Reading List: Private Markets: Valuation, Capitalization and Transfer of Private Business Interests by Robert T. Slee

Rob Slee spoke at a recent conference Trek attended on building private company wealth, produced by the Alliance for Corporate Wealth. Mr. Slee is the President of Robertson & Foley, a mid-market investment bank in Charlotte, NC. He is an interesting guy, and this is the first of several books he has planned.

This book is written much like a textbook and is quite dense. It has numerous, detailed chapters in three sections: approaches to private business valuation, private company capital structure (including all kinds of lending and investing), and modes of business transfer. If you want a comprehensive source on the basics of all these topics, this is a great volume.

If you are familiar already with the basics of the private market, you still should know about this book. Slee is trying to shake up the business education world. He says that business schools teach finance that is based on corporate finance theories, such as capital asset or option pricing models, which are relevant to only the largest public companies in the U.S. These theories are irrelevant to most of the remaining companies, which make up most of the U.S. economy. He makes the case with this book that different theories reign in private markets, and that there is much room for improved understanding of these important and increasingly efficient economic systems. For more information on this book, visit www.robertsonfoley.com/book.html.  2005