Corporate Valuation Theory, Evidence and Practice – by M. E. Zmijewski; R. W. Holthause

  • Excess Assets vs Capital Structure

    While Valuation, Excess assets should be separated from core operations and valued separately, but here it is important to see what effect this separation has on the right-hand side of the balance sheet when measured at market value… Does the removal of excess assets reduce debt, preferred stock, common equity, or other claims? The point…

    Read more →

  • When WACC Method Leads to Mistake

    In some cases, when valuing an organization, using the WACC method for discounting cash flows can be misleading, and it is better to use the APV method.To understand this, it is useful to look at the modified form of WACC, where it appears as a function of the value of the Interest Tax Shield (ITS).…

    Read more →

  • Non-Equity Betas

    Non-Equity Betas

    The table presents an example illustrating a widespread and significant error in valuation, related to the assumption of ignoring the beta coefficient of debt or other non-equity sources of financing—in this example, the error amounts to 38%. Source: Corporate Valuation: Theory, Evidence, and Practice, Mark E. Zmijewski; Robert W. Holthausen A common practical mistake is…

    Read more →

  • levering Limitations

    levering Limitations

    In the final sections, I want to address themes of capital valuation, where the formulas for financial “levers” and “revenues”, formulas you are familiar with, come into play. Now, I want to discuss those nuances which, in practice, distribute errors in the calculation of distress, default, and agency costs: These formulas consider the interest tax…

    Read more →

  • Precision formulas for β

    Precision formulas for β

    One reason for using comparable companies’ data to derive the beta of a listed company is that it yields a more accurate beta. Is it worth the effort? The issue is that when we obtain a company’s beta purely from statistical data, the resulting statistical beta has its own standard error, which is often quite…

    Read more →

  • 4 Versions of Un-Levering Formulas

    When valuing an organization, it’s easy to make mistakes if you approach the calculation of Cost of Equity and WACC superficially — because intrinsic value is highly sensitive to these parameters. In practice, the Unlever & Re-lever procedure is typically based on the following general formula derived from Modigliani–Miller (M&M) Proposition II with Taxes: However,…

    Read more →

  • Debt Rating

    Debt Rating

    Among a CFO’s typical target KPIs is improving the company’s credit rating, as it directly impacts the organization’s value through its effect on the Cost of Debt (CoD) and ultimately the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC). The CoD can be estimated using a modified version of the CAPM model. To do this, we need…

    Read more →

  • Cost of Debt & Debt β

    Cost of Debt & Debt β

    💬 How to Estimate Cost of Debt for Private Companies? For “listed” companies, the Cost of Debt (CoD) is more or less accessible. But how do we estimate this number when valuing a private company? Let’s say a company has a loan at 8% — can we just say its CoD is 8%?Or imagine the…

    Read more →

  • Expected Default and CoD

    Expected Default and CoD

    How to Calculate Expected Default Loss on a Bond? The cost of debt is often confused with the yield to maturity (YTM) of a bond/loan. The promised return is equal to the cost of debt when there is no risk of default. However, because there is a real risk of default, we must discount the…

    Read more →

  • True β

    True β

    Adjusted β – It’s important to understand that statistical analysis provides an approximate rather than a “true” beta. Different commercial sources (as shown in the table) provide different data because they rely on different assumptions. The differences in assumptions pertain to the time frame over which beta is calculated (e.g., month) and the total period…

    Read more →