Business Valuation & Sale

Whether you are planning to sell, buying out a co-owner, bringing in an investor or simply want to know where you stand, understanding what your business is worth is the foundation of every good decision. Business valuation and sale advice from Stephens Cooke & Associates gives you a credible, defensible figure and, when the time comes, a business that is properly prepared to achieve the best outcome.

A valuation is rarely just an academic number. It anchors a negotiation, supports a tax position, settles a shareholder exit, or tells you whether selling now makes sense. Getting it right, and getting the business ready, separates a good sale from a disappointing one.

How we value a business

There is no single correct way to value a company, and anyone who quotes you a flat multiple without looking at the business is guessing. We assess the business on its own merits, drawing on the recognised valuation approaches:

• Earnings or EBITDA multiple, applying an appropriate multiple to sustainable, normalised profits, which suits most established trading businesses.
• Net asset basis, valuing the underlying assets, relevant for asset-rich or property-holding companies.
• Discounted cash flow, modelling future cash flows where growth or a defined project drives the value.

We adjust for the things that distort a headline figure, owner’s remuneration, one-off costs, surplus assets and the like, and we explain the reasoning so the figure stands up to scrutiny from a buyer, a lender or Revenue.

Getting your business sale-ready

The value in your head and the value a buyer will pay are not the same thing until the business is presented properly. Preparation, ideally started well before you go to market, makes a real difference to both the price and the likelihood of completing.

We help you get sale-ready by tidying the accounts and management information, resolving loose ends that would otherwise surface in due diligence, separating out any assets the buyer is not acquiring, and documenting how the business runs so it is not wholly dependent on you. This often sits alongside company restructuring to get the entity into a clean, saleable shape, and a business review to identify and fix anything that would weaken the case for value.

Planning the tax before you sell

How much of the sale proceeds you keep depends heavily on tax planning done in advance. A disposal of shares or assets is generally within the charge to capital gains tax at the current rate of 33%, but reliefs such as retirement relief and entrepreneur relief can reduce that substantially where the conditions are satisfied. The window to qualify for some reliefs can close if you act too late, which is why we bring capital gains tax planning and, where relevant, succession and estate planning into the conversation early. We will always advise you to confirm the current reliefs and thresholds with us or with Revenue.

Experienced advisors at your side

Selling a business is usually a once-in-a-lifetime event, and not one to navigate alone. We work with owners in Mullingar, Longford, Trim and Athlone to value, prepare and sell their businesses, staying alongside you through negotiation and completion so the numbers, and the tax, work in your favour.

If you are thinking about selling, or you simply want to know what your business is worth, start with a conversation. Book a free consultation and we will help you understand your position and your options.