Valuating a German business - Case adidas: Usage of the valuation methods discounted cash flow and multiples factors

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,3, University of Applied Sciences Essen, course: Financial Management, language: English, abstract: Valuation of companies is done for many reasons. The evaluation of alternative strategies for decisions to sell or buy a company is the widest known purpose among literature. The alternatives can be categorized into three parts: mergers and acquisitions, succession and continuation. The former reflects the selling or buying decision of companies, and the acquisition of shares and mergers. Succession means management buyouts, whereas continuation refers to reorganization, monitoring of financial standing and liquidity flotation, investments but also divestments and spin offs (cf. Hansa & Dvorak 2007). Adidas has gone through several valuations already. In 1994 Adidas was sold for 1,350 million German Mark whereas in mid-1995 the company was already valued at 3,300 million German Mark when it was initially offered to public (cf. Die Welt 1995). As of December 31st 2010 the price for an Adidas share was 48.89 Euro ( ), reflecting a 29.4% growth compared to 2009 (cf. Adidas 2011 a, p. 2). The following paper on hand values the German company Adidas as of December 2010 with help of the valuation methods Discounted Cash Flow in terms of equity and entity approach as well as the market oriented multiples. Both valuation methods are theoretical defined and later applied to Adidas.