How valuations are quoted locally
South African businesses are usually priced on EBITDA or SDE, and results are reported in South African rand (ZAR).
- Discount rates carry a country risk premium, which lowers DCF outputs relative to developed markets.
- Empowerment credentials can affect a buyer's ability to win contracts and therefore willingness to pay.
- Load-shedding mitigation and energy resilience now feature in maintainable earnings assumptions.
Who buys businesses here
- Domestic trade buyers and consolidators
- Management buy-outs with vendor finance
- Offshore buyers seeking rand-denominated earnings
What commonly reduces the price
- Exchange control considerations apply to offshore buyers and proceeds.
- Energy and logistics costs should be normalised at sustainable, not best-case, levels.
Whichever market you are in, the underlying discipline is the same: normalise earnings, apply several methods, and weight them by how well each fits the business. See our twelve valuation methods for the full detail.