Ok guys,

I'm looking to practise writing pitch books. Primarily Sell-side.

I've searched the forums/M&I and have found some useful pitch book examples and 'templates'. My question is though, how to you practise creating them? Would you suggest using past M&A transactions or completely starting from scratch and generating your own M&A transaction ideas.

I'm looking for a way to neatly demonstrate my competency in DCF, Comps, Price-to-Earnings and Precedent Transactions Analysis along with my PowerPoint skills. I thought a pitch book would be the most relevant way to do so.

If you have any other ideas on how I could demonstrate competency in such a way I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Please excuse any newbie terminology I've used as I am...a newbie!

I know there's a bunch of threads on NWC. But I couldn't find one to address my question:

If there is negative changes in nwc, then cash flow increases.

This is a good thing, right?

But when there is negative NWC, it could mean that firm will go bankrupt, (current assets cannot cover current liabilities).

So is it a good thing for NWC to have negative changes year over year? (it increases the value based on valuation methods such as DCF, but doesn't it also mean that the company is not doing so well?)

Thanks in advance!

Can someone please provide a comparable transaction to the FLO TSTY transaction?

Thank you!

When you spread historical comps from filings and then find analyst reports to get the projections, what are the best practices methodologies to make sure the numbers are apples to apples? For example, for EBITDA, should you add back non-recurring expenses historically to D&A, what if the analyst reports you have access to don't go into this detail? If you stick with one report, can you just note the report you are using and pull their historicals or do you have to always go to the filings?

First off I have a very stupid question that I need answered even if you don’t read the rest of my post. I know nothing about trading and stock indices and need to know, when creating a peer group for my comps, is it possible to use NASDAQ stocks as peers for a company traded on the NYSE, under ANY circumstances? Or is it completely inappropriate? I know foreign stocks are probably never appropriate, no matter how similar they are.

First off I have a very stupid question that I need answered even if you don’t read the rest of my post. I know nothing about trading and stock indices and need to know, when creating a peer group for my comps, is it possible to use NASDAQ stocks as peers for a company traded on the NYSE, under ANY circumstances? Or is it completely inappropriate? I know foreign stocks are probably never appropriate, no matter how similar they are.

I have a pretty limited data set where I need to identify potential turnaround targets based solely on: Sales, Sales growth, Net Income, NI growth, Total Assets, Stockholder Equity, Market Cap, EPS, Return to Investors, and # employees. After an initial sweep, more in-depth research will be done, but this is to narrow down a data set. What would be the most efficient and meaningful metrics and ratios that may indicate an underlying issue? Thanks in advance.

for the firms where there's an India team working on the comps, do analysts only work on them when it's urgent/for a fairness opinion?

how accurate are the comps done by the outsourced team typically and how much time does the analyst need to spend checking them to make sure everything's right?

do you think at a certain point all the analytical work will be basically an outsourced Indian operation and the role of the analyst will be vastly diminished?

whats up fellas

jw if anyone would be willing to post a comp spread for Apple. Would be a huge help as i'm trying to do some research for one of my classes.. been building my own comp spread and want to make sure im doing it right/using the correct multiples

thanks

Hi guys,

I started working a boutique recently, pretty small shop no official training, etc. To all the seasoned bankers out there- are there any shortcuts/tips you wish you knew when you started? For example, when it comes to spreading comps, it can take a while to compile all the data (other than linking stock info to CapIQ). Are there certain ways to minimize the time in gathering all the cash/ebitda/debt data from all the SEC reports? Any advice when it comes to prepping pitchbooks? Thanks in advance

Hey guys,

Is it 'wrong' if my enterprise value based on the mean TEV / Sales multiple of the peer group is much much higher than my enterprise value based on the mean TEV / EBITDA multiple of the peer group?

What would be the main reasons for a huge difference (say about $200 mm difference between the two valuations for a company that does 162 mm in sales)?

Thanks for any help.

I was asked this question recently, and just replied with a BS answer.

1. How do you determine a true value using comparables when the market is so sluggish....i.e, multiples are depressed. This was an M&A banker working on sell-side advisory work.

Based on the people I've talked to in RE, across the board everyone uses Argus for financial modeling/analysis.

Is there something like this for IB/PE?

If not, why not?

I'm guessing it's probably because banks are paying analysts to create the model so there is no reason to pay to subscribe to an Argus-like software, but I'd be interested to hear the thoughts from others.

Maybe I'm wrong and there is something out there.

For transaction comps, when determining EV, Rev etc do we use target or acquiring co.

I know this might be simple, but I am confused.

1. When you do transaction comps, does EV = purchase price? (assuming acquiring 100%). If not, what's the difference between public and transaction comps?

2. When we spread comps, do we use historical or projection data?

Thanks in advance!

when taking the debt position of a company for comps do you what debt do you look at on the b/s. Do you look at the covertible debentures? Thanks

If a public company wants to acquire a private company, can you use other public comps as part of your valuation? I know a public firm will higher valued because of liquidity and transparency, but is there some discount you apply to public comparables so you can use them to see what a private firm should be valued at? Or can you just use the public comps without discounting price?

I had this question in an interview and I got it right, but my logic was a little off. Can someone clarify.

The interviewer asked "9 times out of 10, which method of valuation will produce the highest valuation (DCF vs. Public comps vs. transaction comps)?"

I understand why transaction comps produce higher valuations than public comps, but why do DCFs produce higher valuations than transaction comps?

Spreading comps is pretty much ALL I have done this summer. Unfortunately, my boutique firm doesn't have any deals going on at the moment, so I haven't had the opportunity to ask for modeling. How would you say 'spread comps' on your resume?

I'm currently looking for comparable company information on a firm that makes a profit by offering other companies' services, and I'm confused as to where I should go to find comps.

The company offers their own money transfer system, cash advances for major credit cards, Western Union money transfers, Travelex money transfers, and AMEX and Thomas Cook traveler's cheques among a few other services.

Most companies in this arena appear to be private and/or fundamentally different.

How should I approach finding some comparables before I perform a DCF?

If it helps, my employer (middle market, overseas) has T1B access, but doesn't use CapIQ or Bloomberg.

Hey guys, new member here and a newbie in IB.

Just a quick question on comps involving stock options and shares outstanding.

Am I right in saying that if you take the number of shares outstanding from the 10Q as stated in the front of the report, then you may be double counting options that have been exercised since your option schedule is coming from the 10K?

I understand that some companies disclose exactly how many options are currently outstanding in the 10Q so you can make the adjustment to your option schedule, but that's not always the case.

Thus, I guess my question is do you take the # of shares outstanding as reported on the 10Q balance sheet instead of what's reported on the front page? That way you don't have to worry about double counting options?

Hey,

Don't have banking resources available to me...just a student and wanted to know where I can find comps and precedents for pharmaceutical companies with transaction dates of 1998?

I'm trying to make a football field (dcf, precedents, comps) for a project at school. The most recent financial statements and the data built around the case are in 1998 for the sake of the consistency in the case study from year to year.

I have some resources through our online library portal but not sure what to tap into?

Help?

anyone got a spreadsheet so i can practice spreading comps?
thanks

also do most BB use excel 03 or 07.
thanks

Can you do 100+ quick and dirty comps within a few days if you pull the data straight from Reuters? This wouldn't be to send out to clients - more to get a rough idea of a few industry spaces.