The partners of a company in Minas Gerais, with revenue of about R$ 10 million, had a R$ 18 million purchase offer on the table. But by their "gut feeling," the company was worth at least R$ 20 million.
They came to Vispe with a clear request: validate that feeling before responding to the offer.
The challenge
Negotiating on perception is risky. If the partners demanded more than the fair value, they could sour the negotiation with the investor and lose a good opportunity. If they accepted without knowing the real value, they might sell too cheaply. The offer was already on the table, so the decision had to be made right then.
There was also a practical difficulty. The data was disorganized, accounts were poorly classified and the company didn't have its financial statements in place.
How Vispe worked
The first step was to build the information base together with the client, putting together the statements that didn't exist. With the data organized, we ran a detailed study of the company's economic and financial value using the Discounted Cash Flow method.
The technical edge was correctly separating installation supply costs from fixed assets. That gave a more accurate reading of operating margins and showed where the operation's bottlenecks were.
The results
The valuation came to a range of R$ 14.9 million to R$ 15.2 million. The number was below the owners' perception, and the report made that clear, but it also showed exactly where and what was reducing the company's market value: high churn, a large share of the base on radio links and high hidden liabilities.
The broken expectation had an upside: the R$ 18 million offer was above the fair price range. In other words, it was a good deal at the moment it came up.
What changed
The valuation was key to the decision to sell. With the report in hand, the choice was easy, because there was an offer above the company's fair value. Valuation doesn't take sides: it shows the asset's value impartially, and that's what allowed the partners to decide with confidence.