The recent crisis in financial markets has seen a gradual erosion of the boundaries of asset classes previously regarded as risk-free. We have gone from a world largely free of default risk to one where equity prices largely reflect credit risk. Traditional valuation methods should be integrated so as to take into account a scenario in which expectations of growth are considerably reduced, while credit risk is increased to levels unheard of before now. With the majority of Private Companies at a Sub-Investment Grade, credit risk is predominant in equity risk. This book demonstrates how the cost of equity for Private Companies can be estimated according to a Fixed-Income Approach based on the pricing of junior subordinated notes. This is presented throughout the book with business cases from USA, Japan, China, Russia, India and Italy. This book is also intended for use in courses in Banking, Corporate Finance, Capital Markets and Risk Management.