Digital assets have rapidly evolved into a relevant asset class for corporates, investors, regulators, and auditors yet valuation practice is often inconsistent. That creates uncertainty for investors, advisors, corporate decision-makers, and auditors. CDAV is designed to close that gap. You’ll build a clear understanding of digital asset fundamentals and learn how to connect value drivers, risks, and market evidence in a structured, defensible way. As regulatory frameworks mature and institutional activity expands, the valuation of digital assets is becoming a material topic for the international valuation profession.

To support the profession in navigating this emerging field, the European Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (EACVA), is currently developing the Certified Digital Asset Valuator (CDAV) program. The initiative aims to address the shortage of qualified professionals capable of applying established valuation principles to digital assets while considering the unique technological, regulatory, and economic characteristics of this asset class.

Digital assets are now part of M&A, fund portfolios, corporate reporting, tax filings, lending, and risk management. Regulators (MiCA, SEC, FSA), auditors and investors increasingly require transparent, consistent and defensible valuations.

Unlike traditional instruments, digital assets require specialised competencies:

• Blockchain-based economic rights
• Smart-contract-defined value drivers
• Tokenomics influencing supply, demand and incentives
• Fragmented liquidity, 24/7 volatility
• Regulatory uncertainty
• New risk categories (oracle, governance, code, protocol)

The CDAV qualification will enable professionals to meet these requirements. It will provide the necessary valuation expertise needed when crypto and tokenised assets are integrated into mainstream finance.

EACVA has made an introductory overview of the CDAV initiative publicly available for professionals who wish to follow ongoing developments in digital asset valuation. Interested readers may join as CDAV Observers to receive updates, insights, and access to selected materials: www.eacva.de/en/cdav.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue. As always, we welcome your feedback and encourage article submissions for future issues.

Andreas Creutzmann, WP/StB, CVA

Corporate finance textbooks usually explain trade-off theory with no math equation and references to determine in practice the optimal leverage. Scientific models imply exogenous (and often arbitrary) financial market data that is not available in the case of private small business firms.

This note proposes a simple and practical model to estimate the optimal debt-to-capital ratio for SMEs using the Damodaran synthetic rating based on interest coverage ratio as a primary driver of credit risk and cost of debt. The model approach is particularly useful for non-listed firms, bypassing the need for financial market-based data. Simulations highlight that the optimal capital structure is positively related to firm performance (ROCE) and negatively related with risk-free rate.

If there is a correlation between two variables that are included in a Monte Carlo simulation, this correlation must be explicitly taken into account. In this article, we will show some ways of dealing with the correlation between two random variables and how these can be modelled in Python.

Between Past and Future: Bridging Empirical Yields with Return and Growth Expectations

The Cost of Capital Study by KPMG is being published this year in its 20th edition. Once again, a comprehensive analysis of current developments in corporate planning and the derivation of cost of capital has been released and the focus was on the impact on corporate valuations  and developments.

Detailed Review (Part I)

On 13 and 14 November 2025, EACVA welcomed around 450 business valuation professionals from 17 countries to Munich for its 18th International Business Valuation Conference. Taking place in EACVA’s 20th anniversary year, the conference marked a significant milestone for Europe’s largest business valuation gathering and once again underlined EACVA’s role as a leading international network for valuation professionals from practice, academia, advisory and regulatory institutions.

The two-day programme featured two keynotes and 24 expert sessions delivered by 28 distinguished speakers, addressing the most pressing challenges and developments shaping today’s valuation landscape. Topics ranged from the transformative impact of AI and automated valuation models to implications of revised standards in Germany and Austria (IDW ES 1 & KFS BW 1), practical perspectives on DCF, multiples and terminal value, as well as industry insights into valuing digital business models and biotech.

All data has been obtained from the KPMG Valuation Data Source. The data source provides access to cost of capital parameters from more than 150 countries and sectors as well as peer-group-specific data from over 16,500 companies worldwide. The data covers the period from 2012 to the present. The data is updated monthly and is accessible from anywhere around the clock. See KPMG Valuation Data Source for details.

The computations of the transaction multiples are based on the transaction and company data collected from various M&A databases, with the data being driven to consistency. We publish transaction multiples for Europe and resulting regression parameters (including transactions of the period 1 October 2022 until 30 September 2025) for the following multiples:

• Deal Enterprise Value/Sales
• Deal Enterprise Value/EBITDA
• Deal Enterprise Value/EBIT
• Deal Enterprise Value/Invested Capital

The multiples in this issue cover Europe as a total. In the following issues we will provide a regional breakdown into:

• Central and Western Europe, Southern Europe
• Scandinavia and Britain
• Eastern Europe