valuation
Trading multiples are valuation ratios taken from current (or recent) public-market prices of comparable companies—typically EV/EBITDA, EV/EBIT, EV/revenue and P/E. They reflect minority, liquid marks, not control deal prices.
Trading multiples are the live (or as-of-date) valuation multiples of comparable companies. You observe market value of equity, build EV, divide by a driver, and read the ratio as the market's current pricing of that economics. They are the output of comparable company analysis.
They are not transaction multiples. Trading prints are usually minority interests, include no control premium, update every session, and embed listing liquidity. Deal multiples are episodic, control-flavoured, and often synergy-flavoured.
Date-stamp the prices. Use diluted shares. Align LTM vs NTM. Report median and IQR, not a beauty parade of the highest name. If the whole sector re-rated 20% in a month, your private target did not automatically re-rate with it—but your reference did, and you should say so.
Forward multiples need a named consensus source. Mixing company "guidance" for the target with broker NTM for peers is a classic bias.
As of an invented date, five EU listed distributors. Illustration only.
| Peer | EV/EBITDA LTM | EV/EBITDA NTM | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | 7.6x | 7.1x | 0.95x |
| P2 | 8.4x | 7.8x | 1.20x |
| P3 | 9.1x | 8.3x | 1.35x |
| P4 | 6.9x | 6.8x | 0.80x |
| P5 | 8.0x | 7.5x | 1.10x |
| Median | 8.0x | 7.5x | 1.10x |
A private target at 8.5x LTM is a modest premium to this tape. Whether it should be depends on growth and liquidity, not on the existence of the sheet.
Public investors live in trading multiples. Private-process participants use them as the minority reference and then argue control. If trading multiples have compressed because rates rose, using 2021 transaction prints without comment is advocacy, not analysis. Conversely, a bid below a tight, liquid peer set needs a quality or structure story.
Thin trading makes the multiple a rumour. Conglomerates pollute pure-play inference. Sector bubbles make the whole sheet wrong together. Trading multiples will not price a unique synergy or a broken capital structure.
Dazur date-stamps trading multiples and keeps them in a separate column from deals. Owners who want 2021 transaction prints when the tape is at 7x get shown both columns. That is how you have an adult conversation about whether the ask is a control premium or a time warp.