Valuation of Securities on Inactive Markets

Sammanfattning: Background: The main topic of the master thesis is Valuation of Securities on Inactive Markets. Securities quoted on inactive market have been investigated to present how their fair value can be efficiently measured. Securities quoted on inactive market can have limited or unreliable inputs and the valuation process can become time and money consuming. Financial professional face similar problems while valuing financial assets on inactive markets. Relevance of the topic: The master thesis might be of particular interest to investment and asset management companies which can get an opportunity to share their experiences and gain from the knowledge exchange. Method: One asset management company and three audit companies have been contacted for collecting information from different perspectives. asset management company has practical experience on conducting valuation of inactively traded securities and audit companies suggest how valuation should be done. Results have been collected through surveys and interviews to all selected companies. Then the qualitative approach has been applied on the collected results. Main findings: Even though most of the answers to the questionnaire were different, as the companies followed generally accepted international standards, their view on the valuation of inactively traded securities was relatively common. Companies admitted that the main problems in the valuation of securities quoted on inactive market are the limited access to market quotes, high spreads on the market, unreliable market information, limited access to financial data of the valued companies and considerable amount of inactively traded securities. Valuation based on multiples is most commonly used by the companies. Sometimes the combination of methods for example price of recent transaction, DCF and net assets can be applied and it is up to the investment manager to decide what methods to use. Summary of recommendations offered by the interviewed companies concerning valuation of inactively traded securities is presented at the end of the master thesis.