Unlisted Assets: Navigating Valuation Challenges and Best Practices

In an IPE webcast on Tuesday 9 July, 2025 at 10:00 am BST / 11:00 am CET, Evan Clark, Senior Private Markets Analyst at SIPA and Tim Whittaker, Director of the EDHEC Infrastructure and Private Assets Research Institute (EIPA), will discuss the subject of unlisted assets.

Valuing unlisted infrastructure assets is inherently complex, with significant implications for investors, regulators, and market stability. Despite widespread adoption of fair value standards like IFRS 13 and ASC 820, considerable challenges and inconsistencies remain.

Join the webcast to explore findings from an industry survey that uncovers the current valuation landscape, identifies key issues, and discusses actionable solutions:

• Valuation Variability and Fragmentation:
  Understand why inconsistent approaches—ranging from cash flow forecasting and discount rate selection to terminal value calculations—are prevalent, and how they affect investment comparability and confidence.
• Conservative Biases in Valuations:
  Discover why internal valuations often consistently lag actual market exit prices (by 6%–20%), raising questions about accuracy and strategic biases within current valuation methodologies.
• Limited Market Responsiveness:
  Learn how infrequent revaluations during market stress periods contribute to smoothing and mask asset volatility, impacting risk management and investment transparency.
• Ambiguity Around Financial Models:
  Examine why investors are divided on traditional financial models like CAPM, and how differing valuation approaches further complicate accurate asset valuation.
• Management Forecast Reliance Risks:
  Discuss the implications of heavy reliance on management-generated forecasts without adequate independent scrutiny, increasing vulnerability to optimism biases.
• Recommendations for Best Practice and Governance:
  Explore proposals for standardized valuation frameworks to improve reliability, transparency, and comparability across the investment landscape.

The webcast will be moderated by Brendan Maton of IPE.

Register for the webcast here.