Business Valuation Services
A valuation is only worth what it can survive. The number has to hold up when a buyer’s advisers pick at the forecast, when an auditor tests the discount rate, or when a minority shareholder’s lawyer reads the report line by line.
We value businesses the way the other side will attack them: from the cash flows up, with every assumption sourced, and with the judgement calls stated rather than buried.
Fixed fee, agreed after a scoping call. Mid-market businesses across the UK, GCC, North America and South Asia.
When You Need One
Why clients commission a valuation
- ◆You are selling, or a buyer has made an approach, and you need to know what the business is worth before you hear their number
- ◆You are buying, and the seller’s price needs testing against what the cash flows support
- ◆An investor has sent a term sheet and the valuation in it looks wrong
- ◆Shareholders are entering or exiting, and the price has to be fair to both sides
- ◆Your auditors need a purchase price allocation or an impairment test under IFRS or US GAAP
- ◆A fund needs periodic portfolio valuations that will stand up to its LPs and auditors
- ◆The board is weighing an acquisition, a divestment or a capital commitment and needs an independent view of value
Each purpose changes the standard of value, the level of evidence required and who will read the report. We agree that at the start, because a valuation written for the wrong reader fails even when the number is right.
Methods
How we value a business
No single method is right for every business. We use the ones the evidence supports and reconcile them, so the conclusion does not rest on one model’s assumptions.
Discounted cash flow
Value as the present value of the cash the business will generate. It is the most rigorous method and the most abused: a DCF is only as good as the forecast and the discount rate behind it. We build the forecast from operating drivers, derive the cost of capital for the market the business actually operates in, and show how the answer moves when the key assumptions do.
Comparable companies
Value by reference to listed peers, using multiples of revenue, EBITDA or earnings. The work is in the comparability: adjusting for size, growth, margin and market, and saying plainly when no listed peer is genuinely comparable rather than forcing a multiple across.
Precedent transactions
Value by reference to prices paid for similar businesses. Useful in an M&A context because it captures what buyers have actually paid, including control premiums. Less useful when the deals are old or the market has re-rated since, which in many sectors it has.
Asset-based and sum-of-the-parts
For holding structures, asset-heavy businesses, or groups whose divisions would be valued differently by different buyers. Often the method that exposes value a single group-level multiple misses, or liabilities it hides.
What Drives the Number
Quality of earnings comes first
Most disputed valuations are not disputes about method. They are disputes about which earnings the multiple is applied to. One-off income treated as recurring, owner costs running through the accounts, revenue recognised early, customer concentration nobody mentioned: each one moves the answer more than any choice between a DCF and a multiple.
So before we value anything, we normalise the earnings. Every adjustment is listed, explained and sized, which means anyone reading the report can see exactly how we got from the reported profit to the figure we valued, and challenge a specific line rather than the whole conclusion.
Valuations have also reset. The cheap-money multiples of 2020 and 2021 are not coming back in most sectors, and a valuation anchored on them will not survive contact with a buyer. We set out what has changed in our article on why most businesses are worth less than their owners think.
Engagements
Valuation work in practice
Deliverables
What you receive
A valuation report
The conclusion, the range around it, the methods used and why, the normalisation adjustments, and the key assumptions with their sources. Written so a non-specialist board member can follow it and a specialist on the other side can test it.
The valuation model
The working model behind the report, structured so inputs, calculations and outputs are separate and the sensitivities can be rerun. Yours to keep and to use in the negotiation that follows.
A walkthrough, and support afterwards
A session with the board or shareholders to go through the conclusion. If the valuation is going into a negotiation or an audit, we can stay on to answer the challenges it draws.
The Engagement
How it works
Scoping call
Purpose, reader, valuation date and the information available. This sets the standard of value and the fee.
Fixed-fee proposal
Scope, timeline and fee agreed in writing before we start. The fee does not depend on the answer.
Information request
Historical accounts, management accounts, forecasts and the key commercial contracts. Under NDA.
Analysis
Normalisation, forecast review, cost of capital and each valuation method, with management sessions where we need them.
Draft and challenge
You see the draft and the reasoning. We take factual corrections; the judgement stays independent.
Final report and model
Delivered with a walkthrough for whoever will rely on it.
Common Questions
FAQ
Know what it is worth before they tell you
A short scoping call, a fixed fee in writing, and a valuation built to survive the other side’s advisers.