For an IPO, do transaction fees increase your EV?

Given that the formula is EV = Equity + Debt - Cash, if IPO transaction fees decrease your cash, you're subtracting a smaller amount so EV should increase? And the increase in EV just means that you're effectively paying more to acquire the company?

Also, should you be thinking that since IPO transaction fees are not a recurring business item, we could adjust it later on and recast it in the Income Statement to get a higher Net Income?

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EV is unchanged. The reduction in cash in your equation would also be offset by the reduction in equity value. This makes sense since the cash required for transaction fees reduces the value of the firm to shareholders. Remember: A = L + E.

As for your second question, yes it's very common to adjust for one-time acquisition fees to exclude them from Adjusted EBITDA, which is the typical measure used as a basis for EV multiples.

 

thank you! I'm confused though, I thought Equity Value = Share price x # of shares so why does Equity Value decrease with the transaction fees?

I understand from an intuitive level that fees reduce value to shareholders but just don't know how to apply it from an equation/definition standpoint.

 

Equity Value = Share Price x Shares Outstanding is true but unhelpful here. Your original question asked about the total Enterprise Value of the company, for which the total Equity Value is a component. You would only use this equity = price x shares equation if you wanted to take the question a step further and determine the impact per share.

 

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