This week’s New York Business Divorce presents the first of a two-part examination of Justice Shirley Kornreich’s must-read decision in Zelouf International v. Zelouf, a dissenting shareholder appraisal proceeding in which the court rejected application of a marketability discount.
Continue Reading Zelouf (Part One): Marketability Discount Rejected in Fair Value Proceeding

An important decision last week by the Appellate Division, First Department, in Giaimo v. Vitale directed the application of stock valuation discounts for lack of marketability and built-in gains taxes in a case involving closely held, subchapter C real estate holding corporations. It’s must reading for business appraisers and business divorce lawyers, in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
Continue Reading Appellate Court Directs 16% Marketability Discount in Fair Value Buy-Out of Realty Companies, Affirms Discount for Future Built-In Gains Tax at Present Value

In the second of two posts on the recent post-trial decision in Chiu v. Chiu, involving the disputed ownership of a single-asset real estate holding company, this week’s New York Business Divorce focuses on the court’s rejection of a discount for lack of marketability in determining the fair value of the withdrawing member’s 10% interest.

Continue Reading Court Rejects Marketability Discount in LLC Fair Value Case

Stock valuation aficionados will not want to miss the report in this week’s New York Business Divorce on the recent decision in Matter of Harlem River Yard Ventures, Inc. It’s a dissenting shareholder case triggered by a squeeze-out merger in which the court was faced with widely disparate expert valuations of a company holding a 99-year lease on the Bronx site of the former Penn Central rail yards, now serving as an industrial park.

Continue Reading Court Endorses Discounted Cash Flow Method, Rejects Post-Merger Tax Benefits, in Determining Fair Value Award to Dissenting Shareholder

The discount for lack of marketability is a fixture in New York fair value jurisprudence as a result of almost 30 years of case law starting with Matter of Blake. Some prominent voices in the business valuation field are challenging the doctrine as wrong in theory and bereft of empirical support. Learn more in this week’s New York Business Divorce.

Continue Reading The Marketability Discount in Fair Value Proceedings: An Emperor Without Clothes?

Business valuation junkies, rejoice! This week’s New York Business Divorce revisits the Giaimo case, a bitter family business dispute being litigated in Manhattan Supreme Court, following a decision last week by Justice Marcy Friedman concerning a fair value determination by Referee Louis Crespo of a stock interest in two real estate holding “C” corporations, in which the discounts for lack of marketability and for built-in gains taxes take center stage.

Continue Reading Court Rejects Marketability Discount, Applies “Murphy Discount” for Built-In Gains, in Determining Fair Value of Shares in Real Estate Holding Corporations

Chris Mercer, one of the country’s leading authorities on business valuation, has written a series of important and helpful articles on the statutory fair value standard used by courts in dissenting shareholder appraisals and oppressed minority shareholder buy-out proceedings. Get a taste in this week’s New York Business Divorce.

Continue Reading Chris Mercer Tackles Statutory Fair Value

This week’s New York Business Divorce examines a noteworthy decision by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Marylin Diamond in Cole v. Macklowe, where she precluded the defendant’s valuation expert from testifying on the applicability of minority and marketability discounts in valuing the plaintiff’s equity interests in a series of single-asset real estate holding companies.

Continue Reading Court Rejects Minority and Marketability Discounts in Assessing Damages for Breach of Equity Participation Agreement