How to value businesses and shares – an introductory guide for investors, managers and more

By Mark Aleksanyan and Kenneth Lee and Matthias Meitner and Neil Pande

The Valuation Book contains the tools needed by anyone who wants to make a robust valuation of a business.

No detailed prior knowledge of business valuation is required – the book covers everything you need to know, including how to read relevant parts of company accounts and the valuation tools (including DCF and multiples) that are used by professionals.

Written by academics who are also practitioners, The Valuation Book provides a unique mix of theory and practical application. It is designed around the authors’ experience of teaching thousands of people about valuation principles over the last two decades.

Short, accessible chapters with a consistent structure and layout allow readers to build up their knowledge step by step.

And the book is fully up to date, with accessible specialist chapters on integrating ESG into valuations, valuing immature companies, identifying flaws in valuation models, valuation for mergers and acquisitions, and more.

The Valuation Book is a comprehensive introductory valuation guide for investors, managers, accountants, lawyers and anyone else who needs to value a business.

Dr Mark Aleksanyan is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance at the Adam Smith Business School of the University of Glasgow. His main expertise and research interests are in the areas of financial analysis and equity valuation, as well as information processing and decision-making of capital market actors. His research has been published in a number of leading international accounting and finance journals, including Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance, Accounting and Business Research, and Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal. He is an associate editor of Qualitative Research in Financial Markets. Mark has been teaching financial analysis and valuation courses at undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA levels for more than 15 years. Before joining academia, Mark worked as a macroeconomist in the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Government of the Republic of Armenia, and prior to that as a financial analyst in a financial consulting firm.

Dr Kenneth Lee is a professor at Loughborough Business School in the UK. Prior to that he was an associate professorial lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Before academia Kenneth was a Managing Director & Head of European Equity Research at Barclays Capital. Prior to this he was also a Managing Director and a ranked accounting and valuation analyst at Citi Investment Research in London. Professor Lee is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, a member of the Institute of Taxation, a CFA Charterholder and holds a doctorate from Aston Business School. He has published in leading academic journals, including Contemporary Accounting Research, The British Accounting Review and European Management Review. He is co-author of two books: Financial Statement Analysis Under IFRS (2018, Financial Edge); and Company Valuation Under IFRS (2020, Harriman House).

Dr Meitner is the managing partner of VALUESQUE, a consultancy firm that focuses on business valuations and financial analysis. He also serves as a publicly appointed and sworn expert for business valuation (verified by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry). Matthias has more than 20 years of practical and research experience in business valuation and in the analysis of financial statements. His track record includes more than a decade at Allianz SE and Allianz Global Investors where, as an equity portfolio manager, deep fundamental analysis was combined with a valuation-driven approach. Matthias holds a doctorate from the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg and is Chair of Finance at the International School of Management in Munich.

Neil is a financial training consultant based in London.

Most recently Neil was a Senior Instructor at the UBS Research Academy where as part of the number-one-ranked Fundamental Analytics team he was integral in building an EdTech platform consisting of hundreds of audio, video and immersive ebook digital assets, including the “Build Better Models” manual, aimed primarily at buy-side portfolio management clients.

Prior to that Neil spent 20 years designing and delivering instructor-led training courses in financial statement analysis, financial forecasting and modelling in Excel, company valuation, and M&A and LBO transaction modelling for M&A and leveraged finance bankers, private equity practitioners and equity and credit research analysts from many of the most preeminent global financial institutions.

Neil graduated with a Master’s in History from the University of Cambridge, focusing on modern economic history. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, having qualified in the Audit & Business Advisory practice of Arthur Andersen in London while specialising in large public company audits, and is a CFA Charterholder, having taught the program over several years.