Good news for UK business valuers: The ICAEW Valuation Conference is back on the calendar after it was postponed last fall. The new day-long virtual programme is scheduled for 20 May beginning at 8:55 BT.
Those who registered for the 2020 programme should have received their new registration, along with a refund. New registrants can sign up for the ICAEW business valuation event here. Rates are as follows:
- Valuation community member: £60 + VAT;
- ICAEW member: £85 + VAT; and
- Nonmember: £120 + VAT.
The programme begins with Professor Pablo Fernandez discussing his recent article ‘Valuation, Common Sense and Common Errors.’ Among his topics are:
- What is a valuation?
- Where discounted cash flow valuations come from?
- A closer look at assumptions in valuation models.
- Facts, opinions, and theories.
- Problems with calculated betas.
- Errors due to forgetting what are we doing.
- Errors due to ‘not remembering the definition of WACC,’ the most common error using WACC.
- Errors due to ‘following a recipe without thinking.’
- How to correct common errors?
Fernandez is followed by Ian Cooper’s discussion of valuation anomalies such as the small-firm effect, liquidity, the low beta anomaly, profitability, and sentiment. Afternoon sessions include Andrew Strickland’s session on cost of capital for family companies. A further highlight for the event will be the unusual opportunity to hear directly from HMRC’s Shares and Asset Valuation (SAV) section assistant director, Steve Thomas. SAV offered well-attended meetings for years for the valuation profession, but they’ve been postponed since 2018.