A good explanation of the “Single Appraiser: Select Now, Value Now” recommendation from my book Buy-Sell Agreements for Closely Held and Family Business Owners was recently featured in NACVA’s email newsletter. Read it here (also includes a link to the original article on Mercer Capital’s website further explaining this buy-sell agreement recommendation).
The role of the third appraiser is always to bring resolution to buy-sell agreement valuation processes. The question is how the third appraiser’s conclusion will be used to bring pricing resolution. In this post we see that one “typical” way of considering the third appraiser’s conclusion has in interesting and potentially dangerous twist for valuation processes.
I have been advocating single appraiser valuation processes for buy-sell agreements for many years. This video relates the story of the genesis of the idea that has led me to write four books on buy-sell agreements and to participate in buy-sell agreement processes all around the nation.
Buy-sell agreements are ownership transition plans in disguise. Few business owners think about their buy-sell agreements in this light, but if your agreement is triggered, either through the death of a shareholder or otherwise, then ownership will change hands. Your buy-sell agreement is really ownership transition on autopilot. The real question is whether you, the other owners and the company will land safely when a trigger event occurs or if some or all of you will crash and burn. This short post addresses a simple question: Do you know what will happen if your buy-sell agreement is triggered?
In “Mercer’s Musings #2,” the focus shifts to the examination of restricted stock studies and their application in determining marketability discounts for gift and estate tax appraisals, offering valuable insights for appraisers across all credential spectrums. Highlighting the inherent challenges of such studies, I underscore the lack of economic relevance these studies hold in contemporary valuation scenarios, particularly emphasizing their disconnect with current private company valuations. Through an analysis and a hypothetical valuation scenario, I invite readers to explore the nuanced complexities of applying marketability discounts, advocating for a quantitative approach informed by common sense, judgment, and reasonableness.
BV Resources recently published a DLOM Survey. It had 10 questions and 202 responders. This post looks at several of the questions to infer the current state of the art in valuation regarding DLOMs. The post is longer than most but is worth your investment of time to read it and hopefully comment since the issue is key in all valuations of illiquid minority interests of companies.
Buy-sell agreements can go bad if all parties to them do not pay attention to their terms before signing them. This is particularly true in the New York case of Yakuel v Gluck, which was filed in early May in the Supreme Court of New York County.
Kashmiry v. Ellis is a recent Ohio appellate case regarding the buy-sell agreement portion of a shareholders’ agreement. The case reinforces a number of things I have been “preaching” about for years. If a buy-sell agreement has provided for an annual valuation by agreement of the parties, then the parties must reach agreement annually. If the agreement then provides for a valuation mechanism to determine the price following a trigger event, then the valuation process should be clearly defined and workable.
WARNING. Portions of the great majority of buy-sell agreements (or relevant portions of operating agreements) addressing the valuation of interests when trigger events occur are seriously flawed. As a result, they are destined to create time-consuming, expensive, and emotional disputes between buyers and sellers when they are triggered. Most attorneys and business owners do not seem to believe me, but recent experience only reinforces the need for this warning post.
EBITDA is at the same time the most discussed and most maligned measure of business cash flow. Simply put, EBITDA is Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization. The problem with EBITDA is that too often analysts or market participants or writers want to think that there is a single measure of cash flow that will reveal all, bringing Utopia to valuation. This post notes 11 things that EBITDA is not or will not do—and compares other cash flow measures according to the same criteria. Utopia does not exist and there is no valuation elixir. Sadly, we actually have to analyze companies to value them or buy them or sell them.
