EV / EBITDA

This is the multiple used by someone considering buying the whole company rather than a share: because enterprise value already includes debt, it compares businesses with different financial structures without leverage distorting the result. It also sidesteps differences in tax and depreciation policy across countries.

Its weak point is EBITDA itself, which ignores exactly what many businesses need to survive: investment in assets. In capital-intensive companies — telecoms, industrials, utilities — a low EV/EBITDA can coexist with poor cash generation, because the depreciation EBITDA skips represents spending that will arrive anyway. For those cases, EV/FCF is harsher and more informative.