Business valuation is a process and a set of procedures used to estimate the economic value of an owner’s interest in a business. Valuation is used by financial market participants to determine the price they are willing to pay or receive to affect a sale of a business. In addition to estimating the selling price of a business, the same valuation tools are often used by business appraisers to resolve disputes related to estate and gift taxation, divorce litigation, allocate business purchase price among business assets, establish a formula for estimating the value of partners’ ownership interest for buy-sell agreements, and many other business and legal purposes such as in shareholders deadlock, divorce litigation and estate contest.[1] In some cases, the court would appoint a forensic accountant as the joint expert doing the business valuation.18

What is ‘Business Valuation’

The process of determining the economic value of a business or company. Business valuation can be used to determine the fair value of a business for a variety of reasons, including sale value, establishing partner ownership and divorce proceedings. Often times, owners will turn to professional business valuators for an objective estimate of the business value. 19

BREAKING DOWN ‘Business Valuation’

The field of business valuation encompasses a wide array of fields and methods. The tools and methods can vary between valuators, businesses and industries. Common approaches to business valuation include review of financial statements, discounting cash flow models, and similar company comparisons. 20