private companies is not different from the process of valuing
public companies. The present value is computed by discounting future
cash flows with a proper rate that reflects the riskiness of the cash flows.
However, when applying valuation techniques to private companies, there
are two standard problems to overcome: the financial statements for
private firms are likely to go back fewer years and have less detail; there
v
vi INTRODUCTION
is no market value for either debt or equity. In this book, we try to over-
come these two criticalities by proposing some approaches to (1) forecast
revenues, margins, and cash flows; (2) estimate the cost of capital for
private corporations. Then we also provide a framework on how to use
relative valuation techniques (multiple) that despite their simplicity hide
some pitfalls in the application.
The structure of the book is as follows. The first chapter is devoted
to financial analysis through ratios and cash flows. The key to success-
fully investing and managing a business lies in understanding the sources
of value. Financial analysis is the key to this aim. We focus our attention
on how to organize financial statements, and how to analyze a compa-
ny’s economic, financial, and strategic situation. In doing so, we provide
a different configuration of the monetary cycle which is better able to
catch the financial needs dynamics. We also provide a way to organize
and conduct ratio and cash flow analysis properly.
The estimation of future cash flows is one of the key ingredients in
the valuation process. The second chapter is related to forecasting tech-
niques. More in detail, we provide a different way to plan future firm/
investment projects operating revenues by exploiting the concept of the
financial break-even. The second key input in any valuation process is the
cost of capital. The estimation of this input is difficult in the case of private
companies. In the third chapter, we present a novel way to estimate the
cost of capital of private corporations, which is based on some practical
steps and on credit scoring systems.
Relative valuation techniques allow us to avoid some shortcomings in
the application of traditional valuation methods on private companies.
For this reason, the private equity industry and many practitioners largely
use this approach. While a multiple approach is a convenient valuation
method, it has many common pitfalls. In chapter four, we explore the
mechanics of multiples, when and how to use different types of multiples,
and we present a way on how to adjust the comparable firm value to
properly adapt the risk-return profile of comparable companies to the firm
under valuation.
The last chapter wraps up the notions provided in the four main chap-
ters of the book by providing an application of the methods in the context
of start-up valuation.
We believe that the tools provided in this book can be useful for
practitioners and for stimulating the debate among academics on the
topic.
INTRODUCTION vii
Reference
Gupta, A., & Van Nieuwerburgh, S. (2021). Valuing private equity investments
strip by strip. The Journal of Finance, 76(6), 3255–3307.
Contents
ix
x CONTENTS
References 92
4 Business Valuation Through Market Multiples 93
4.1 Introduction 93
4.2 The Key Multiples 94
4.3 The Evaluation Process 100
4.4 The Critical Issues with Comparability in the Use
of Multiples 101
4.4.1 A Conceptual Outline 101
4.4.2 Adjustments by Growth Profile 103
4.4.3 Adjustments by Debt Level 107
4.4.4 Adjustments by Growth Rate and Debt Level 110
4.5 The Issues Relating to the Calculation of the Single
Multiple 111
4.6 Specific Features of Stock-Market Multiples 113
4.7 Using the Multiples Approach: Final Considerations 115
Appendix: The Unlevered Value Maps: An Empirical
Evaluation 116
References 123
5 Conclusions—Putting All Together for Valuing
a Start-Up 125
5.1 Introduction 125
5.2 Start-Up Capital Structure, Expected Cash Flows,
and Cost of Capital 126
5.3 Start-Up Valuation Process 130
5.4 Focusing of the Venture Capital Method 131
5.5 Conclusions 132
References 133
References 135
Index 137
List of Figures
xiii
xiv LIST OF FIGURES
xv
xvi LIST OF TABLES
1.1 Introduction
Aim of financial statement analysis. Financial statements—the income
statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows—do not promote
easy insights into firm operating performance and value. The balance
sheet mixes together operating and nonoperating assets and different
sources of financing. In a similar way, the income statement combines
operating profits, nonoperating profits, amortization and depreciation
of fixed assets, and interest expenses. The first step for analyzing the
economic and financial dynamics of a corporate business is to reorganize
financial data properly. In this chapter, we present financial statements
organizing techniques and financial ratios useful for company anal-
ysis from different perspectives: credit rating, self-assessment tools, and
company valuation.
Chapter aims and analyses. This chapter illustrates the two main
balance sheet reorganizing techniques (asset liquidity/liability maturity
and by-function balance sheet) and income statement schemes (value-
added and contribution margin methods)—Then the chapter moves on to
the analysis of the economic-financial dynamics through the main finan-
cial statement ratios and cash flows. Alongside the traditional analyses
using main ratios—such as ROE or leverage—the chapter emphasizes the
existing link between the working capital and the monetary cycle. The
monetary cycle is calculated in a different way, considering not only the
commercial component but also the other operating debts within the
debt-payment deadlines. In this way, the analyst can carry out a more
complete examination of corporate debt and overcome the critical issues
that come from reading the commercial monetary cycle. The chapter ends
with the analysis of financial flows, placing emphasis not only on the
preparation of the financial statement but also on how cash was generated
and used.
• Short-Term (ST) or current assets, i.e., all company assets that will
potentially turn into cash within 12 months and—to a residual
extent—fixed assets.
1 CORPORATE FINANCIAL ANALYSIS 3
Table 1.1 shows the most relevant balance sheet items to be considered
in the various aggregates.
Asset items. The assets are divided into ST assets and fixed assets. The
ST assets are then further divided into two main categories:
Assets Liabilities
(continued)
1 CORPORATE FINANCIAL ANALYSIS 5
Assets Liabilities
Equity capital
• Shareholders capital
• Reserves
• Retained earnings and earnings for
the FY
Total assets Total liabilities
through the cash liquidity produced or that can be produced in the next
12 months (credit collection, sale of inventory goods). From a practi-
tioner perspective, the analysis can be done by calculating two ratios. The
first—commonly known as the current ratio—is obtained by dividing ST
assets with ST liabilities. If this ratio is equal to or greater than zero, it
indicates a situation in which the company can meet its ST obligations
with the cash liquidity it either has already produced or will produce.
The second ratio—quick ratio—can be calculated by dividing ST assets
net of inventory (ST assets − Inventory) to ST liabilities. If this ratio is
equal to or greater than zero, it suggests that more liquid assets can repay
ST liabilities. The reorganization of the balance sheet with the distinc-
tion between assets and liabilities based on a predetermined maturity rule
does not provide a tool to understand the underlying financial dynamics
of a company. As a matter of fact, operating and nonoperating assets and
liabilities are not reorganized by-function. The analysis of asset liquidity
and liability maturity is more appropriate in the case of a valuation of a
ceasing business in which the analyst has to recognize the liquidation time
of assets and maturity of liabilities.
and sources of financing. This often requires searching through the notes
to separate accounts that aggregate operating and nonoperating items.
Although this task seems tedious, it is crucial to provide a more accurate
picture of the company statement and serve as a valuable base to: analyze
the operating efficiency and performance, cash flow analysis, and forecast
techniques for valuation methods.
The reorganization process starts with the identification of operating
and nonoperating items, then proceeds with the distinction between fixed
and current items.1 Fixed assets are linked to capital expenditures and
refer to the operational structure of a company, i.e., property plant and
equipment. Current assets refer to investments related to the produc-
tion cycle (purchase, transformation, and sale) that generate costs and
revenues whose monetary consequences have yet to take place. They
are represented by the net operating working capital (inventories plus
receivables minus payables). On the liability side, the reorganization iden-
tifies the origin of funding: equity capital, medium-long-term financial
debt, and short-term financial debt. Financial debts are classified based
on their maturity, because revolving facilities (short-term debt) usually
serve to finance networking capital expenditures, whereas medium-long-
term liabilities usually serve as a financing instrument for fixed capital
expenditures. A more detailed description of the areas that can be iden-
tified through the reorganization of the balance sheet is provided in the
following lines.
Surplus assets. This area includes all investments in nonoperating
assets (not related to the core business of a company), such as, for
example: residential real estate, equity investments, and liquidity in excess.
The purpose of surplus asset investments differs from those related to
the operating company business and, therefore, they are not necessary to
carry out the production process. This area includes the purchase choice
of real estate for lease or residential use (if the company is not in the
construction industry); the purchase and management choice of finan-
cial assets like government bonds, short-term deposits, and investments
in funds; and purchase choices related to the high cash balance. In this
last case, many analysts prefer to offset cash and cash equivalents from
financial debt by quantifying the so-called net financial position (short-
term and long-term financial debt minus cash and equivalents). Equity
1 Current refers to the connection with ordinary company operations; it does not refer
to any temporal value.
1 CORPORATE FINANCIAL ANALYSIS 7
investments that are not defined as “strategic” also fall within this area, as
they relate to companies operating in sectors that differ from those of the
examined company.
Fixed capital investments. To undertake its production cycle, each
company requires an operating structure resulting from the initial acqui-
sition of the tangible, intangible, and financial assets necessary to carry
out the production process. From a financial point of view, investments
in fixed capital require financial resources. Therefore, we define “fixed
capital” as the set of financial resources necessary to establish, expand,
or improve the company’s production cycle. Since fixed capital is of long-
term nature, it should be financed through liabilities of a similar maturity:
equity capital and M/LT financial liabilities.
Fixed capital is the sum of:
2 The historical cost is the cost sustained for purchasing the fixed investment.
8 F. BELTRAME AND A. SCLIP
Table 1.2 presents a detailed scheme of the specific asset and liability
items. For simplicity the scheme does not report surplus assets.
The configuration of total investments. By reclassifying the balance
sheet according to the by-function model, it is possible to identify
three configurations of total investments. The first is equivalent to the
sum of all assets. The second—Net Capital Employed—is the capital
spent to cover the company’s needs, which result from the company’s
assets net of working payables. This second configuration is formed
by surplus asset investments, investments in fixed capital, net operating
work capital and cash and equivalents. The third—Net Operating Capital
Employed (NOCE) or Invested capital (IC)—is the capital spent to
finance the company’s core operations. This third configuration is formed
by the sum of all investments in fixed capital and the net operating work
capital.
Assets Liabilities
+ Operating revenues
+ Other current operating revenues
= Revenues total
+ Costs of raw materials and consumables
+ Changes in raw-material inventory
− (Changes in work-in-progress inventory)
− (Capitalized costs)
= Cost of goods sold
+ Costs of services
+ Lease payments
+ Risk provisioning
= Cost of services
Value added (Revenues total – Cost of goods sold – Cost of services)
= Cost of labor
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization: EBITDA (Value
added – Cost of labor)
+ Depreciation/amortization of tangible fixed assets
+ Depreciation/amortization of intangible fixed assets
= Depreciation and amortization
Earnings before interest and taxes EBIT (EBITDA − Depreciation/amortization)
+ Interest income
− Interest expense
= Net financial charges
Operating profit (EBIT − Net financial charges)
+ Other non-recurring revenues
− Impairment of fixed assets
− Impairment of receivables
− Balance of value adjustments of financial assets and liabilities
± Other extra-ordinary revenues/charges
= Extra-ordinary items
Gross income (Operating profit + Extra-ordinary items)
− Income taxes
Net income (Gross total – Income taxes)
8 avril 1915.
28 avril 1915.
4 mai 1915.
Les trams circulent presque vides ; les rues sont de plus en plus
désertes. Avec cela, un printemps adorable. Sur les branches des
arbres fruitiers, les fleurs grimpent les unes sur les autres ; les
branches ont de grosses touffes d’un blanc exquis et parfumé, et il y
a tant, tant d’oiseaux qui chantent sur les arbres des avenues et
dans les jardins, derrière les maisons brûlées et abandonnées !
Comme leurs propriétaires, à l’étranger, doivent y penser
maintenant ! Je crois qu’on entend mieux les oiseaux parce que les
rues sont plus silencieuses, et peut-être aussi parce que nous
n’avons pas encore entendu une note de musique depuis l’invasion
et que le moindre son harmonieux, après les discussions sur la
guerre par ces voix rudes et âpres des Flamands, caresse notre
oreille charmée et surprise.
Derrière chez nous, il y a un merle qui a le langage le plus
spirituel, le plus expressif, en même temps que le plus
délicieusement modulé. Ah ! la chère créature ! si je pouvais la
prendre dans le creux de la main et lui gratter doucement la tête, en
signe de reconnaissance ! Toutes les bêtes aiment qu’on leur gratte
la tête : si le merle se laissait faire une fois, il y reviendrait, et pour
moi ce serait une grande joie.
5 mai 1915.
22 mai 1915.
30 mai 1915.
30 mai 1915.
Le dindon domestique, tout blanc, se pavane, la queue en
éventail, les plumes ébouriffées, tout son être hérissé, devant le
treillage derrière lequel se trouve, le cou tendu, la femelle de son
congénère, autre dindon domestique. Il a les yeux entourés de bleu ;
le cou, la tête et le chiffon qui lui pend par-dessus le bec,
sanguinolents. Le chiffon est fripé comme un lambeau d’entrailles ; à
volonté, il injecte de sang, ou fait bleuir en bleu de ciel, ou laisse
pâlir en un blanc violacé cette masse amorphe qui pendille de droite
et de gauche. Il va et vient, apoplectique ou anémique, dément de
désir. Il est magnifique, antipathique, plein de morgue et
d’acariâtreté. Il tend le cou et fait kloukoulou ! kloukoulou ! Kwole,
kwole, kwole !
8 juin 1915.
13 juin 1915.
25 août 1915.
9 novembre 1915.
12 novembre 1915.
5 avril 1916.
7 avril 1916.
30 novembre 1916.
Je crois que l’œil le plus beau au monde est l’œil du hibou grand-
duc : une grande boule noire comme liquéfiée, bordée d’une bande
de feu liquide, mais adoucie par la myopie et la souffrance de la
captivité. Je me trouve devant la cage. Il fait un Chchinit effarouché
et suit peureusement les mouvements de mes yeux, seule chose
qu’il semble voir dans ma figure. Oh ! qu’il est beau, qu’il est beau, et
que je l’aime, surtout maintenant que nous sommes nous-mêmes
pris dans une trappe d’où nous ne pouvons bouger.
Par le froid qui commence, les bonnes avec les enfants se
réfugient dans le palais des éléphants, où il n’y a plus que des
zèbres, des chameaux, des girafes et le rhinocéros. Il y fait chaud et
les enfants que les mamans envoient, bien emmitouflés, prendre de
l’air frais et pur, ne respirent pendant des heures que l’odeur du
fumier de ces animaux.
Le jardin zoologique est lamentablement triste : la moitié des
bêtes ont disparu, elles sont mortes et on ne peut les remplacer ;
d’autres ont été envoyées en Hollande parce qu’on ne pouvait plus
les nourrir ; celles qui restent ont l’air lonely. Moi, je me promène
dans ce jardin, bien désemparée aussi.
Les grues font un tour de valse quand elles voient arriver leur
gardien ; nous, quand nous voyons arriver un de nos gardes-
chiourmes, nous avons envie de nous fourrer dans un petit trou, tant
ils nous épouvantent.
5 juin 1917.
21 août 1917.
29 novembre 1917.
1917.
La grue du Sénégal claironne sa musique à soufflet, puis fait
quelques tours sur le gravier humide de sa cage. Elle se picote, et,
lasse du froid et d’être seule, elle tourne son cou en forme de S sur
le dos, fourre sa tête sous ses ailes, puis replie une patte sous son
ventre et reste, tremblotante de froid, en équilibre sur l’autre pied.
Elle me fait pitié, l’adorable grue couronnée du Sénégal.
6 février 1918.
16 avril 1918.