Valuations careers

Valuations

Careers for graduates: learn how to offer commercially focused, independent valuations for specific client needs.

Learn how to offer commercially focused, independent valuations for specific client needs.

Grad careers: Valuations

What does your service line do?

Companies and individuals require valuations for a range of purposes including transactions, financial reporting and taxation and that’s where we come in!

We provide independent professional advice to boards, management and shareholders on transactions, takeovers and evaluations of unsolicited takeover offers in the form of independent expert reports. In addition, we prepare independent valuations of businesses and unlisted investments such as global infrastructure assets (including airports, utilities and toll roads etc.) to investors in Australia as well as overseas.

Our services also cover the valuation of various intangible assets including brands, software and licenses, as well as tangible assets such as land, property, plant and equipment.

What does an average day look like?

The day to day tasks vary depending on the type of valuation you are working on and your role within the project team. To kick off projects, you may attend client meetings with your team and meet with company executives which will give you the opportunity to develop a firsthand understanding of how the business operates. To build upon this knowledge, you may be asked to conduct research into the business and industry being valued. All these aspects are critical to the valuation and will help you when it comes to developing forecasts of the future cash flows that the business/asset may generate or to analyse cash flow forecasts that we have been provided with. You may also be asked to identify relevant industry benchmarks for valuations including companies and transactions that may be comparable to the business/asset being valued.

Most importantly, there is no shortage of opportunities to step up and take more responsibility in the team and you will be provided with the training and learning required to do so. The Valuations team also organises regular team building activities and events to make sure we are having fun at work.

What will I learn in the first year?

As a graduate you will be given opportunities to develop your technical valuation skills by applying a range of valuation methods including discounted cash flows, capitalisation of earnings and net asset or cost based methodologies. You will learn which methods are best suited to which circumstances and will also develop your Excel and financial modelling skills along the way.

On the more qualitative side, you will develop in-depth understanding of what drives value in a business. You will get a micro level picture of a business and its strategic direction by interacting with the company management. You will also develop a broader macro level understanding of the industry and wider economy by researching into the demand and supply factors, regulation and changes in economic indicators. This will help you understand what drives value in the business and how valuations can change as a result of changes in key assumptions. Understanding how each of these factors interact to create value for the shareholders can be quite different depending on the industry the business is operating in and as a result our work never becomes repetitive and continues to be interesting.

You will also be given the opportunity to work with different people on different project teams, which will help you develop your communication and teamwork skills.

What’s the best part of the role?

The best part of the role is the people you work with and the variety of projects you work on. The Valuations team is full of very passionate and switched on people who have deep valuation and industry knowledge and are more than willing to share this with you, which will help you learn and develop over a short period of time. You will also get the opportunity to get involved in high profile transactions and be part of a fun team with a great culture.