Alan Gregory is Professor of Corporate Finance at the University of Exeter, where he is the head of the School of Business and Economics. He has previously been Professor in the Departments of Accounting and Finance at Glasgow University and the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. At Exeter he teaches on the Exeter MBA and MA Finance and Investment programmes. His current research interests include takeovers and mergers, the cost of capital and stock market efficiency, and his recent published work has included a study of the long run performance of UK acquiring firms, a CIMA-funded study of the cost of capital in the UK, the performance of initial public offerings, share price reaction to director's trading activity and the performance measurement of "ethical" unit trusts. His work has been published in the Economic Journal, Accounting and Business Research, The Journal of Business Finance and Accounting and European Financial Management. In addition to his academic interests, he is chartered management accountant and has acted as a consultant to HM Treasury. He has also advised in the valuation of target companies in takeover bids and acted as a consultant to a "big five" accounting firm in the determination of the cost of the capital.

As the pressure to focus on shareholder returns increases it is essential that CEO's, business managers, financial managers and analysts have the necessary understanding and skills to ensure their actions are producing the appropriate returns. This bestselling briefing -- revised and updated in a new edition -- enables you to calculate value effectively. It provides a systematic and reliable means to assess the potential for value creation in a range of circumstances. Covering the latest valuation techniques alongside traditional models, it illustrates their relative advantages and disadvantages with the use of case studies throughout. By applying these models, the risk involved in corporate decision-making can be significantly reduced. The new edition updates and extends the first edition to incorporate recent developments in this field. Revisions and additions include the complex issue of how to value technology companies; accounting standards; asset-based valuations; book and market values; and cross-border valuations. Contents include: * Introduction * Review of traditional valuation models and their contemporary operationalisation * Fundamental DCF models * The cost of capital in DCF models * Forecasting free cash flows and calculating horizon value * Contemporary methods for operationalising the FCF method * Additional factors in valuation for takeovers and mergers * Value added through flexibility