Background

FRP was appointed at short notice to provide a second opinion on the valuation of six businesses based in the UK and US within the entertainment industry. Each business needed to be valued on four different dates, including a valuation at the current date when the businesses were unable to trade due to the pandemic. FRP’s appointment as a third expert followed the provision of two expert opinions to the court which arrived at very different valuations.

Action

Our Forensic Services Partner Fiona Hotston Moore was appointed as a Party-Appointed Expert Witness to give a view on the two valuation reports that had been prepared by the Single Joint Expert and the Party-Appointed Expert, and was asked to provide her expert view of the valuation of the six businesses at the four dates. Our expert opinion was provided within one week of appointment to avoid any delay to the ongoing court hearing. The three experts adopted a collaborative approach to assist the Judge, producing a joint statement identifying areas of agreement and disagreement.

Outcome

To facilitate a cost-effective hearing the court invited the three experts to give their evidence concurrently (a process known as ‘hot tubbing’). On this occasion the hearing was virtual and the three experts joined a discussion chaired by the Judge to consider key areas of disagreement on the valuation. The Judge complimented all three experts on the conduct of the hearing, which allowed him to explore the differences in the valuations and to understand the extent to which these fell outside the range of a reasonable opinion.

As an additional independent expert we were able to provide independent evidence and fresh perspective on the valuation opinion given by the Single Joint Expert. Our resourcing also enabled us to accept the instructions at short notice avoiding any delay to the existing timetable. As a result, the process was completed in a morning whereas adopting the more traditional hearing would have required two to three days.