Takeaways from the ASA-CICBV Toronto conference

BVWire was on the scene in Toronto as over 600 attendees enjoyed three days of excellent sessions at the ASA-CICBV Business Valuation Conference jointly hosted by the American Society of Appraisers and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators. The great thing about attending a conference such as this is the chance to collect valuable information, not only in the sessions, but also at the many networking opportunities the event offers. Below are just a few of the insights we collected both in the sessions and during the breaks.

John Paglia, Ph.D. (Pepperdine University), founder of the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets project, reveals that in five years appraisers of private companies say they will be putting more weight on sources from private markets than public markets to determine the cost of capital, a “huge change” for the profession.

The biggest BV problem in litigation is company-specific risk, says Roger Grabowski (Duff & Phelps). Judges are totally skeptical of it. With this challenge in mind, Chapter 16 of the 5th edition of his Cost of Capital: Applications and Examples book, co-authored with Shannon Pratt  (Shannon Pratt Valuations), is devoted to this topic. Speaking of Pratt, at the Toronto event, he received the ASA Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of his legendary leadership, commitment, and dedication to excellence in advancing the business valuation profession.

John Stockdale, a sole practitioner and author of BVR's DLOM guide, asks for feedback on his new paper on volatility.

Michael Badham (International Institute of Business Valuers) announces that the Saudi Arabia Institute of Business Valuation is a new member of the IIBV—a very positive development. The IIBV is a leader in BV education and provides ongoing training in locations such as the United Kingdom, Russia, Hungary, Australia, and South America.

For more from the ASA-CICBV event, see BVWire (free registration required).