Knowledge Bank

View from across the Atlantic – US M&A activity in 2011

March 29, 2011

U.S. stocks have enjoyed a steady advance this year, with particularly spectacular performance during the month of December. The month’s equity gains have been driven by a slew of positive news–including the unexpected decline in jobless claims. The Labor Department’s first-time jobless claims reports continue to improve and show a promising downward trend, pointing to [...]

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UK M&A Deal values on the up

March 21, 2011

Multiples for good quality private companies involved in UK M&A deals increased in 2010 and are likely to continue to rise this year, driven by interest from both trade and private equity buyers, various research shows.  One survey suggests Private equity firms on average paid 12.2 times multiples for companies in 2010, compared to 11.6 in [...]

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Brand Valuation

January 27, 2011

Brand, and therefore brand valuation, is a specific intangible asset that a great many business owners aspire to and which under the right circumstances can lead to greatly enhanced values for businesses as a whole. However it is worth remembering that a brand in itself has no value unless it provides a greater draw to larger [...]

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EBITDA Multiples

July 27, 2010

EBITDA Multiples represent the most common method used by corporate finance advisors, Private Equity and corporate acquirers for valuing businesses. The acronym specifically relates to Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation.  As a profit figure it is therefore independent of these features – independent of tax, independent of artificial accounting policies that relate to [...]

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UK Capital Gains Tax

March 25, 2010

Whilst there was not a great deal coming out of yesterday’s budget, the one small piece of good news for those involved in M&A was the doubling of the ‘Entrepreneurs Relief’ threshold that applies to uk capital gains tax.  The level has been moved from £1m to £2m, whereby business vendors who have held their [...]

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Value a business – the various methods

March 20, 2010

There are several methods which can be used to value a business, some more theoretical and some more practical. As most finance courses explain, the perfect method to value a business is known as Discounted Cash Flow (DCF). Here the future cash-flows generated from a business or project are calculated and discounted back to today’s [...]

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