You will be assisting Taylor Murphy in determining if her group of bidders can justify topping the $51 per share offer for HCA from the management-led consortium. Your valuation should take place as of December 31 2006 which will be the time any potential takeover could be closed. As a result, your valuation should be based on the projected free cash flows starting in 2007. The forecasts for year end 2006 numbers given in Exhibits 3 and 5 (denoted "2006E") should be treated as the best possible approximations for the actual final balance sheet and income statement for 2006