Finding comparable transaction data

intern profile

February 05, 2020

by an member from Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia in 11100 San Fernando, Cádiz, España

How do you find comparable business transaction data? Any recommended database? Talking to people in the industry?...
What's you approach?

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Reply by a searcher
from Ohio State University in Chicago, IL, USA
Hi Fernando. In addition to the paid services mentioned above, I have had success using Google to find industry reports from small and middle market banks. Many periodically release a sector-focused industry update with comp sets. For example, for the TIC space, if I search "TIC industry update filetype:pdf", the first result is the below from Barclays. You can play around with the terms to find M&A comps, public comps, or focus on smaller deals/banks. This was my go-to strategy in banking and PE to find relevant, already scrubbed comps from reliable sources. CapIQ's data is often not reliable especially as it relates to multiples. You really need to rely on published information from a bank or press release about the deals to be sure atleast for precedent transaction information.

https://www.barclayscorporate.com/content/dam/barclayscorporate-com/documents/insights/industry-expertise/Testing-Report-2018.pdf
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Reply by an intermediary
from City University of New York (CUNY) System in Wesley Chapel, FL, USA
Although there are many databases (like Pratts, Valuesource, etc) that can provide you with comps and market data, just a word of warning - the playing field is different for many of the comps, You will see, at times, huge variations in the multiples. You have to view with a nuanced approach. For example, one deal can be at 4.3X, and another at 10X. Well 10X of course, for my example business may be too large, but because there is context missing from the facts presented, it calculates that way. You can get a guideline, but further analysis is both justified and needed to compare with your target company.
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