Business valuation in Edinburgh

More share valuations here than sale valuations

Edinburgh instructs us differently from most UK cities. A large share of the work is valuing shares rather than valuing a business for sale: EMI option grants in growing technology firms, partner buy-ins at professional practices, founder share issues, and transfers between existing shareholders.

Those are not the same exercise. A share valuation has to deal with what the holding actually confers — a minority stake without control is not simply a proportionate slice of the whole — and it has to state a basis that HMRC or an opposing adviser can test. We set the basis out on the first page and show the workings behind it.

If your figure is needed for a scheme, a transfer or a dispute rather than a sale, say so when you ask for a quote. The scope, and sometimes the answer, is different.

Seasonal hospitality and accommodation

Edinburgh's hospitality and serviced accommodation base has a pronounced seasonal shape, and that distorts a naive read of the accounts. A year that includes a strong festival period is not a maintainable year, and a partial year of management figures is close to meaningless without knowing which months it covers.

We normalise across a full cycle, strip genuinely one-off items, and treat the property position explicitly. A freehold operation is valued as trade plus property; a leasehold one is valued on earnings after rent, with lease length, rent review pattern and repair obligations all feeding into the multiple rather than being noted and ignored.

Technology and early-stage businesses

For established software and technology businesses the valuation runs on normalised earnings with the multiple driven by how much revenue is contracted, how sticky the customer base is and how much of the product knowledge sits with named individuals.

Pre-profit and early-stage companies need a different treatment altogether — typically a forward-looking basis with the assumptions written down and tested, rather than a multiple of a profit that does not yet exist. Those are quoted individually because the evidence required is greater.

An illustrative Edinburgh example

A fictional Edinburgh software business, included to show how the figure is built rather than to suggest what any real business is worth.

Illustrative and fictional. Your own figure depends on your accounts, your contracts and your buyer pool.

What you get

• A bespoke written valuation report, not a template or a calculator output.
• Normalised earnings, the multiple evidenced against comparable transactions, and a cross-check on an asset or cash-flow basis.
• Every assumption stated, so the figure can be tested by a buyer, a solicitor, a funder or HMRC.
• Fixed fee from £495, agreed before any work begins. Three working days from receiving your figures.

Reports are used for sale preparation, purchases, management buyouts, shareholder disputes, divorce proceedings, probate and HMRC submissions.

Common questions from Edinburgh owners