個案總覽

County Line Markets (CLM) needed to consider expanding one of its existing sixty-seven Indiana based stores to form a superstore. The key capital investment trade-off decision facing CLM was whether to replace its existing store now with a new, larger superstore, or should they wait in the hope that additional information they might receive in the future would enhance the overall net present value (NPV) of the project. Ron Winston, CFO, was considering whether a real options approach should be used to help determine when and if the store should be converted to a superstore. This case focuses on CLM's evaluation of its downtown metro area location. Although the specific circumstances of each location were different, the analytical and judgmental issues facing CLM's management for the upgrade to a superstore were typical of the issues present at each location. The CLM store under evaluation is located in an area where the demographics, population, and competitive landscape have changed dramatically since the store was last remodeled. The chief financial officer (CFO) Ron Winston thinks that it is premature to invest substantial sums of money in some existing locations because they are still in a state of flux, and he feels it is better to wait until the market stabilizes before committing large amounts of funds to these markets. Jerry Williams, vice president of operations, thinks that CLM needs to invest in advance of market changes. Williams also believes that Winston is not considering competitive developments in his analysis; that is, the impact on the downtown metro area store if the competition moves to a superstore first.

In March 2008 the CEO had just received a surprising and unsolicited offer from a Japanese company to purchase his AmData Software China company which owns the exclusive mainland China franchise to distribute this U.S. vendor's software. The Japanese company owns a similar exclusive franchise in Japan. After preliminary negotiations, including a demand by the Japanese company to state the business sale amount in U.S. dollars, the initial $2.5 million offer was raised to $5.5 million. However, this amount was not yet agreed to by both parties and a business valuation analysis would be critical to the key decision of the case: should the CEO sell the company now or continue to develop it for sale at a future date? Such a subsequent sale might be an IPO on one of the Chinese stock exchanges.

The purpose of this case was to determine whether ACE Private Equity Partners, a mid-size private equity fund, should acquire two physical therapy companies in order to develop them for subsequent sale to a larger private equity firm. This situation represented another opportunity for ACE's general partners to implement their "merger consolidation" investment strategy for their fund investors or limited partners. This investment strategy was to buy several private firms in the same industry, develop them for three to five years with revenue growth and cost saving synergies and, then, sell this larger consolidated company. This investment strategy was summarized by three major tactics: 1) build more valuable companies through growth and consolidation, 2) use arbitrage to buy smaller companies at lower private company EBITDA multiples and, then, sell them as a larger combined enterprise at higher public company EBITDA multiples, and 3) leverage the acquisitions with debt to spread risk and enhance returns.