The UK Financial Conduct Authority will begin a review this year on private asset valuations. Academics at UK business school Edhec submitted a consultation paper to the government explaining how the UK infrastructure valuations in some cases “may be akin to fraud.” Unlike publicly traded stocks and bonds, private debt, equity, and assets are valued using a wide range of techniques. These valuations rely on assumptions about future cash flows, which are heavily dependent on various inputs, such as interest rates. If these inputs are outdated, valuations can be terribly inaccurate. Another issue is that some private equity managers manipulate the data in order to provide auditors a rosier picture of the business, when in reality that business is struggling in the market.
https://www.ft.com/content/1b36053e-3994-4b94-8052-278db6dbdcbb