DCF Question - Please Help!

Would appreciate any help on this!

I am making a DCF for a Company and I am running into an issue with the value. The company has very high historical CapEx, for example 2017 EBITDA was $5.8bn and CapEx was $5.6bn, as a result of this the free-cash flow is very small. In my projection period, a similar thing happens - some years have negative FCF while others just have very small FCF.

As a result of this, all the value of my DCF is being derived from the terminal value, where I used a multiple of 10x (mean of comps).

I am wondering if this is correct, or should I not even use a DCF for a company like this and use comps or something else.

Any help is appreciated!

5 Comments
 
Best Response

Might not be any magical way around it - cash is king after all - but there are a couple things you can do that will make your life easier: - check the capex levels at the comps, and if they are substantially higher/lower (as a % of revenue/EBITDA) make sure you understand why, and more importantly, make sure you can defend them as actual comps - find a research report with a projected cash flow statement for your company. if the latest year's capex was a one time spike, you don't want to extrapolate that out in perpetuity - as a sanity check, see if any of the research (equity or debt) has a DCF. any company with $6.0 billion in ebitda is going to be well covered

 

Thanks for the reply!

I did take a look at ER reports and most of them don't have a DCF. For the ones that show cash flow, my numbers match approximately. But I am just wondering if the TV is such a significant portion of value, is it even useful using a DCF?

 

Might depend a little on the industry, but sure it matters, even if it's mostly TV. There are huge companies that don't generate any cash (esp in tech) but investors clearly think there's value in them. Just make sure you understand what all the capex is for, and if there's a credible case to be made that it will taper way off as the business matures.

 

Awesome, thanks a lot! I was able to get access to an excel model for one of the ER reports and noticed they had a similar issue, where TV was an extremely large part of overall value

 

Vel eveniet reiciendis nam est quaerat similique harum. Debitis debitis quo cupiditate consequatur aut quia omnis. Animi culpa alias dicta.

Ut vel ea sequi soluta qui nisi omnis assumenda. Cupiditate saepe voluptatem quo error qui aut et et. Velit est consequuntur maiores quisquam ipsum dignissimos velit. Voluptas numquam ut odit ipsa repudiandae est. Placeat minus quis vitae aut. Ipsa atque similique animi sed tempore perspiciatis est molestias.

Career Advancement Opportunities

November 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 99.0%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Guggenheim Partners 02 97.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 97.4%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

November 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 99.0%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.9%
  • BMO Capital Markets 13 97.4%

Professional Growth Opportunities

November 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 99.0%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • JPMorgan No 97.4%

Total Avg Compensation

November 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (57) $264
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (29) $183
  • Intern/Summer Associate (16) $161
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (77) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”