Aswath Damodaran – Session 21: IPO and VC Valuation & First Steps on Real Options

In today’s class, we put the finishing touches on private company valuation by looking at key questions that arise in private company valuation (illiquidity, key person etc.) and then looked at valuing IPOs. In particular, the question of what happens to the proceeds from an offering can affect value per share, and the offering price itself is subject to the dynamics of the issuance process, with investment bankers more likely to under price than over price offerings. In the second part of the class, I did a quick introduction to real options, setting up the intuitive rationale for real options. We covered the basics of options, starting with why real options are so attractive to analysts and investors: they allow you to add a premium to your DCF value. The two building blocks for real option value are learning (from what is going on around you or ongoing events) and adapting your behavior. There are three questions that underlie the use of real options. The first is recognizing when you are dealing with an option, with a payoff diagram being the give away. The second is looking for exclusivity which is what gives options value. The third is using an option pricing model, which is built on replication and arbitrage.
Start of the class test: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pd…
Slides: Part 1: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/po…
Part 2: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/po…
Post class test: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pd…
Post class test solution: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pd…