Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from John Kang - RBC Capital Markets.
John Kang - RBC Capital Markets
I guess when you look at the average yields for your private equity investments, would you say, I mean, obviously you're relatively fully invested but, as you look forward, are you seeking to receive higher yields or are you still basing your buying decisions on, I assume, fundamentals of the underlying business more than the yield as you look for good rates of returns on your initial investments.
Kevin S. McCarthy
Yes. I mean, I think certainly the dividend rates on new privates we expect are going to be higher, but we really look and evaluate the whole package. We look at the coverage ratios. We look at comparable M&A values. I don't think we would get many privates done if we went out and said the rate on the privates had to be 19%. We still think we can do private transactions with good coverage ratios at a 9% to 10% current yield which could have very attractive internal rates of return to us.
John Kang - RBC Capital Markets
And then, Kevin, I was wondering if you could just give a just a general overview on how you mark to market the value of your private equity investments? I assume there's probably no real change in your general methodology, but I wonder if part of this current market stress - and that's kind of being kind - does that factor in in any way in the current environment?
Kevin S. McCarthy
Well, realize the valuations and the NAV that we disclosed yesterday are based on our fair market value assessment as of the end of the quarter, August 31st, and it reflected the market conditions at that time.
From a methodology standpoint, we really haven't changed anything in that we look at a variety of factors, including where the public companies are trading, what the coverage ratios are relative to the public companies; also what the M&A values are if we were to turn around and sell that business. So our methodology is the same, but we tend to look at more than just the factors of what the current share price is in the market, which we're obviously forced to do with our public MLP securities, and we take in an entirety. And there's some times where frankly the M&A there's some markets where the M&A valuation would be lower than public market comparables and there's some times when it could be higher.
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