Led by chartered business valuators (CBVs), our valuation team provides meaningful insight into your company and industry, along with a careful analysis of your historical and projected financials.
Our expertise
For over 20 years, our team has delivered credible, independent and objective business valuations for a variety of purposes, including:
- Mergers and acquisitions (buy-side and sell-side)
- Capital raising or refinancing (equity and debt)
- Financial reporting, such as purchase price allocations, goodwill and intangible asset impairments
- Portfolio investments, such as private equity and venture capital
- Business succession planning
- Transfers of assets or divisions to other legal entities (including overseas)
- Reverse takeovers or go-private transactions, including fairness opinions
- Tax reorganizations and compliance
- Transfers of a family business to the next generation
- Business restructuring, corporate reorganization and distressed sales
- Insurance coverage for shareholders’ or partners’ agreements
- Evaluation of strategic options or development of business strategies to unlock value
- Disputes between shareholders or owners, including mediations and arbitrations
What we do
Chartered business valuators are business valuation specialists. They are governed by the CBV Institute, Canada’s only designation authority dedicated to business valuation.
Understand value
CBVs are uniquely trained to uncover risks, find hidden value, and enable wise, valuation-based business decisions. A CBV helps you understand and measure value on how each key element of your business impacts your business value.
Maximize value
CBVs create & maximize shareholder value. They identify the most profitable opportunities for growth for your business and unlock the intangible assets that are not on the balance sheet — assets that will drive value, such as customer relationships, community relations, management capabilities and alliances.
Protect value
CBVs understand business risk. They also understand what you need to do to safeguard the value of your business. A CBV provides you with a constructive plan to help you not only protect the value you have already created, but mitigate risk and maintain value into the future.
Who we are
Mergers and acquisitions advisors
Most sellers want to know what their business is worth before they commit to a rigorous and time-consuming sale process.
Most buyers want to make sure they can get a strong return on investment (ROI) from the price they pay to acquire a business.
CBVs are well versed in determining the value of the business for both buyers and sellers. They apply their expertise to assess the fair market value of a business from its fundamentals, using quantitative and qualitative analysis, as well as the synergistic benefits that create additional value or return.
Our team helps buyers and sellers understand each other’s perspectives on value and close the “value expectations gap” in buy and sell transactions.
Business advisors
CBVs help those involved in a transaction understand the drivers that create business value and provide advice on how business value can be optimized. They are deeply knowledgeable about international valuation standards, as well as finance and valuation theory and its practical applications for your business.
Our team has significant experience providing business valuation advice and analysis to help business owners, management teams, buyers and investors understand the value of a business and help them make better and more informed decisions.
Independent experts
CBVs may be called in to determine the fair market value of a business during a large corporate finance transaction, such as a go-private transaction, reverse takeover, or initial public offering.
These valuations must meet rigorous standards set by securities commissions or securities exchanges. As independent and objective experts, CBVs provide confidence to regulators that the value of the business is not influenced by the parties vested in the successful execution of the transaction.
CBVs may also be called in to determine the fair market value of a business where two parties do not agree. In many current shareholder agreements, business owners require an independent and objective business valuation expert to help the parties transact.
In other cases, disputes arise and CBVs are called on to provide independent and objective opinions of value for mediations, arbitrations or trials.
Our CBVs have testified in mediations and arbitrations as qualified experts by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Subject-matter experts
CBVs are often called upon to perform business valuations for financial reporting purposes. They determine the fair value of identifiable intangible assets, such as patents, trademarks, brands, technology and customer relationships acquired by a business in accordance with financial reporting and tax requirements.
CBVs determine the fair value of individual assets acquired in a business combination so that the purchase price can be appropriately allocated. They also undertake annual impairment reviews for acquired goodwill and intangible assets under various accounting standards.
Accountants and audit teams outsource to CBVs to help with these complex valuation matters.
Who we help
Business owners and management teams
We understand that for many business owners, their business is their most important asset. Understanding the value of the business is critical in a sale or other shareholder transaction, such as a shareholder retirement or management buyout.
CBVs also track valuation multiples in the market and have extensive database tools that can help business owners and management teams better understand how the market is pricing businesses at any particular time.
Accountants
Our CBVs can provide independent and objective valuation opinions for your clients.
We have received many referrals from accounting firms that do not offer business valuation services and have a reputation for providing their clients with high-quality service. We recognize that they are your clients first, and we ensure that they benefit from the referral you provided.
Buyers and investors
Our CBVs can provide independent and objective valuation opinions on your acquisitions, portfolio companies, whether for financial reporting or to exit the business. Not only do we help buyers determine the price for their acquisitions, we also provide various analyses to estimate synergistic benefits, evaluate financing scenarios and address other deal structuring considerations.
Investors seek an ROI for all of their portfolio companies. Our CBVs help you understand whether that ROI can be achieved with your desired investment or has been achieved with your portfolio investments.
Our CBVs also provide fair value estimates of your investments under your financial reporting guidelines.
A focus on technology companies
Although we have provided valuations in many industries and sectors, we have extensive experience in the business valuation of technology companies. We have valued technology companies with software-as-a-service (SaaS) business models in various sectors, as well as companies in software, hardware, biotech, cybersecurity, fintech, media and other sectors.
Founders and management teams are expected to generate strong performance and high growth. Often that requires multiple rounds of investment. Our CBVs are experienced in valuing technology companies for multiple rounds of financing and helping them understand what investors are looking for.
We also understand that technology companies are always recruiting, and it is difficult to find talent without offering stock options. We have performed many valuations for stock option purposes, for both Canadian and U.S. tax and financial reporting. Our valuations adhere to Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and financial reporting requirements related to Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards, as well as with practice standards 110, 120 and 130 of the CBV Institute.
Case study: Valuation for technology companies
Royal Fire Protection Inc., was founded on September 18th, 1990 in Ontario, Canada. The company specializes in designing and installing fire protection systems throughout Ontario, earning a reputation as the leading provider of fire protection services in the region. Royal has experience in a wide range of systems, including sprinkler, standpipe, water spray, FM200, and CO2 applications.
Welch Capital Partners was engaged to prepare a financial pro forma and valuation for a buy-side acquisition mandate. The client approached Welch Capital Partners to acquire another complementary firm, and required a professional and credible pro forma and valuation to satisfy the buyer’s lenders.
Welch Capital Partners was engaged to prepare valuation of a company who was preparing to buy out a minority shareholder. The client approached Welch Capital Partners help them determine an independent and objective valuation of the shareholder’s interest for the buy-out. The minority shareholder would consider our valuation in his negotiations with the client.
What our clients are saying:
“[Welch Capital Partners] has provided 409A valuations for our option issuances over the past few years. The valuation reports we receive are of high quality but are cost effective, and we appreciate their professionalism and responsiveness to our needs. [Welch Capital Partners] provides a great service to venture-based businesses in the technology sector and we plan to use them in the future.”