Valuing businesses is not an exact science and requires the use of mathematical techniques combined with the application of knowledge and experience.

When asked what a business is worth we could come up with many different answers. In reality a business is simply worth what a purchaser is prepared to pay for it.

The purchaser is really the only qualified party to truly value a business as they know what the business is worth to them.

For example:

• each different purchaser will see the potential to create different synergies and therefore come up with different future maintainable profit levels
  
  
• a competitor might feel a significant premium is worth paying in order to remove competition from the market place
  
  
• specific intellectual property could be priceless to one purchaser and worthless to another.

The Barnes Roffe Corporate Finance team has the wealth of knowledge and experience required to advise both vendors and acquirers of businesses on valuations, and to carry out specific valuations given different potential purchasers.

For vendors we can give you a ball park figure of what we feel the business is worth at the beginning of the assignment using past experience and several valuation techniques. Only when we have identified potential purchasers can we more specifically assess what we feel each acquirer could gain from the acquisition and therefore come up with an idea of what each party would be prepared to pay.

For acquirers we can assess target companies and the potential synergies that could be created to derive a suitable valuation.

We would then work with you to negotiate a deal price and structure that will give you the maximum benefit from your investment.

We would also be available post acquisition to give advice on how best to develop and make the most of the potential synergies identified by you and paid for.