Valuation of Business & Intangible assets

This paper is intended to provide guidance to those interested in valuation of cryptocurrencies, being a new type of intangible asset.

Rather than hope that the court will prefer your expert’s opinions, over your adversary’s expert opinion, on the relevant capitalisation rate or discount rate that should be applied, we have provided a comprehensive presentation to arm lawyers with the relevant need to know information on this vexed and technical topic.

AVG Forensic was engaged in early June 2019 to provide covert forensic accounting investigations of a finance director (and founding shareholder) suspected of fraudulent behaviour. These investigations revealed financial results manipulation spanning numerous financial years and significant unauthorised payments by the company at the benefit of this finance director and shareholder. A mutual arrangement was reached between the 2 company directors whereby the finance director resigned from the company at the end of June 2019. The nature of the dispute from this point in time, was that this former director and company shareholder, sought an unreasonably high amount in consideration for the value of his shares in this company.

Our forensic accounting and valuation experts answers this question. Put simply, we think this is the wrong question to ask.

We have a systematic approach to identify hidden assets and have them valued in the asset pool.

Key takeaways from the May 2019 American Family Law Conference, which are relevant to family lawyers in Australia.

The High Court of Australia’s decision in Commissioner of State Revenue v Placer Dome Inc (now an amalgamated entity named Barrick Gold Corporation) [2018] HCA 59 addresses the legal meaning of ‘goodwill’ and applies it to a tax matter involving a mining company

There is no one determinative factor which determines whether a business is a financially viable and whether a company is insolvent. This article addresses all the factors which need to be considered.

Why rules of thumb don’t cut it!
In providing a valuation opinion, whether it relates to the value of a business, intellectual property right, intangible or tangible asset, there are three broad valuation approaches which can be adopted being:

Attacking the messenger and the message!
The practice of preparing valuation reports is well established in Australia. Despite the prevalence of numbers and calculations in a valuation report, valuation practitioners come from a variety of different backgrounds, which are not limited to those with an accounting and/or finance background. This has led to a haphazard and ad-hoc approach to setting quality standards across the body of valuation work in Australia.

How does a Forensic Accountant with valuation expertise differ from a Business Valuer?
The field of forensic accounting, while niche, encompasses a broad range of skills sets. The ‘forensic’ part of the job relates to court work, therefore we are providing accounting expertise for potential use in a court.