Statutory Fair Value in Dissenting Shareholder Cases: Part II

This article continues the discussion of statutory appraisal that was presented in Part I in the prior issue of Business Valuation Review. Fair value, the predominant standard of value employed by state courts to value dissenters' shares in appraisal cases is, is determined by state law. In most states, fair value is the shareholder's pro rata portion of the value of a company's equity. This article discusses the approaches used by the Delaware courts' views to assess fair value. Premiums and discounts are usually not permitted in statutory appraisals in Delaware and most other states, and we discuss the reasoning and the exceptions.