Finance & banking · Valuation — comps, an LBO, and where the returns came from

Comps and precedents — a range, with reasons

Trading comps look like the easy valuation method and are the one most often done badly. This builds a comp set from six companies, finds a 9x-to-20x spread hiding behind a tidy 13x median, applies the range to a target, and works through the adjustments — calendarisation, non-recurring items, leases, control premia — that decide whether the multiple means anything.

24 min read Full lesson in the app Patterns: trading-comparables, precedent-transactions, enterprise-value-bridge

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Before this: a-dcf-you-can-defend

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Trading comps look like the easy valuation method and are the one most often done badly. This builds a comp set from six companies, finds a 9x-to-20x spread hiding behind a tidy 13x median, applies the range to a target, and works through the adjustments — calendarisation, non-recurring items, leases, control premia — that decide whether the multiple means anything. This walkthrough runs about 24 minutes, with runnable code you can edit and re-run as you read. A new account gets 7 days of Pro free, no card required.

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