How Valuation Advisory Services Benefit AE Firms

Do you know how much your architecture, engineering, or environmental consulting firm is worth? Are you thinking about bringing on new owners? Are you considering a firm sale to an outside buyer?

All AE firm owners must eventually confront these fundamental questions. However, too many firm leaders delay valuation and ownership transition planning because the task can seem so daunting. The ownership transition and valuation advisory experts at Morrissey Goodale know that architecture, engineering, and environmental consulting firm owners can feel so overwhelmed by the complex process that they don’t even know where to start. 

Whether preparing for retirement in the short term or planning for the long-term viability of your company, shareholders of architecture, engineering, and environmental consulting firms have too much at risk to fail to adequately prepare for their financial futures. Don’t put your investment at risk by getting stuck on how to proceed.

How Morrissey Goodale’s Valuation Advisory Services Have Helped AE Firms

With decades of experience and AE industry specialization, Morrissey Goodale’s certified AE business valuation experts have helped hundreds of industry clients successfully navigate the complex process of architecture, engineering, and environmental firm valuation and ownership transition. 

Our valuation advisory services can help architecture, engineering, and environmental firm owners:

• Know your firm’s worth to negotiate with confidence
• De-stress your ESOP obligations
• Update your formula to calculate a stock’s true value 
• Determine viable ownership transition options
• Structure financially manageable solutions
• Ensure buyers and sellers receive fair deals

The following six brief case studies detail ways in which Morrissey Goodale’s valuation advisory services have recently delivered the help our architecture, engineering, and environmental consulting firm clients needed. 

Determining your firm’s worth to negotiate with confidence

A small, highly profitable AE firm received an unsolicited offer from a prospective buyer looking for a rapid response. In order to enable negotiations, the firm utilized our valuation advisory services to quickly conduct a complete assessment of value and market position.  Ultimately, it was determined that the initial offer was inadequate for the firm’s true value, which enabled strong counteroffer negotiations and, ultimately, a right fit, right price future buyer.

De-stressing your ESOP obligations

A prominent architecture firm, majority-owned by its ESOP, was worried that its current ESOP model didn’t accurately represent growing repurchase commitments, which were putting a significant financial strain on the company. Working with our valuation advisory team, the firm developed a more robust model that considered the ever-changing nature of the ESOP, factoring in contributions, obligations, ongoing projects, and unique turnover patterns, revealing a significant underestimation of long-term obligations that required urgent corrective planning. 

Updating your formula to calculate a stock’s true value

A long-established AE firm with dozens of owners was preparing for a major transition using a nearly 50-year-old valuation formula that significantly undervalued the stock. It was determined that the firm needed to calibrate their valuation to modern practices and market conditions. The firm leveraged our valuation advisory consultants’ expertise to determine the stock was being priced at less than half the true value, and ultimately developed a multi-year transitional, stabilized approach.

Determining viable ownership transition options

A minority-owned firm with several owners seeking to retire was unsure if an external sale or internal transition would best meet its goals. Our valuation advisory team conducted a comprehensive assessment of the feasibility and desirability of each option, while also developing additional potential alternatives for consideration, ultimately guiding the firm leaders to choose a final future direction for the firm.

Structuring financially manageable solutions

A 100-person, closely held, highly profitable architecture firm wanted to enact a long-term transition to the next generation despite challenges with available financial resources to support the buy-out. The firm worked with our valuation advisory consultants to structure a financially manageable solution that ensured a fair payout for the current owners without a huge external debt load for the next-gen buyers. 

Ensuring buyers and sellers receive fair deals

An AE firm with dozens of owners and many annual stock sales needed a consistent market-based valuation from year to year. Our valuation advisory consultants conducted annual valuations to determine each year’s share transaction price that ensured that both buyers and sellers received a fair deal, maintained consistency from year to year, and protected the firm’s cash flow.

Morrissey Goodale’s Valuation Advisory Experts Can Assist Your Firm

Morrissey Goodale’s AE business valuation advisory services range from simple assessments of a company’s worth to detailed, full-narrative valuation reports for tax, transaction, litigation, and ESOP purposes. Our AE business valuation consultants utilize deep industry knowledge to select the right approach for precisely calculating what your firm is worth, maximize the return on your personal investment, and advise you on which internal and external ownership transition plans are right for your firm.

Whether you are contemplating an internal transition of your shares to the next ownership group, reworking your existing ownership transition plan, or thinking about selling to an industry buyer, Morrissey Goodale guides firms through the unknowns of ownership transition with perspective and experience.

Don’t make blind decisions about your firm’s future. Contact us today to find out how Morrissey Goodale can secure your firm’s legacy, and don’t delay valuation and ownership transition any longer.