Advanced Valuation Interview Questions for Finance

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An M&A premiums analysis helps estimate how much a potential buyer might pay above the current share price to acquire a public company. 

This is how you’d typically carry out the analysis:

1. Select comparable transactions.

Start by identifying precedent M&A transactions that are comparable in terms of industry, size, and timing (usually within the past 2–3 years).

2. Retrieve pre-announcement share prices.

For each target company, collect the share price at several points before the deal announcement (commonly 1 day, 20 days, and 60 days prior). You can adjust these intervals based on market context (e.g., use 30 or 45 days instead).

3. Calculate the premiums paid.

For each time interval, calculate the premium.

4. Determine median premiums.

Compute the median premium for each time interval across all your selected deals. This gives you a benchmark for what acquirers have historically paid in similar situations.

5. Apply the mediuan premiums to the current target.

Take the current share price (and the share price 20 and 60 days ago) of your company of interest and apply the median premiums to estimate a potential offer price range.

Premiums are calculated based on the target’s share price before the deal announcement, and only public companies have that kind of market data. 

Private companies don’t have publicly traded shares, so there’s no baseline to measure the premium against.

To estimate an acquisition premium for a private company, you compare the purchase price to a recent benchmark value, such as:

• The most recent funding round valuation
• An independent third-party valuation
• Book value or net asset value
• Valuation multiples (e.g. EV/EBITDA) from comparable private transactions

This gives you an implied premium, though it’s less standardized than with public companies.

The main differences in selecting transactions are:

• Target Type: M&A premiums analysis includes only public targets (needed for share price data), while precedent transactions can include public and private companies.
• Selection Criteria: Precedent transactions use stricter filters (industry, size, region), while M&A premiums analysis uses a broader set to capture general premium trends.
• Purpose: M&A premiums aim to estimate typical premiums paid, whereas precedent transactions focus on deriving a valuation range from closely comparable deals.

For both public comps and precedent transactions, you typically use the Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) financials as your starting point.

• For public company comparables, you often look at TTM, plus 1-year and 2-year forward estimates. You may go further forward or backward if projections are available and relevant.
• For precedent transactions, you usually rely on TTM and at most 1 year forward, since forward estimates are less reliable or unavailable post-acquisition.

The difference comes down to data availability. Public companies have ongoing analyst coverage, while acquired companies don’t.

Net Operating Losses (NOLs) occur when a company’s tax-deductible expenses exceed its taxable income in a given year. They’re important because companies can use NOLs to offset taxable income in future years, which reduces tax payments and improves cash flow.

In financial modeling, NOLs are considered a type of deferred tax asset. Their future tax benefits can be factored into valuation and acquisition analysis, especially when forecasting taxes in a DCF or assessing synergies in an M&A deal.

You value NOLs based on the future tax savings they provide, discounted to present value. There are two main approaches:

• Simple Approach:
  Assume the company fully offsets taxable income with NOLs until they’re used up. Multiply the tax rate by forecasted taxable income each year to estimate annual tax savings, then discount those savings to today.
• Acquisition Scenario (Section 382):
  If the company has undergone a change of ownership, Section 382 limits annual NOL usage. You calculate the cap by multiplying the IRS long-term tax-exempt rate by the equity purchase price of the seller, then use that to determine how much of the NOL can be applied each year.

In a valuation context:

• NOLs are usually not added directly to a company’s valuation.
• However, if included, they are treated similarly to cash: You might subtract them from Equity Value when calculating Enterprise Value, or vice versa, depending on the direction of your adjustment.
• Still, NOLs are often reflected indirectly by adjusting projected cash flows or taxes in a DCF, rather than as a standalone line item.

After a company is acquired, its NOLs can still be used to offset taxable income, but their use may be limited by Section 382 of the U.S. tax code. 

This rule sets an annual cap on how much of the NOLs can be applied, based on the equity purchase price multiplied by the IRS long-term tax-exempt rate. Any unused NOLs above the cap can be carried forward but must still follow the annual limit.

Valuing banks differs from other companies because of their distinct financial structure and how they generate returns:

• Banks earn most of their revenue through interest income and fees, rather than traditional sales.
• Their high leverage makes enterprise value–based multiples like EV/EBITDA less meaningful.
• Instead, valuation focuses on equity value, capital strength, and return metrics like ROE.
• Traditional DCF models don’t apply well due to unclear free cash flow definitions.
• You typically use the Dividend Discount Model, which values the present value of expected dividends, or the Residual Income Model, which adds the value of excess returns to the bank’s current book value. These models align more closely with how banks generate and distribute value.

For banks, the key performance metrics and valuation multiples are tailored to their balance-sheet-driven business model:

• Key Metrics:
  • ROE (Return on Equity): Measures how efficiently the bank generates profit from its equity.
  • ROA (Return on Assets): Indicates how well the bank uses its asset base to generate income.
  • Book Value and Tangible Book Value: Important because banks are capital-intensive and book value reflects shareholder equity.
• Common Valuation Multiples:
  • P/E (Price to Earnings): Still relevant for earnings-based comparisons.
  • P/BV (Price to Book Value): Commonly used as a proxy for return on equity.
  • P/TBV (Price to Tangible Book Value): Adjusts for intangible assets and is often favored for conservative valuation.

These metrics better capture a bank’s profitability, capital strength, and market valuation compared to traditional enterprise value-based metrics used in other industries.

Oil & gas companies are valued differently due to their reliance on depleting natural resources and exposure to commodity price cycles.

• While you can still use public comps and precedent transactions, you screen for different metrics like Proved Reserves or Daily Production.
• Key industry metrics include R/P (Reserves-to-Production ratio), EBITDAX, and production efficiency.
• These are paired with matching multiples like EV/EBITDAX or EV/Reserves.
• Companies are also affected by accounting methods like full-cost vs. successful efforts accounting, which treat exploration costs differently.

In addition to a standard Unlevered DCF, oil & gas companies are often valued using a Net Asset Value (NAV) model.

• The NAV model estimates the value of Proved Reserves, projecting revenue and costs for each year until depletion.
• You discount the net cash flows from these assets to arrive at a present value.
• This method better captures the finite nature of oil & gas assets, especially for upstream producers.
• It also reflects the high cyclicality and pricing uncertainty that make cash flows volatile and hard to project with a simple DCF.