The loan account is where a clean valuation quietly goes wrong Members’ and shareholder loan accounts decide how much of a business’s value actually reaches the owner — and in a divorce or a buy-out, who that owner is. It is the most overlooked number in an owner-managed business. Here is why it matters and how it should be handled….

When SARS disagrees with your valuation, the burden is on you — not on them Capital gains tax, donations tax and share transactions all turn on the value of a business. If SARS questions your figure, you have to prove it. A number your accountant pencilled in to fit the return is not proof. Here is what is. A surprising…

When the owner dies, the business still needs a number — and a guess is the most expensive one A business is usually the largest and least liquid asset in an estate. The figure the executor settles on drives estate duty, capital gains tax and what each heir actually receives. Here is why that number needs to be independent and…

A B-BBEE deal changes your value in two directions at once. Most owners only price one. Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment can lift what your business is worth and, at the same time, quietly raise the risk that the figure collapses. Here is how a valuer weighs both sides — and what it does to the marketability and minority discounts. When…

When shareholders fall out, the fight is about the number — and only an independent one ends it. Business partnerships end for all sorts of reasons: a partner wants to retire, two founders no longer share a direction, a shareholder is being bought out, or a working relationship has simply broken down. Whatever the cause, almost every partner dispute and…

In a divorce, the business is often the largest asset — and the number both sides will fight over. When a marriage ends and one or both spouses own a business, that business is frequently the single most valuable thing in the estate — worth more than the house, the retirement savings, or anything else on the table. It is…

Someone’s made an offer for your business. Their number is an anchor, not a verdict. It usually arrives without warning. An email, a LinkedIn message, a quiet word from a competitor or a private-equity scout: we’d be interested in acquiring your business. Sometimes a number follows immediately; sometimes it comes a meeting or two later. Either way, the approach is…

Most business owners, asked what their company is worth, reach for the figure on their latest financial statements. It is the number they know, the number their accountant gave them, and the number that feels official. It is also, in almost every case, the wrong number to walk into a negotiation with. Your accountant’s figure and your business’s market value…

AI can do the valuation. It can’t sign it. We are entering a genuinely exciting era. Artificial intelligence has become remarkably good at many of the things a business valuation involves — reading financial statements, running calculations, modelling scenarios, researching comparable transactions, drafting. Used well, it is a powerful assistant, and I use modern tools myself to do the work…

Valuing minority interests: why a part-share is worth less than its share of the whole. It comes as a surprise to many people, but a minority stake in a business is almost never worth its simple proportion of the whole. If a company is worth R10 million and you own 20% of it, your shares are usually worth less than…