{"id":764,"date":"2026-06-23T11:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T11:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/?p=764"},"modified":"2026-06-23T10:18:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T10:18:33","slug":"should-companies-get-valuations-regularly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/should-companies-get-valuations-regularly\/","title":{"rendered":"Should companies get valuations regularly?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A small note on AI amidst another discussion.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a thought brought about by recent conversations we have had with lawyers and clients.<\/p>\n

Would it be better for everyone if companies and their shareholders knew what their business\/investment was worth on any one day, all the time or at least to the nearest quarter? And, perhaps more importantly, what the value could become depending on strategic decisions being considered by the management team?<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been thinking about this since we worked on a recent complex valuation. This established the value of a group and, within that group, the value of each company. Then we pivoted and attributed the value across the assets it owned, particularly across the IP (e.g. the management team, the customer lists and the business model). The client used the latter work to rethink the entire business, enabling them and he explained that it enabled him to really understand where the value rested, as opposed to where it apparently sat. On the back of that activity, he changed direction to exploit the true value of the business, not just try to grow by doing more of the same.<\/p>\n

It also strikes me that VC and PE quarterly reporting by many more companies might be a healthy thing, even if it was still confidential to shareholders. That is provided, of course, that the underlying computations and arguments don\u2019t just pay lip service, i.e. by publishing a number to keep people quiet. It would help with strategic planning for the company, and for shareholders, it would help with areas such as estate planning. What do you think?<\/p>\n

In the meantime, HMRC is on the case and increasingly examining private company valuations, as highlighted by this recent article in the FT<\/a>. The need to be strongly evidence-based, with opinions backed by sound arguments, is ever truer. Woe betide the people who transact in shares where there may by a resulting tax event, if the valuation is not complete and comprehensive!<\/p>\n

In the US, valuation is a defined profession, with a national body and certification, unlike the UK, where in many situations it is not regulated by the FCA or another august body. We think that pressure from HMRC and even the market will start to change that position, but probably not in a hurry, and we wonder if there needs to be a new regulatory framework for valuations activity which traverses FCA and accounting and legal standards. Our analyst team are studying for CFA certification as the content of those courses has a lot of relevance to valuations work.<\/p>\n

The good news is that there is ever more data available to perform deep and defensible valuation exercises, and the internet is full of advice about different valuation methodologies. We keep a very close eye on AI, almost treating it as a junior analyst, but anything it is asked to do is reviewed and validated by humans.<\/p>\n

In a world where there is no absolute generic route to computing the number you need, (and HMRC says you must always treat each and every exercise as unique) the need for a team of humans (the client, the lawyer, the valuer, maybe the accountant and in some cases a KC) to establish a price that really is defensible is definitely still necessary in our view.<\/p>\n

A side note: <\/strong>On the recent case where AI was used to prepare a case which a barrister prosecuted and won. For me, this says it all \u2013 just like accounting software removed a load of pencils and paper, AI will take out a lot of work in our worlds, but we don\u2019t see any reduction in accountants \u2013 do you? The truth is that even more business will get done (some of it created by the people who leave our professions) and the fundamental need for a human to sit in the mix (with a better-quality job) is not going away anytime soon. What will change is the balance of how time is spent and the development of a new approach and articulating to clients where the value in the work done sits as well as what it is worth in terms of outcomes.<\/p>\n

If you need any support with valuations work do call. We always keep people available to respond to jobs big and small.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A small note on AI amidst another discussion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":766,"href":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764\/revisions\/766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.athla.co.uk\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}