Other Advisory Services

Firm Valuations

• Cambridge is engaged to provide formal valuations of investment managers or securities firms – on a one-time or recurring basis – for a wide variety of reasons, including . . .
  • Implementation of internal equity transfer plans.
  • Ownership or business restructuring.
  • Estate or tax planning.
  • Litigation support (e.g., divorce, shareholder suits) and expert testimony.
  • Goodwill impairment tests.
  • Regulatory compliance.
  • Preparation for a transaction, or evaluation of transactional alternatives.
• We approach our valuation work with the same philosophy as our transactional work: bringing the specialist knowledge, market and transactional experience of our principals to bear on a specific client need. We do not provide generalist valuation services – our valuations are industry-specific, and they are grounded in the realities of how investment management firms are valued by buyers, sellers and investors. We apply a combination of industry-leading valuation tools, including:
  • Extensive, proprietary, segment-specific database of comparable private transactions.
  • Public company valuations.
  • Industry and firm-specific discounted cash flow and capital pricing models.
  • Minority and lack-of-marketability discounts adjusted to the specific circumstances.
  • Normalization of earnings, including adjustment of compensation to market bonus where appropriate.
  • Experience with the array of qualitative firm characteristics that contribute to, or detract from, a firm’s value relative to market norms.