Insights

April 06, 2022
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The Michel-Shaked Group’s Israel Shaked, and Brad Orelowitz published an article in the February 2022 issue of the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal discussing beta, the measure of a company’s systematic risk, and its application to valuation. The article describes how to calculate beta and situations where accurately determining this metric may require extra attention, such as highly distressed companies, recent IPOs, private companies, and instances of extreme economic volatility....

August 10, 2021
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Retained by the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Chesapeake Energy Corporation, The Michel-Shaked Group led by Israel Shaked and Stephen Kempainen, provided consulting and expert testimony regarding the valuation of Chesapeake Energy Corporation upon the company’s expected emergence from bankruptcy. The case was tried in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas before Judge David Jones. ...

April 13, 2021
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The importance of the discount rate, and the sensitivity of valuation conclusions to even small changes in the discount rate, requires increased scrutiny of discount rate assumptions by all parties to the dispute.  In normal times, it is important for a valuation professional to bring substantial support for the assumptions and inputs into his/her discount rate calculation. However, during periods of abnormal market conditions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes even more imperative for valuation professionals to substantiate their assumptions and ensure that inputs are normalized....

May 06, 2020
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In a bankruptcy, financial projections play a significant role in many different aspects of the process. In many cases, the Court’s preference is to rely on management’s projections, as management usually has vast experience within the company. However, there are instances where projections produced by a company’s management are not reliable....

March 19, 2020
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The Michel-Shaked Group, led by Stephen Kempainen, together with affiliated expert Valerie Davisson, provided consulting and expert testimony regarding disclosures made by solar panel manufacturer First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR). After years of litigation and shortly before the trial was to commence, First Solar agreed to pay $350 million to settle the class action lawsuit....