Tiger Group Executive Offers Insights into the Drivers of Today's Asset Valuation Environment

SFNet's 'In the Know' podcast covers valuation shifts, tariff impacts, industry-specific pressures, and the expanding role of AI in appraisal analytics.

NEW YORK, Dec. 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Shifting tariffs, plunging consumer confidence and poor performance in once-thriving sectors like transportation and green energy have made timely and accurate appraisals increasingly critical in asset-based lending, advised the chief of Tiger Group's commercial and industrial disposition arm.

Against that backdrop, lenders need to ask enough questions to feel confident about the estimates of machinery and equipment (M&E) asset values in the appraisal, said Chad Farrell, Managing Director of Tiger Commercial & Industrial, in a new episode of SF Net's "In the Know" secured-lending podcast.

"What data is behind this appraisal?" Farrell asked in a wide-ranging conversation with podcast host Barry Bobrow. "And what is it actually going to take to market, sell and remove the assets in question?"

Site removal, for example, is straightforward when those assets are rolling stock like trucks and tractors. Hydraulic forging presses that can weigh as much as 300,000 pounds are another matter. "Someone could tell you that the assets can be sold and removed in three months," Farrell told Bobrow. "No, they can't. It is going to take nine months to remove."

Gaining a realistic sense of the removal timeframe is just one way to zero in on the true net orderly liquidation value (NOLV) of the collateral, Farrell noted. The Houston-based executive, who manages day-to-day operations and steers strategy at Tiger C&I, started out as an oil-and-gas field engineer in the 1990s. He has sold more than $1 billion in machinery and equipment, rolling stock, inventory and other assets over the course of his career.

"When you hire an appraiser, make sure they've got expertise in the actual equipment in the vertical," Farrell noted. "If they're doing sales and liquidations or lending into that space, then that helps even more because they're very familiar with the assets."

During the podcast, Bobrow quizzed Farrell about:

• Tiger's recent results from secondary-market auctions, sealed-bid and private-treaty sales across multiple sectors;
• Questions that asset-based lenders should consider as they evaluate appraisals and appraisal firms; and
• How the ABL sector can benefit from multidisciplinary discussions and data-sharing among specialists in dispositions, financing, and appraisals.

On the latter point, Farrell noted that Tiger's appraisers conduct about 800 projects every year. While this gives them immense expertise across different sectors, they routinely seek the perspective of specialists at Tiger C&I who sell wholesale and industrial assets all over the world.

The exchange often results in Farrell and his colleagues recommending lower or even higher NOLVs based on recent sales results and other factors.

"At C&I, a senior disposition professional reviews every industrial appraisal that goes out," Farrell told Bobrow. "We want our groups at Tiger tightly integrated so that our customers can really get a feel for the market with some actual comps in that vertical. This review process is one of the things that sets us apart."

Listen to the full podcast at:
https://www.sfnet.com/home/events/in-the-know

Media Contacts: At Jaffe Communications, Elisa Krantz, (908) 789-0700, [email protected]

SOURCE Tiger Group