Appointed on behalf of the husband, whose wife was the shareholder and company director.
The wife’s shareholding had been valued by a Big 4 firm’s London office, who were also the auditors of the company, at in the region of £4 million. Our work led us to the view that the value of the wife’s shareholding was worth nearer £14 million. We obtained a significant amount of documentation from work carried out by the same Big 4 firm’s corporate finance team and auditors, which undermined the valuation being put forward and also identified a £5 million calculation error.
As a result, during the week before the final Financial Dispute Resolution (‘FDR’) hearing, we obtained notification that: ‘upon the advice of leading Counsel, the wife can no longer rely upon the work of the Big 4 firm’, and a further opinion had been sought. This valued the shareholding at around £12 million. A settlement was reached prior to the FDR.