assets are what the company is worth if Liquidated or sold. Example if you have paid off your house and you own it and it's worth $150,000, now you are worth 150,000. Then say you need money for some reason and had to see you house. Then now you have $150,000 cash. Same with cshd they have bonds they can liquid and get cash for at anytime and also have assets that they own with gives them a book value of $12.81.