Business valuation allows you to establish what your venture is worth. The process involves a number of key steps aimed at reaching an accurate valuation. Some of the key steps, which can be supported by an adequate dataroom solution, include adjusting financial statements, selecting appropriate methods of company valuation and applying the chosen techniques. Before gathering the relevant information, you need to determine reasons for the valuation.

Methods of company valuation

1. Asset Valuation

This method entails the valuation of your firm’s tangible and intangible assets. It places emphasis on property that produces cash flow. The value of the assets is determined by the market or book value minus the company’s total liabilities.

Some of the items considered in the valuation include real estate, equipment, patents, inventory, trademarks and more. The approach offers some degree of flexibility when it comes to the inclusion of assets and the determination of their value.

Asset valuation is usually conducted before selling or purchasing an asset. You can also perform the valuation prior to taking out insurance for an asset. The approach can be based on various factors, including transaction value, cash flow or comparable valuation metrics.

The value of your company may be greater than the value of recorded assets. Records may not incorporate proprietary solutions and internally developed products. Intangible assets can be difficult to valuate and they may come in the form of special services and products that help the firm to stand out.

2. Historical Earnings Valuation

The current value of your business is determined by its ability to capitalize earnings or cash flow and liquidate debts. The value of the business takes a knock when revenue is low. These factors can be used to determine the firm’s historical earnings valuation. In addition the entire valuation process can be regarded as an economic analysis exercise. The key inputs for the exercise come from your firm’s financial information.

To valuate historical earnings, you need the balance sheet and income statement. Incorporating business information covering between three and five years provides a practical way to create a more comprehensive view. However, you have to recast or adjust historical financial statements. This is aimed at establishing a link between income, operating expenses and the required business assets.

3. Discount Cash Flow Valuation

This valuation method provides an accurate assessment of your business’ potential future earnings. You use it to determine the venture’s attractiveness as an investment opportunity. The approach achieves the objective by discounting future net cash flow into present value estimates. Investors will find the opportunity attractive when the value of discount cash flow valuation is greater than the cost of the investment.

Several variations are applicable when assigning values to the discount rate and cash flows. The process involves performing complex calculations with the aim to establish the returns an investor would gain. You adjust the returns for the time value of funds, which guides by the assumption that money is worth more today than tomorrow. On the other hand, you assess the future value of investments using WACC as the discount rate.

4. Future Maintainable Earnings Valuation

The Future Maintainable Earnings (FME) methodology is a simplified version of the discounted cash flow. You can employ the FME when expecting the profits to remain stable for the foreseeable future. The method involves the evaluation of expenses, profits and sales covering at least the past three years. The result enables you to perform accurate forecasts and determine the value of your business today.

Earnings-based valuations require careful considerations of various key factors. These include the separation of assessments involving surplus or unrelated liabilities and assets. You should determine the capitalization rate, which matches an investor’s preferred rate of return. In addition, it should reflect future growth possibilities. The earnings estimates should cover historical and forecast operating results.

5. Relative Valuation

A relative valuation model provides a practical way to compare your company’s financial value against similar businesses. When you make comparisons based on business assets, the method helps you determine a reasonable asking price. The approach is an alternative to the absolute model, which establishes intrinsic value based future cash flow projections discounted to their present value.

Relative valuation achieves the objective using benchmarks and multiples. Identifying an average makes it easier to choose a benchmark. The average also enables you to confirm relative value.

Some of the relative valuation ratios used in the process include enterprise value, price to free cash flow, price-to-sales for retail, operating margin and price to cash flow for real estate. When it comes to methods of company valuation, the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is one of the most popular multiples. It entails a simple calculation. You simply divide the stock price by earnings per share.

When your firm has high price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, this means it is trading more profitably than other companies in its sector. In contrast, people regard a firm with a low P/E as undervalued. You can implement this approach on any multiples with the aim to determine an entity’s relative market value.