AUSTRIAN, GERMAN AND ITALIAN VALUATION STANDARDS

Until recently few countries had released their own valuation standards. With the market demanding stronger valuation standards, many countries have started working on their own guidelines. The International Valuation Standards Council, for example, seeks to unify these standards. However, the local standards tend to go more into the technical valuation details.

The OIV (Organismi Italiano di Valutazione) has recently released the first Italian Valuation Standards (Principi Italiani di Valutazione – PIV), a document of over 300 pages covering ethical standards, processes and the valuation of different financial instruments as well. In Austria and Germany, where the local valuations standards have been in circulation for years (Austria has just released a new version of the standards), the document is more concise and focuses on the process and techniques to a greater extent. In these countries, the standards were released by the local Chambers of Accountants, Auditors and Tax Consultants, who have published a variety of standards for the profession, and in the case of Germany, valuation updates and standards of other assets are in separate documents (and which were not included in this brief analysis).

Let’s take a look at the main differences, which related to different formulations or content are highlighted in light green, while differences in methods are highlighted in orange:

Standards of value recognised in Austria and Germany also differ in many aspects, related to the treatment of synergies, management factors, future expectations, transaction costs and use of premiums and discounts.

Differences in the amount of details among standards in Italy, Austria and Germany may not necessarily represent a great difference in techniques used, but rather the need from the local companies and practitioners to have stronger standards and decrease competition from inexperienced valuers.

Sources: KFS BW1, IDW S1, PIV – Principi Italiani di Valutazione 2015
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eatured image: ‘Italia und Germania’, Friedrich Overbeck