Selection of the Target Firm and it’s Valuing in Acquisitions
Once a firm has an acquisition motive, there are two key questions that need to be answered. The first relates to how to best identify a potential target firm for an acquisition, given the motives. The second is the more concrete question of how to value a target firm. Choosing a Target Firm Once a firm has identified the reason for its acquisition program, it has to find the appropriate target firm. If the motive for acquisitions is under valuation, the target firm must be under valued. How such a firm will be identified depends upon the valuation approach and model used. With relative valuation, an under valued stock is one that trades at a multiple (of earnings, book value or sales) well below that of the rest of the industry, after controlling for significant differences on fundamentals. Thus, a bank with a price to book value ratio of 1.2 Continue reading