Monday, November 21, 2011

EBITDA and Rhode Island Pharmacy Acquisitions

By Brad MacLiver
Authorship and profile at Google


EBITDA means: earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. This is often used to measure the value of some businesses including both pharmacy chains and independently owned drug stores. It can also be used in the comparison of similar companies.
      
Generally, EBITDA makes it easier to evaluate various companies and to compare them against industry averages by removing the non-core and irregular operating costs, such as interest, which can vary depending on the management’s choice of financing, taxes which can fluctuate depending on acquisitions or losses from prior years, and arbitrary factors of depreciation and amortization.

The EBITDA formula can be used as a guideline when valuing larger companies, or when comparing the profitability of large similar companies in the same industry.

For the effective use of EBITDA, these larger companies should possess significant assets, have heavy amortization schedules, or bear substantial amounts of debt. Considering independent pharmacies in Rhode Island don’t meet that criteria, this formula is not a useful measure as the sole means for valuing pharmacies for acquisition purposes.

To Calculate EBITDA:
#1. Calculate net income by obtaining total income and subtract total expenses.
#2. Determine the total amount of taxes paid to federal, state, and local governments.
#3. Compute interest fees paid to companies or individuals for the use of credit, or capital.
#4. Establish the cost of depreciation (the expense recorded to allocate a tangible asset's cost over its useful life).
#5. Determine the cost of amortization (the expense for consumption of the value of intangible assets, such as goodwill, patents, and copyrights, over a specific period of time, or the asset's expected life.
#6. Add #1 through #5.

EBITDA calculation example:

#1. Net Income             900
#2. + Taxes paid           280
#3. + Interest Expenses    190
#4. + Depreciation         105
#5. + Amortization          45
#6. = EBITDA             1,520

Hindurances when using EBITDA:
#1. Can be misleading number when it is confused with cash flow.
#2. Can make even completely unprofitable firms appear to be financially healthy.
#3. Numbers are easy to manipulate.
#4. Can overlook cash requirements for growth in accounts receivable.
#5. Can miss cash requirements for growth in inventories.
#6. Not factual when valuing small companies.
#7. Not effective for companies with few assets, small amounts of debt, or low depreciation or amortization schedules.

EBITDA was being used as a proxy for cash flow during the 1980's in leveraged buyouts to calculate whether companies could service their debt. By factoring out variables like interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, unprofitable business can appear financially healthy. This method of valuation was used frequently during the dotcom era in order to value unprofitable businesses with little assets and few earnings.  The results from that method caused many to go bust -- a blaring example of misapplying EBITDA.

Knowledgeable pharmacy specialists in RI performing pharmacy business valuations will use EBITDA in RI pharmacy valuations, but only as part of a larger formula when computing values for specialty pharmacies especially those who have a niche in HIV, disease management, long term care, etc. However, EBITDA is usually not needed in the valuation formula method for standard retail pharmacy valuations.

The EBITDA number for a specific existing pharmacy is important, for the most part, when the existing ownership is establishing their store value for the purpose of a line of credit, borrowing, creating a Trust, stock values, etc., but EBITDA does not have the same importance when selling a Rhode Island pharmacy. This is due to the fact the buyer will not have the same expenses as the seller.

Buyers may not have the same tax base, interest expense, or the same depreciation schedule, thus it is important that the buyer calculate an estimated EBITDA that is specific to their operating model, business systems, buying power, cost of operations, etc., not the sellers. It should also be noted that EBITDA assumes that the buyer will acquire all of the assets, working capital, accounts receivable, and liabilities. Those assumptions do not hold true regarding an acquisition of a Rhode Island pharmacy. Instead of the EBITDA number, pharmacy buyers should be focusing on sales, gross profit, cash flow, and customer mix.

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