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Monthly Archives: May 2018

We have distilled decades of experience at the intersection of law, business and finance into a suite of articles to help our clients make sense of business valuation, forensic accounting, and litigation support. Please visit our site regularly for our latest content.

  As the business valuation discipline matures, judges, attorneys and other people who rely on appraisal conclusions are becoming more comfortable with the income approach. But how does a business’s perceived risk translate into a reasonable discount rate? This is one of the most subjective — and contentious — aspects of valuing a business. Breaking down the income approach Under the income approach, value is a function of a company’s expected economic benefits and its risk relative to other investment types. Valuators typically gauge expected economic benefits in terms of net cash flow. They measure risk by the company’s cost of capital, which is the expected rate of return investors require to invest in the subject company. Riskier businesses have lower values as a result of lower projected income, higher discount rates — or a combination of these. The two most common methods that fall under the income approach are the capitalization of earnings and discounted cash flow methods. Discounting future cash flow The key to both of these methods is converting expected cash flows (or other economic benefits) to present value. This requires the valuator to use a discount rate that reflects the time value of money and the degree of risk associated with an investment in the business. Put another way, the discount rate reflects the risk associated with achieving the expected cash flows. When valuing a company’s equity, valuators may estimate expected cash flows to equity investors and use the cost of equity as the discount rate. […]