Principles stand firm but practices have needed to shift foot. This was concluded by a “virtual roundtable” on the valuations of private credit under the covid-19 pandemic, organised by BNY Mellon in May.
“The fundamental question of what fair value is and where to look for fair value guidance has remained the same. However, some methodologies changed to reflect the uniqueness of the current situation,” BNY managing directors Peter Salvage and Brian McMahon write in their summary of key takeaways from the session.
For private credit firms, the issue is obviously in focus, especially when it comes to illiquid markets that are challenging to value already in normal times.
The talk was hosted in partnership with the Alternative Investment Management Association’s (AIMA) Alternative Credit Council (ACC), on 5 May. It featured industry experts Murray Grenville from Sterling Valuation Group, Ryan McNelley from Duff & Phelps and Jiří Król from the ACC.
Participants noted that for some firms they were helped by going back to 2008 and finding sector comparable companies as proxies.
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