Control premium

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Control premium is an amount that a buyer is usually willing to pay over the current market price of a publicly traded company. This premium is justified by the expected synergies, such as the expected increase in cash flow resulting from cost savings and revenue enhancements achievable in the merger. Normally, the control premium is industry-specific and amounts to 20–30% of the market capitalization of a company calculated based on a 20 trading days average of its stock price.

[edit] Example

Company XYZ has 1,000,000 shares outstanding. The 20 day average price per share is $1. To buy control, an acquirer usually needs to consolidate more than 50% of the shares. Say, the buyer wants to acquire 60% of the stock. The market price will be 600,000 * $1.00 = $600,000. However, the buyer estimates that he will be able to realize 25%-synergy, so the maximum price he is willing to pay is $600,000 * (1 + 25%) = $750,000

The term of a control premium is synonomous with that of en bloc premium /discount. This term was first used by Gabe Grossi, Journal of Finance 1976.