When you need to know what a business, asset, or claim is worth, you need more than an estimate. A Chartered Business Valuator (CBV) brings the training, judgment, and standards to deliver an answer that holds up, whether it’s shaping a deal, resolving a dispute, or informing a financial statement. CBVs work across the full range of business decisions where value is the question.
How CBVs create value
CBVs are:
- Trusted to determine business value and provide high-quality valuation analysis, from straightforward engagements to highly complex ones
- Active across every sector of the economy and financial markets
- Objective experts who provide credible valuation advice for financial reporting, tax compliance, litigation, and more
- Trusted advisors who support value-based decisions, including transactions, strategic planning, and succession
Areas of practice
Explore how CBVs apply their expertise across the business decisions that matter most to you.
CBVs support the full deal lifecycle, from first assessment to close. They provide valuations for purchase, sale, and financing, lead diligence and Quality of Earnings analysis, and advise on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and going-public or going-private transactions. When a deal involves intangible or intellectual property assets, such as technology, data, or brand value, CBVs apply specialized methods to value them as part of the transaction. CBVs also prepare fairness opinions, support financial regulators, and guide business succession and restructuring.
For deal trends, insights, survey data, and commentary, see Deals, Mergers & Acquisitions.
CBVs are active throughout the private equity lifecycle: valuing portfolio companies at acquisition, supporting fund-level and portfolio valuations for reporting purposes, and advising on exit strategy and timing. They assess capital structure, model returns, and evaluate investment opportunities through an investor’s lens, helping funds and their portfolio companies identify where value is created and where it’s at risk.
As value experts, CBVs help businesses identify, evaluate, and act on opportunities to grow and protect value. Services include financial modelling, investment and capital allocation analysis, and practical guidance on complex business decisions. CBVs support clients who want to:
- Improve cash flow and investment returns
- Evaluate strategic options or develop a plan to unlock value
- Assess investment decisions and validate capital plans
- Identify value opportunities and business risks
CBVs determine value and support compliance and planning across a range of tax and succession matters, including deemed dispositions, estate freezes, corporate reorganizations, and disputes with tax authorities. This extends to valuing intangible and intellectual property assets, such as patents, trademarks, and proprietary data, for tax compliance and planning purposes. CBVs are also engaged directly by tax authorities to review the valuations behind a transaction.
CBVs provide expert evidence in legal, tax, and financial disputes, including shareholder and partnership disputes, commercial litigation, matrimonial and family law matters, and business expropriations. They measure economic losses arising from breach of contract, misrepresentation, and patent or licence infringement, including disputes involving the value of intangible assets like technology or intellectual property. CBVs also support bankruptcy, insolvency, and receivership proceedings.
CBVs value the identifiable intangible assets acquired in a business combination, such as trademarks, technology, and customer relationships, so purchase prices can be properly allocated. They also perform annual impairment testing for goodwill and intangible assets under IFRS, ASPE, and US GAAP. As emerging assets like proprietary data, algorithms, and AI models become larger drivers of business value, CBVs apply the same rigour to valuing them for financial statement purposes.
CBVs value all types of financial instruments, including derivatives, contingent instruments, fixed income, equity instruments, and structured products, primarily for financial reporting purposes. They also evaluate the governance, processes, and controls behind an organization’s financial instrument valuations.
Many CBVs hold senior leadership roles inside the businesses they work for. CBVs are employed by private companies, public issuers, and funds in roles spanning financial and strategic planning, business development, deal analysis, and financial reporting, as well as within banking, investment management, and financial regulation.
CBVs are active academics, contributing research and teaching the next generation of valuation professionals at leading universities.
Work with a CBV
Whatever the decision, a CBV brings the training and judgment to get the value right.