Valuation as business strategy

Accu­rate asset val­u­a­tion isn’t just about assist­ing dis­pos­al. It helps com­pa­nies raise finance for growth, and sup­ports the organ­i­sa­tion, investors, lenders and advis­ers to make informed deci­sions on under­ly­ing assets, such as debtors, inven­to­ry and machin­ery.

Liq­uid­i­ty Ser­vices, which oper­ates in areas as var­ied as print­ing, bio­phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal, engi­neer­ing, con­struc­tion and min­ing, food and bev­er­age, renew­able ener­gy, and auto­mo­tive, is find­ing that more and more com­pa­nies are turn­ing to it for val­u­a­tions to help them to raise cap­i­tal.

What­ev­er the pur­pose of the val­u­a­tion, whether to sup­port busi­ness acqui­si­tion, includ­ing rais­ing addi­tion­al finance, or dis­pos­al, refi­nanc­ing or restruc­tur­ing, select­ing the cor­rect advis­er is para­mount. Liq­uid­i­ty Ser­vices’ glob­al reach, expe­ri­ence, and its vast and grow­ing data­base of asset types and poten­tial buy­ers helps it to realise the best prices for its clients, regard­less of their loca­tion and busi­ness sec­tor.

“The issue is about hav­ing a prop­er under­stand­ing of the sec­ondary mar­ket for a par­tic­u­lar asset,” says Elaine Shel­ley, head of UK val­u­a­tion at Liq­uid­i­ty Ser­vices. “Mar­kets change all the time. It might be that the best mar­ket for an asset belong­ing to a UK com­pa­ny is now Aus­tralia.” Pro­vid­ing a real­is­tic price, cal­cu­lat­ed with real mar­ket val­ues in mind by an expert provider, is essen­tial.

In the cur­rent eco­nom­ic cli­mate, when banks are nat­u­ral­ly more cau­tious about lend­ing, hav­ing an accu­rate and up-to-date val­u­a­tion plays an impor­tant role in secur­ing a loan or over­draft. “This accounts for around 90 per cent of our appraisal work for lenders,” says Ms Shel­ley. “Cor­po­rates or advis­ers often engage direct­ly when look­ing to refi­nance a busi­ness, and may com­mis­sion an inde­pen­dent report to secure offers for refi­nanc­ing from a num­ber of banks and finan­cial insti­tu­tions.”

When banks are more cau­tious about lend­ing, hav­ing an accu­rate and up-to-date val­u­a­tion plays an impor­tant role in secur­ing a loan or over­draft

Mak­ing an effec­tive val­u­a­tion increas­ing­ly requires val­uers to look at all aspects of an asset – the val­u­a­tion could be based on the income that it gen­er­ates as well as its val­ue. Lenders and investors are nat­u­ral­ly con­cerned about their exit strate­gies and here too they can be reas­sured by a com­pre­hen­sive, detailed val­u­a­tion from Liq­uid­i­ty Ser­vices with its inter­na­tion­al net­work and exten­sive expe­ri­ence.

With the devel­op­ment of the asset-val­u­a­tion sec­tor, prompt­ed by com­pa­nies’ need to lever­age all their assets ful­ly, addi­tion­al ser­vices, such as sur­plus asset man­age­ment, are now a fea­ture.

“Liq­uid­i­ty Ser­vices has pio­neered a way for com­pa­nies to man­age assets glob­al­ly allow­ing full vis­i­bil­i­ty across all loca­tions,” says Ms Shel­ley. “Through our web-based Asset­Zone® sys­tem, com­pa­nies can improve deci­sion-mak­ing for each asset, eas­i­ly rede­ploy­ing to anoth­er group loca­tion, with any required val­u­a­tions being com­plet­ed to sup­port inter­na­tion­al account­ing stan­dards require­ments. Or an asset can be marked for dis­po­si­tion through an online auc­tion mar­ket­place, such as our Go-Dove.com (GoIn­dus­try Dove­Bid) mar­ket­place.”

Liq­uid­i­ty Ser­vices is increas­ing­ly part­ner­ing with small and medi­um-sized enter­pris­es, as well as mul­ti-nation­al com­pa­nies around the world, to recov­er rev­enue from sur­plus equip­ment, inven­to­ry, and vehi­cles and scrap mate­r­i­al, among oth­er assets.

The company’s inno­v­a­tive and pow­er­ful online sales chan­nels ensure max­i­mum risk man­age­ment and achieve the best deals for the end-buy­er, often oth­er busi­ness­es.

Its online mar­ket­places sell assets in con­ve­nient and open envi­ron­ments that ensure trans­paren­cy for both buy­ers and sell­ers, and when paired with expert val­u­a­tions, pro­vide a valu­able busi­ness solu­tion.

To date, Liq­uid­i­ty Ser­vices has appraised more than three mil­lion assets world­wide.

www.liquidityservices.com