Bureau van Dijk (BvD), one of the world's leading publishers of business information, is launching a new Excel-based tool that automates time-consuming tasks in the company valuation process.
Valuation Catalyst works with BvD's company and M&A databases that are well established in the corporate finance environment. Valuation Catalyst will be available from 1st October 2010.
Valuation Catalyst pulls business data from BvD's company and deal databases, pushes it through a series of models then presents a range of valuations. In the background, Valuation Catalyst finds comparable companies and historical deals that can be used to assess the subject company. These are sourced from BvD's Orbis which contains detailed information on companies and its Zephyr deals database. Both products have global coverage.
Valuation Catalyst incorporates three different valuation approaches: asset, income and market based, each with a variety of models. Output includes high, mid and low values with graphical illustrations. The models and assumptions have been developed in cooperation with Cass Business School. Users can override and edit data points, bringing their own knowledge to specific valuations.
"Valuation Catalyst will give an express route to an initial valuation to use a as a starting point in the valuations process," said Lisa Wright, head of M&A products at BvD, "Valuation Catalyst does much of the initial leg work for you in sourcing data and placing it directly into models in Excel. This potentially saves hours and reduces the likelihood of data errors. Users will know more quickly which valuations to prioritise for more intricate research. There's also plenty of opportunity for users to bring their own knowledge and expertise to Valuation Catalyst's results by overriding default options and creating "what if" scenarios."