Who is the course for?
The course was developed for finance professionals who want to learn and apply the skills needed for business valuation. Students learn valuation theory and build a financial model from zero in Excel. Course and material in English. The course is certified for Continuing Professional Education by the Brazilian Federation of Accountants and participants receive a certificate of completion.
Understanding business valuation can ensure a competitive advantage in many areas. Having a good domain of business valuation and financial modelling is especially useful for professionals in the following areas:
- Large companies: to evaluate potential acquisitions, to account for an acquisition, to perform impairment tests.
- Equity research: for sell-side and buy-side analysts to be able to forecast the performance of the companies they are researching.
- M&A investment, equity and debt: to help, for example, price the issuance of debt or equity.
- Portfolio management in banks and funds: to understand the impact of changes in the economy or industry on portfolio performance, and to make investment decisions based on that.
- Private equity: to help you choose investments and structure the ideal financing for the purchase of the company.
- Consulting: to help understand and propose strategies for client companies.
- Accounting: to make decisions related to financing and investment.
- Private banking: to choose the best investments for customers.
- Professional assessment: to evaluate the intangible assets of a company (brand, customer relationship, technology, among others).
Certification
The course is certified for Continuing Professional Education by the Brazilian Federation of Accountants and participants receive a certificate of completion.
Benefits
The ability to create and understand valuation models is known to be one of the most valued skills in the business world. The business valuation market in Brazil has been growing since the implementation of IFRS in 2010, but there is a lack of qualified professionals in the market, so proper training should give professionals a significant career boost. The Certified Business Valuation and Financial Modelling course is based on a practical valuation case study of a company. The knowledge gained will be useful in any work that needs a better understanding of the performance of a company or other investment. The programme will help you:
- Learn how a company’s value is calculated using Market, Income & Cost approaches, including how to make projections of the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow, and calculate the discount rate (Income approach) and use multiples (Market approach).
- Know how to apply financial modelling in practice and build a comprehensive financial model.
- Understand the basic concepts of valuation theory.
- Prove your commitment to your professional development.
Requirements
- Windows laptop for financial modelling.
- Advanced English.
- Basic knowledge of accounting and Microsoft Excel will enable course participants to get more from the course.
Testimonials
“The business valuation and financial modelling course was great. It not only worked on the theoretical concepts of valuation, but also applied it practically, in Excel spreadsheets that will certainly work as a model and future references when any doubts arise. The instructor was able to combine his knowledge and experience in the subject with a clear and didactic approach, leaving an excellent impression of SHP.”
Ruben Doege, Economic-Financial Analyst
Methodology
The course covers both theory and practice, giving students the opportunity to build a valuation model from zero in Excel, following a 4-step approach:
- Gather information
- Build model
- Analyse results
- Present results
The course covers all of the basics you need to know to perform a business valuation and how to overcome some of the challenges that you are likely to face in the real world, for example regarding data availability:
- Understand going concern and liquidation value, fair value, investment value and intrinsic value.
- Apply control and marketability premiums and discounts.
- Know how value can be calculated using the three approaches to valuation: Market (multiples), Income (including calculation of discount rate, projected cash flows and terminal value) and Cost.
- Understand the difference between Enterprise Value and Equity Value (FCFF, FCFE).
- Understand the procedures necessary to ensure the robustness of a valuation.
- Comply with applicable laws and regulations when preparing valuation reports.
Material
Students receive a PDF workbook and the instructor version of the valuation model that is built together with the students during class. Students also receive a certificate at the end of the course.
Background Reading
The course draws on the financial modelling books Building Financial Models by John S. Tjia and Practical Financial Modelling by Jonathan Swan and the valuation concepts developed by the following authors (among others): Damodaran, Koller, Copeland, Titman, Pratt and Grabowsky.
See links to three introductory articles from our academic coordinator and founder, Susan Hawkins, CFA, which you may find useful:
Interview with Arthur Lima, Manager in the Transaction Services team at PwC, who completed SHP Financial Training’s Certified Business Valuation and Financial Modelling Course in 2019.
I work at PwC with M&A Advisory, mainly focused on due diligence for local and overseas investors (financial and corporate buyers), acting on buy and sell side transactions, and also assisting with completion accounts for closing procedures.
Since we work with diverse investors on different transactions in various sectors, I decided to take the course in order to have the knowledge to offer complete assistance to our clients during due diligence and M&A process, instead of just the traditional accounting work. By understanding every step of a transaction, theoretically and in practice, I’m able to assist our clients with any of their needs, from the traditional due diligence analysis (understand of recurring and operational EBITDA, normalized level of Working Capital and indebtedness level), to tailored analysis that fits the modelling and price mechanism of that transaction.
I heard about SHP from a friend that took the ACCA classes and said great things about them, mainly related to the quality of the course due to great teachers and small student numbers. I took a look at the school website and found the course. The content format, hours and material of course convinced me, so I decided to sign-up.
Besides preparing me to apply for positions in the M&A market, in both finance and corporates, the course helped me to provide a more robust experience and better quality, purpose-driven analysis for my clients.
In my opinion the course is 10 of 10 because it teaches you the theory, wrapping up all the knowledge that is needed to understand the basics. During the course you apply the theory in practice, and understand from scratch how to build a model and how adapt it, by business and industry.
The course is great, and is a starting point for those who want to learn from the scratch the topic, and also a springboard for those who already have some knowledge, but need to go deeper and learn in practice how things are done.
