Year-end planning tends to sharpen in November. Finance teams draft next year’s budgets, insurance schedules come due for renewal and auditors start requesting asset records. With that checklist in mind, The Valuator Group is highlighting a central part of its service: valuing plant, machinery, equipment and technical assets, and building the asset registers that track them. The boutique valuation company works for individuals, corporations and governments across Africa, the Indian Ocean Islands, the Middle East and the UK.
A factory, a mine, a farm or a commercial kitchen depends on this kind of equipment every day. These assets are also the ones most often undervalued on an insurance schedule or misstated on a balance sheet. There are usually a lot of them, they sit at different sites and they are replaced at different times, so their values are easy to lose track of.
Valuing assets across every major sector
The Valuator Group’s experienced, qualified staff value assets in commercial, industrial, agricultural, mining and technology-based sectors. The plant and machinery service includes equipment, technical assets and vehicles. Before any inspection, the firm works with the client to scope the project, because the reason for the valuation decides how it is carried out.
Most valuations the firm prepares serve one of two purposes. An insurance valuation uses Estimated New Replacement Cost, meaning what it would cost to replace the asset with a new equivalent. A market valuation uses Open Market Value or Fair Market Value, meaning what the asset would fetch in the market today. Depending on whether a business is renewing cover, preparing financial statements, selling a division or raising finance, it may need one of these or both.
On-site inspection and a line-by-line inventory
Every job starts on site. The firm sees a thorough on-site inspection as the only reliable way to capture every relevant detail, so its team inspects, measures and records each asset in person. The findings go into an inventory database in which every item is listed and priced individually.
At year-end, a finance team gets far more from an itemised list than from one figure for an entire site. The list shows which assets carry the most value and which are close to the end of their useful life. It also shows where the insured items differ from what is actually on the floor.
Keeping the asset register up to date
The inventory from a valuation can become an asset register, and The Valuator Group can manage that register for the client. The firm also barcodes plant and machinery, with or without Radio Frequency Identification. Its RFID systems include readers, tags and antennas, so clients can identify and track each item of inventory and each asset automatically.
The firm’s advisory work goes beyond the register. It assesses and verifies fixed and movable assets, reviews the useful life of all assets, and prepares structural condition assessment reports and risk survey reports on infrastructure and operations. For public sector clients, The Valuator Group is also a heritage asset specialist and provides GRAP 103 compliant valuations.
A dedicated service for restaurants before the festive rush
The festive season is one of the restaurant industry’s busiest trading periods, and The Valuator Group has a service built for that industry. It can appraise any restaurant, from a fast-food drive-through to a fine dining establishment, for insurance or market purposes. In such a competitive industry, the firm notes, all equipment must be properly valued and insured.
Franchise restaurant groups can use a cost-effective package that covers five items in one site visit. These are a replacement cost valuation for insurance, a market valuation for the balance sheet, an updated asset register, a condition report on movable assets in line with the company’s life cycle plan, and a risk assessment report on basic health and safety regulations. With all five done at once, both franchisor and franchisee can be confident these areas are covered.
The value of an independent opinion
Qualified, independent valuators give a business a figure it can defend with insurers, auditors, lenders and investors. The Valuator Group was founded more than 15 years ago and is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. It follows the international standards and ethics set out in the RICS Red Book and is BEE accredited.
The firm’s support continues after the report is delivered. According to its website, it will act as an arbitrator if an insurance claim is made, which helps clients if they suffer a loss and the value of an asset is disputed.
Planning for asset values over the long term
Asset values keep changing. Equipment ages, replacement costs shift and businesses add new assets during the year. The Valuator Group’s Long Term Assistance Plan, which usually runs over five years, makes sure a client’s assets are accurately valued every year. It gives businesses a structured, cost-effective way to keep insurance schedules and asset registers accurate without starting again each year.
Clients include banks, insurers and brokers, large corporations, private individuals, partnerships, farming concerns, heritage bodies, government and institutional organisations. The firm’s work as certified valuators also covers land and buildings, agricultural properties and game reserves, art, antiques and jewellery, businesses and shares, light aircraft, vintage and classic cars and other specialised assets. Clients can therefore bring all of their valuation needs to a single provider.
Booking before the holiday slowdown
Businesses that want updated values before the new financial year or their next insurance renewal can use the weeks before the festive break to arrange an inspection. If the project is scoped now, the site visit can happen before operations slow down for the holidays or speed up for festive trading.
Details of The Valuator Group’s services, brochures and quote requests can be found at https://www.thevaluator.co.za/.
About The Valuator Group
The Valuator Group is a one-stop boutique valuation company for individuals, corporations and governments in Africa, the Indian Ocean Islands, the Middle East and the UK. It provides documented, certified valuations of property, land and buildings, agricultural assets, plant, machinery and equipment, art, antiques and jewellery, businesses and specialised assets, for insurance and market purposes. The firm is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, follows the RICS Red Book standards and is BEE accredited.
Media Contact
The Valuator Group
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +27 82 900 5385
Website: https://www.thevaluator.co.za
