A valuation that only its author believes is a number, not an asset. The valuations that matter are the ones examined by someone with an interest in disagreeing — a counterparty, an investor, a tax authority, a court — and the difference between a number and a defensible number is the evidence trail underneath it: the method chosen for stated reasons, the assumptions documented and sourced, and the alternatives considered and rejected in writing.
Our business valuation practice produces that second kind. It is independent — paid for the work, never a percentage of the transaction it supports — and it is built for Saudi decisions: the ownership structures, regulatory perimeter and information realities of companies operating in the Kingdom, not a template with the currency changed.
If the decision the number serves has already been made and the valuation is wanted as decoration, we are the wrong firm — a commissioned conclusion is worth nothing to the party you show it to, and they will know. If the business is pre-revenue and the "valuation" is really a negotiation position for a first round, what you need is the funding conversation, not a report. And if what you actually need is the plan the value depends on, start with business plans and feasibility studies.
The same five stages as the rest of our advisory practice — see how we work — applied to a valuation engagement.
What the valuation is for, who will examine it, and by when. A valuation for a negotiation, one for a filing and one for a dispute are different products with different standards of evidence — fixing the purpose first is what stops the wrong product being built thoroughly.
The work: financial information normalised so the history means what it appears to mean; the value drivers identified and tested against evidence rather than management enthusiasm; and the approaches applied as the purpose requires — income approach (discounted cash flows built from drivers we can defend), market approach (comparable evidence where genuinely comparable evidence exists — and stated absence where it does not, which in private Saudi markets is frequent and material), and cost approach where asset backing is the substance of the business. Where the company's value rests on its technology, the technical assessment draws on the same first-hand platform diligence our investment practice uses.
The valuation report: the concluded basis of value, the method selected and why the alternatives were not, every material assumption stated with its source, and sensitivity shown so the reader sees what moves the number — the structure built to be examined, because it will be.
The number goes to work: supporting the negotiation, the board paper, the filing or the dispute process, with the analysis behind each position available when challenged — and the working model handed over, drivers separated from outputs, so your team can re-run it as facts change.
Values date. Where the valuation supports a continuing situation — an option plan, a periodic reporting requirement, a staged transaction — we maintain it on an agreed cadence instead of rebuilding it from zero each time. The engagement shapes are on engagement models.
The pace is set by the state of the financial records and the availability of the people who know the business, not by the size of the company. Records that support analysis directly move fast; records that must be reconstructed first do not, and we will tell you which situation you are in at the end of Stage 1 — with dates committed then, not guessed earlier.
A single advisory session suits a bounded question — a sanity check on a number you have been offered, or which basis of value your situation calls for. A full valuation is a scoped project: a written scope, a fixed fee agreed before work starts, and a defined deliverable. A standing arrangement suits values that must stay current. In every shape the fee is fixed against the scope and never a percentage of the value concluded or the transaction it supports — a valuer paid on the outcome has an interest in the outcome, which is the precise interest a defensible valuation must be free of. We do not publish indicative ranges; the first conversation prices your actual scope. The shapes are described in full on engagement models.
Buyers and sellers in private transactions, where ours is often the only independent number in the room; investors and founders around a round, alongside our venture capital advisory practice; family businesses restructuring ownership between generations or partners; boards and finance teams with financial-reporting valuation needs; and organizations entering or expanding in the Kingdom — often continuations of market entry and strategic business advisory engagements, where "what is this worth" follows "what should we do".
Valuation work is confidential more often than any other advisory product — the number itself is usually the secret. We publish no deal counts or value tallies here, and the engagements cleared for publication appear on our success stories page as clients approve them. A reference can be arranged privately where confidentiality allows.
Record quality sets the pace. With financials on a consistent basis and management available, the work moves quickly; where history must be normalised before it can be analysed, that phase comes first and is sized at Stage 1. If the valuation serves a live transaction with its own calendar, say so at the start — we will state plainly whether the scope fits the time.
The delivery fee is fixed against the written scope. The lifetime cost depends on how long the number must stay alive: a one-time transaction valuation ends with the deal, while a valuation supporting an option plan or periodic reporting needs maintenance on a cadence — far cheaper against a maintained model than rebuilt from zero. What it should never cost is a percentage of the value concluded; see section 4 for why we refuse that structure.
Purpose decides this, so we fix it first. Certain purposes in Saudi Arabia — court and dispute contexts among them — require a valuer accredited by the Saudi Authority for Accredited Valuers (Taqeem); where your purpose requires an accredited valuation, we say so at Stage 1 and work alongside the appropriately licensed professionals rather than in place of them. The same boundary applies where a transaction touches the Capital Market Authority's regulated perimeter — a structuring question we assess before the work, not after. Advisory valuations for negotiations and internal decisions sit outside those regimes, and most of the work on this page is exactly that.
The one the purpose and the evidence support, stated with reasons — usually more than one, with the divergence between them examined rather than averaged away. Income, market and cost approaches each fail in predictable ways when misapplied, and a report that shows why an approach was NOT used is more defensible than one that shows only the arithmetic of the one that was. What we will not do is pick the approach that produces the number you were hoping for.
Often, and in owner-managed companies it is the normal case — but the reconstruction is its own phase, scoped and priced visibly rather than absorbed. There is a floor: where records cannot support any defensible conclusion, we say so instead of dressing an assumption as an answer. That answer is unwelcome and cheap; the alternative is expensive precisely when the number gets examined.
We do not currently publish engagement counts or aggregate values we could stand behind at a buyer's standard of verification — in a practice whose product is defensible numbers, publishing undefendable ones about ourselves would be its own verdict. What you can test instead, on a first call: the report structure, the evidence file format, and the model you would receive — shown, not promised.
Buyers, sellers, boards, investors and family shareholders. We display no client logos ahead of each client's own agreement to appear — and in valuation work that consent is rarer than anywhere else. The permissioned list is on our customers page.
Cleared case studies are published individually on our projects page. We will not paraphrase confidential valuations into anonymous cards — anonymised valuation work is either recognisable to the people who matter or useless to everyone else.
No quote appears until the named client approves the exact wording attributed to them, with name, role and organization. An unattributed testimonial is not evidence — a standard this page, of all pages, has to hold itself to. References can be arranged privately on request.
What stands behind the practice is on our partners page: the platform and technology partnerships that make technical value assessment first-hand rather than desk-based. The boundary is stated once more because it matters here: accredited-valuer contexts, statutory audit and legal advice belong to licensed professionals, and we work alongside yours — never in place of them.
If the valuation serves a transaction, continue to M&A advisory; if it serves a funding round, venture capital and investment advisory. If the number depends on a plan that does not exist yet, start at business plans and feasibility studies; for the decision above the number, strategic business advisory. Tax positions move value: see VAT in Saudi Arabia and, where cross-border payments feature, withholding tax. And for how an engagement with us runs at all, see how we work and engagement models.
Book a decision session and bring the purpose, not the paperwork: what the number is for, who will examine it, and when. We will tell you which basis of value fits, what evidence the purpose demands, whether your records will carry it — and, where it is true, that you do not need a full valuation at all.