Valuation Of Precision Castparts Corp. (PCP)

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Valuation Of Precision Castparts Corp. (PCP) by Dr. David Kass, University of Maryland

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On August 10, 2015, Berkshire Hathaway and Precision Castparts issued a joint press release announcing  that the boards of directors of Berkshire Hathaway and Precision Castparts have unanimously approved a definitive agreement for Berkshire Hathaway to acquire, for $235 per share in cash, all outstanding PCP shares. The transaction is valued at approximately $37.2 billion, including outstanding PCP net debt.

In a notice (dated October 13, 2015) of a special meeting to Precision Castparts shareholders to be held on November 19, 2015 to vote on this proposal, PCP’s financial advisor, Credit Suisse, provides a valuation of the company by performing (1) a comparable multiples analysis, (2) a comparable transactions analysis, and (3) a discounted cash flow analysis.

(1) Comparable Multiples Analysis – Taking into account the results of the selected companies analysis, Credit Suisse applied enterprise value multiple ranges of 10.0x to 11.0x to PCP’s CY 2015E EBITDA and 9.0x to 10.0 x to PCC’s CY 2016E EBITDA.  The selected companies analysis indicated an implied valuation reference range of $180 to $203 per share of PCP as compared to the proposed merger agreement of $235 per share.

(2) Comparable Transactions Analysis – Taking into account the results of the selected transactions analysis, Credit Suisse applied an enterprise value multiple range of 11.5x to 13.5x to PCP’s last 12 months EBITDA as of June 28, 2015.  The selected transactions analysis indicated an implied valuation reference range of $218 to $260 per share of PCP as compared to the proposed merger agreement of $235 per share.

(3) Discounted Cash Flow Analysis – Credit Suisse performed a discounted cash flow analysis of PCP by calculating the estimated net present value of the projected after-tax, unlevered free cash flow of PCP based on company forecasts.  Credit Suisse applied a range of terminal value multiples of 9.5x to 10.5x to PCP’s estimated FY 2021E EBITDA of $4.21 billion and discount rates ranging from 7.0% to 9.0%.  This analysis indicated an implied valuation reference range of $215 to $256 per share of PCP as compared to the proposed merger agreement of $235 per share.

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