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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
Fabricators, machinists and engineers serving the steel supply chain at Port Kembla, Unanderra and Dapto: in most small manufacturers, the value starts with what the plant would sell for, not with the profit and loss.
A Wollongong manufacturer is usually valued on its assets. Machines, tooling, stock and debtors are taken from book value to what they would realise, and the finance owing on plant is deducted. Earnings are then capitalised to see whether the business is worth more than the restated assets, and where it is not, the asset figure is the answer.
Many of the region's workshops and factories were set up by founders now in their sixties or beyond, so succession leads the list: handing an engineering shop at Unanderra to a son or daughter, selling to a management team, or looking for a trade buyer. Other triggers are a shareholder leaving, a property settlement in family law, finance for a new laser cutter, press brake or machining centre, an insurance claim after a fire, or a restructure that needs a market value for the ATO. Lenders often ask for an independent figure before funding a move to a larger site in the Port Kembla, Unanderra or Dapto industrial areas.
Owners also want something the accounts cannot supply. Written down values say nothing about what a machine would fetch, and a fabrication yard at Port Kembla with a floor of plant bought on chattel mortgages cannot tell whether its equity is large or close to nil until each item is valued and the finance is taken off.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Asset Approach leads. A manufacturer's balance sheet is mostly machinery, tooling and stock, and margins on production are often thin, which makes the worth of that plant the largest part of the answer.
Adjusted net assets restates every asset and liability at market value: machining centres, presses, welding and cutting equipment, cranes, forklifts, racking, moulds and dies, stock at realisable value, debtors after a sensible provision, contingent liabilities, and the tax that would arise if gains in the plant were realised. Where the plant is material, a licensed plant and machinery valuer does that work and we do not estimate it ourselves.
Earnings take the lead only when they clearly exceed a fair return on the capital employed. A fabricator holding long-standing supply arrangements with local steel users, or a specialist engineer with a loyal customer base, may be worth more than its equipment, and the asset figure then becomes the floor. Capitalised excess earnings can link the two results, and where applied the report states its limits.
After a market wage for the owner, profit is capitalised to see whether the business earns enough on the capital sitting in its machinery. When it falls short the asset result governs, and the report explains that finding plainly.
Sales of manufacturers with a comparable size, product and capital intensity give a range for testing. Mid-sized manufacturing sales are too few in Australia to fix a value by themselves, so the evidence informs the conclusion rather than deciding it.
Arguments about a manufacturer's value usually centre on adjustments, so each appears in the report with its reason rather than in a back schedule. The ones we meet most are:
Manufacturing in the Illawarra has long been tied to steel. The BlueScope steelworks at Port Kembla is operating, and around it a supply chain of fabricators, machinists, engineers and maintenance contractors has grown up in the Port Kembla, Unanderra and Dapto industrial areas, alongside smaller producers of building products and general engineering. Some firms sell mainly to the steelworks and the port, others to local construction customers, and others again to buyers far outside the region.
The mix of customers affects the valuation in two ways. It sets the comparable group: a structural steel fabricator at Unanderra is compared with other fabricators, not with a food producer or a plastics moulder, because customers, margins, stock and assets differ. It also governs the premises. Industrial land has its own property market, so owned land is valued as property and held apart from the trading business, while a lease is assessed on its remaining term and make-good obligations. Customer concentration is the particular risk: where much of the revenue comes from one large buyer in the supply chain, that concentration is priced into the rate, and any supplier approvals or qualifications the business holds are checked to see whether they survive a sale.
Few new manufacturers are starting up. Nationally the number of manufacturing businesses grew just 0.2 per cent in 2025 to 2026, one of the weakest results of any industry division (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). With few new entrants in a capital heavy sector, buyers can be selective, and the restated assets carry more of the value than they would in a faster growing one.
Each report states the purpose of the valuation, the standard of value, the valuation date and the information relied on, and names anything we requested that was not supplied. It then walks through every approach considered, the method used, each adjustment with its reasoning, and how the results were weighted into a range, set out in plain sentences.
An opposing expert goes straight to the weighting. A report that cannot say why the asset result was preferred, or why a particular point in the range was chosen, is easily unpicked in the District Court of New South Wales sitting at Wollongong, the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia or a lender's credit review. Our reports follow APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and are signed by a credentialed certified valuer, who can explain and defend the opinion when it is questioned.
Which assumption would the other side's expert attack first, and what is your reply? A valuer without a clear answer has not finished the work.
Choose an Indicative valuation to learn how much equity remains in the plant after the finance is cleared, before you plan a succession or a sale. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. Choose a Summary report for a sale to a trade buyer or to management, a shareholder joining or leaving, or refinancing plant. Choose a Detailed report for a family law matter, a shareholder dispute, a large insurance claim or anything another expert will review.
Match the report to its reader. When a court, a lender, the ATO or a rival expert is likely to examine it, the report has to set out more of its reasoning.
For internal decision-making. Useful for testing an offer, setting an expectation before a negotiation, or deciding whether to go to market. It is not written for third party reliance.
Sets out the approaches applied, the normalisation adjustments made and the reasoning behind the conclusion. The usual choice for a sale, an ownership change or a finance application.
Applies and reconciles all relevant approaches in full. The level required where a court, the ATO, a lender or another expert will review the opinion.
Talk your situation through with a certified valuer before you commit to anything, at no cost.