(in much the same way that Donald Trump is facing $250m+ of fines right now in the US and probable time in jail)
It’s not been overstated, it was overvalued, but so many public businesses are – value is ultimately what people are willing to pay not an arbitrary multiple of ebidta. I was once asked what my business was worth, my answer was ‘Less than when we hadn’t made a profit’.
Unless the SEC could prove that SSU falsified their statements in order to boost the share price, then the value was what people were willing to pay for it on the open market.
Dudek’s assertion that the ¢150m equity commitment never really existed is quite telling sadly!
It probably did exist – it was likely not a coincidence the $150m was the same value give or take as SSN’s shareholding in SSU at the time it was committed. Thus they could underwrite the value of the loan with the equity they held in the business without it being a lie nor needing to have the free cash on hand. Only when the equity in the business crashed and other parts of the SSN empire likewise could they then no longer afford it and even selling _all_ their shares would only raise them a few mil. rather than the $150m at the time of the commitment.