ABSTRACT
Valuation is generally regarded as a hybrid discipline sitting somewhere between science and art. There is a range of valuation methodologies that can be applied to solve particular valuation problems and some of these appear to involve quite complex looking mathematics and formulae. Add to this the fact that valuation has its roots in the discipline of economics and what we have looks like a science. However, many students of valuation, especially those with a science background, do sometimes get confused and frustrated by its lack of precision and its reliance on judgment and opinion and, in this respect, valuation can take on the characteristics of an art. Of course, if valuation was all precision and no judgment, a simple matter of applying a formula, it is unlikely that the skills of the valuer would be much in demand and we would all be out of a job. So, this hybridism is perhaps something we should celebrate.
