Conglomerate Inc. has 20 million shares outstanding and its stock is currently trading at $25 a share.   The firm has two divisions: industrial electrical equipment and machine tools.  The following table provides financial information for each division (in millions of dollars):
	Industrial Electrical Equipment	Machine Tools
Net Income	19.61	21.2
Sales	52.9	278.71
Book Value of Equity	134.83	279.32
EBITDA	17.46	49.44
Total Debt	7.33	55.01
Since the managers believe that both divisions are being undervalued by investors, they are considering a divestiture program.  To justify this program, the managers have collected the following data for several industrial electrical equipment and machine tools companies:
Industrial Electrical Equipment
	Nidec	Eaton
Market Value of Equity/Sales	2.29	0.94
Market Value of Equity /Book Value of Equity	4.04	1.65
Enterprise Value/EBITDA	14.539	13.405
Enterprise Value/Sales	2.31	1.17
Total Debt	$1,430M	$3,470M
Price per Share	$24.53	$67.61
Number of Shares	557.17M	166.7M
Machine Tools
	Kaydon	Stanley Works
Market Value of Equity/Sales	2.37	1.2
Market Value of Equity /Book Value of Equity	1.6	2.27
Enterprise Value/EBITDA	8.512	9.38
Enterprise Value/Sales	1.84	1.47
Total Debt	0	$1,380M
Price per Share	$33.70	$53.36
Number of Shares	33.23M	80.63M
Note: Enterprise value is equal to the market value of equity plus total debt.
Should the firm go ahead with the divestiture program?   Please justify your answer.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

To determine whether the firm should go ahead with the divestiture program we need to compare the relative valuations and financial performance of Con... View the full answer