how does LBO analysis imply a share price?

I'm new to LBO

in a LBO analysis, where do you find the minimal price that an acquirer would pay for a company?

Can I use total uses of funds/shares outstanding as the implied share price?

9 Comments
 

I disagree. Debt capacity depends on cash flows, not on equity. That's why you can infer a share price - you look at the cash flows of the business and decide how much/what type of debt you can put in the company, then see what the maximum price you can pay is given those assumptions. Obviously there are other assumptions too such as earnings growth, net working capital and exit multiple that all affect your maximum price.

 
Best Response

Just some thoughts. The LBO model allows you to assess the maximum price you can pay in order to achieve the minimum IRR which your PE firm requires e.g. 20%. Based on your valuation, you should obtain a range of fair values for the company.

Just to write some numbers for illustration. Assuming that the company share price is trading at $20/share.

Based on your LBO model,

if the maximum price you can pay is $15 to achieve IRR of 20% -> Do not buy the company if the maximum price you can pay is $21 to achieve IRR of 20% -> The price you can pay is $20 to $21 if the maximum price you can pay is $23 to achieve IRR of 20% -> The price you can pay is $20 to $23

Do let me know if it answers your question

 

The share price is an input to the lbo model, you have to model in an assumption for the price you pay to buy out current equity holders (whether public or private) in order to calculate IRR.

If you are a PE firm, you are asking yourself how much am I willing to pay for the business (Enterprise value) and then from that you determine what you'd be paying to the current equity owners. If it's public you'd be looking at what share price that analysis implies.

If you are doing an LBO analysis for the purposes of valuing a company, you would think the same way as the PE firms - you would calculate the EV and thus equity value that would allow a sponsor to earn an acceptable return.

 

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