Is the price fair — and can the board show why?
An independent valuation and fairness analysis of a proposed transaction: discounted cash flow, comparable companies, precedent transactions, the transaction structure and market conditions, tested for sensitivity — built for board, shareholder and regulatory scrutiny. The opinion is short; the analysis behind it is not. Standard scope delivered in 20 calendar days.
Who commissions it
Boards and independent directors
Directors who must approve a transaction price and be able to show, afterwards, that they tested it. An independent opinion on fairness from a financial point of view is the record of that diligence — and the record the board can point to when a shareholder asks how the price was tested.
Listed companies
Schemes of arrangement, related-party transactions, preferential issues and share swaps — where the valuation report and fairness opinion come from the signatories the regulations prescribe, and the directors must still show they tested them. Our analysis is the board's own independent check on the price, prepared alongside the prescribed process and built for the scrutiny of shareholders, exchanges and regulators.
Large corporates
Acquisitions, divestments, joint ventures and demergers where the consideration, the share swap ratio or the structure must be justified to a board, a counterparty or an auditor. The valuation gives the negotiation a defensible basis; the opinion records the conclusion.
Private equity investors
Entry and exit pricing, co-investor and secondary transactions, and portfolio-company events where an independent view is needed for an investment committee, a limited partner or a counterparty. Multiple methods, reconciled, with the range and the reasons for it.
What the analysis contains
Discounted cash flow
A cash-flow forecast built or reviewed line by line, a cost of capital derived and documented, terminal-value assumptions stated and tested. The intrinsic view, with every input traceable to its source.
Comparable companies
A peer set selected on stated criteria, trading multiples drawn from current market data, adjusted for size, growth, margin and liquidity — and the reasons each peer is in or out, recorded.
Precedent transactions
Multiples paid in comparable transactions, with the control premium, the market conditions at the time and the structure of each deal taken into account before any figure is applied.
Transaction structure
Consideration mix, earn-outs, swap ratios, deferred and contingent elements, control and minority positions — the terms that change what a headline price is actually worth, analysed as part of the price.
Market conditions
The state of the sector and the capital markets at the valuation date: where the cycle sits, what has been paid recently, what liquidity and sentiment are doing to multiples — so the opinion is anchored in its moment, and says so.
Sensitivity and the fairness conclusion
Each method reconciled into a value range, the proposed price placed against it, and the assumptions that move the conclusion tested one by one. The opinion states whether the price is fair from a financial point of view, and on what basis.
How the engagement runs
| Applicable to | Board and independent-director approvals · Listed-company transactions, alongside the valuation report and fairness opinion the regulations prescribe · Acquisitions, divestments, joint ventures and demergers · Private equity entry, exit and co-investor pricing · Any transaction where an independent view of the price must be shown. |
|---|---|
| Independence | The fee is fixed at engagement and is not contingent on the transaction completing or on the conclusion reached. We accept the engagement only where we hold no interest in the parties or the outcome, and any relationship that could be seen to bear on independence is disclosed in writing before we begin. |
| Confidentiality | A non-disclosure agreement precedes any data. Working files are held in an access-controlled repository; where the company is exchange-listed, we work within its code of conduct for unpublished price-sensitive information, and the arrangements are recorded in writing at the outset. |
| Team | One senior valuation adviser leads the engagement and remains your single point of accountability, drawing on sector and financial-modelling input as the transaction requires. |
| Kick-off | Confidential scoping call → data request list → written scope alignment within one working day of the call. The scope records the transaction, the parties, the valuation date, the standard of value and the audience the opinion must satisfy. |
| Methodology | Discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation, comparable companies and precedent transactions applied and reconciled; the transaction structure and market conditions analysed as part of the price; sensitivity on the assumptions that move the conclusion. Every input is documented and sourced, so each figure can be traced to its basis by a board, an auditor or a regulator. |
| Deliverable | A concise opinion letter addressed to the board or committee, stating whether the proposed price is fair from a financial point of view, with the complete valuation analysis as its annex — the methods, the peer and transaction sets, the model outputs, the reconciliation and the sensitivities. The letter is short by design; its weight is the annex. Where the regulations prescribe another signatory for the transaction, the same analysis is issued as an independent valuation and fairness analysis report to the board, alongside the prescribed documents and not in place of them. |
| Timeline | 20 calendar days from commencement for the standard scope — the day the booking instalment and the data on our request list are both in hand. Complex and exchange-listed cases are given their own schedule on the scoping call. The valuation analysis is shared first, and a draft opinion is shared for the board's review before the final is issued. |
| Payment | Three equal instalments — on booking, on sharing of the valuation analysis, and on sharing of the draft opinion. A GST tax invoice is issued on receipt of each payment. |
| Fee basis | The fee shown is the base professional fee for a standard scope: one transaction, one subject company or business, one opinion addressed to one board or committee, with a management forecast available. A share-swap or merger ratio, which requires valuing both companies, is quoted as a two-entity scope; where a forecast must be built, the timeline is agreed on the scoping call. Where the case is complex — an exchange-listed company, multiple entities or business units, a group structure, cross-border elements, or a contested process — the fee is quoted after the scoping call, with its own timeline. |
| Post-delivery | One presentation of the findings to the board or committee, and written responses, through the board, to questions from its directors, auditors or shareholders on the opinion and its annex, within 60 days of delivery. Support to the board's advisers where an exchange or regulator raises a question on the price is scoped separately. An updated opinion at a later valuation date, or on revised terms, is quoted on request. |
Frequently asked questions
If yours isn't here, ask on the scoping call — everything discussed there is confidential.
What is a fairness opinion?
The letter is brief. A board relies on it because of the analysis beneath it and because the adviser has no stake in the answer.
Is this a statutory fairness opinion or a registered valuation?
In those cases our engagement is a separate one, commissioned by the board for its own record: an independent valuation and fairness analysis against which the directors can test the prescribed report and opinion before they approve. It is delivered alongside the signatory's process, not as part of it, and it does not replace it.
Where no signatory is prescribed — a negotiated acquisition or divestment, a joint-venture or co-investor pricing, an investment-committee or shareholder-agreement valuation — the opinion we issue is the independent opinion the board relies on, and we confirm on the scoping call that nothing in the transaction prescribes another.
How is a fairness opinion different from a valuation?
Why several methods rather than one?
How is independence protected?
What scrutiny is the analysis built to withstand?
What do you need from us to begin?
How much does a fairness opinion cost?
Where the case is complex — an exchange-listed company, multiple entities or business units, a group structure, cross-border elements or a contested process — the professional fee is quoted after the scoping call, with a correspondingly longer timeline. A share-swap or merger ratio, which requires valuing both companies, is quoted as a two-entity scope. You will know the fee and the schedule before you commit.
How long does it take?
Who signs the valuation report
The statutory report is signed by a Registered Valuer
Where the Companies Act requires a registered valuation, the report is issued under the signature of a Registered Valuer. The analysis is prepared by Projectzo; the statutory report carries that signature. The registration number appears on the report itself, as it must.
Why the structure is worth understanding
Section 247 requires the report to carry a Registered Valuer's signature. It does not require the analysis behind it to be produced by the same person, which is why depth of analysis and the statutory signature are two separate questions a board should ask about separately.
What you should ask any valuer
Who performed the analysis, who signs, what standard was applied, and which method drove the conclusion. A valuation whose provider cannot answer all four in one sentence each is a valuation a counterparty will challenge.
Put an independent opinion behind the price.
One confidential scoping call establishes the transaction, the parties, the valuation date and the audience the opinion must satisfy. We will say plainly what the engagement involves, who must sign, and what it will cost — before you commit.
Book a confidential scoping callThe standard this engagement runs to
Scoping, deliverable definition and closure follow ISO 20700, the international standard for management consultancy services — so what this engagement covers, what you receive and when it is complete are all agreed in writing before work begins.