Equity-related investments

Listed holdings

Listed holdings are valued on the basis of their share price (purchase price, if there is one quoted) on the closing date.

Unlisted holdings and fund holdings

Unlisted holdings are valued on the basis of the “International Private Equity and Venture Capital Valuation Guidelines” prepared and published jointly by the venture capital organizations EVCA, BVCA and AFIC.

For directly owned holdings (i.e. those owned directly by a company in the Investor Group), an overall evaluation is made to determine the valuation method that is appropriate for each specific holding. It is first taken into account whether a recent financing round or “arms length” transaction has been made, after which a valuation is made by applying relevant multiples to the holding’s key ratios (for example, EBITDA), derived from a relevant sample of comparable companies, with deduction for individually determined adjustments as a consequence of, for example, the size difference between the company being valued and the sample of comparable companies. An assessment is then made of the above-mentioned methods to determine the one that best reflects the market value of the holding, and the holding is then valued according to that method. In those cases when other valuation methods better reflect the fair value of a holding, this value is used, which means that certain holdings are valued with methods other than the ones described above.

Holdings in funds are valued at Investor AB’s share of the value that the fund manager reports for all holdings in the fund and is normally updated when a new valuation is received. If Investor AB’s assessment is that the fund manager’s valuation does not sufficiently take into account factors that affect the value of the underlying holdings, or if the valuation is considered to deviate considerably from IFRS principles, the value is adjusted. Listed holdings in funds are valued in the same way as listed holdings, as described above.

Information updated 2008-01-03 13:50:46