Spent the last 5+ years in lower-mid market M&A transaction on...

Spent the last 5+ years in lower-mid market M&A transaction on both the buy & sell side, also completing valuations using multiple methods. Selling (mainly Australian) businesses to overseas buyers in USA, Ireland, NZ, Asia, Africa, Germany etc. EBITDA multiple is the universally accepted across the world - makes it easier to compare apples with apples. Have now purchased a business in UK, what was it valued on? EBITDA multiple. Multiples also changes across country due to competition/market etc but mainly availability and cost of finance.

By no means the best valuation tool or necessarily a good valuation tool & lots of individual variations / more complex valuation methods out there. Ultimately it is what a buyer is willing to pay & a seller willing to accept - that is it, a buyer will pay what a buyer wants to pay and a seller will accept what a seller wants to accept. Could go on a spiel about valuations by cbf.

What we know is they valued the business at $1.1b - don't know the terms. So what revenue, profit, cash flow, EBITDA, debt, EBIT, does FLC have to get achieve to be valued at the same price by a strategic motivated buyer? Could make the answer as complicated or as simple as you want - my take is if they can get their EBITDA to $75m+ (whatever the corresponding revenue, net profit etc is) then they should be valued at over $1b to a strategic buyer. Would expect the ASX market to value them at half that.

Warren Buffet is a different beast - how many businesses has he purchased vs Private Equity / Corporates / Family Offices? No chance Warren Buffet would ever invest in Fluence at this stage. He has missed out on purchasing multiple businesses. Is he a good investor? yes. Is he a good buyer? yes. Is he someone you want to buy your business? no.

Just my take, lets see how it plays out. Either way, i agree 2020 should see some decent share price appreciation.