Fair Value Measurement for Private Equities: A Plus or a Minus for Stakeholders?

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the potential economic consequences of IFRS 13 endorsement in the European Union. Our focus is on private equity valuation. We review prior research and perform a field-test in order to shed light on the possible effects of its adoption. Our paper questions whether fair value, as defined by IFRS 13, is an appropriate measure for private equities and can effectively contribute to enhance transparency and comparability in financial statement, which is one of the explicit purposes of both the IASB and the European Union Regulation 1606/2002. Our field-test supports this claim and shows that market-based valuation techniques fail to provide fair values which are a faithful representation of the economic real world phenomena they purport to represent. Consistently with previous research, we show that market and transaction multiples do a poor job and relevant entity-specific adjustments will be necessary.