Chris Makin - Business Valuations and Forensics

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Chris Makin

Chartered Accountant | Accredited Civil Mediator | Accredited Expert Determiner

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ffering a range of skills and experience that can add value and provide solutions to those affected by accountancy fraud, chartered accountant Christopher Makin has over two decades’ experience as a forensic accountant and expert witness.

Based in Yorkshire, but serving across the UK, Chris Makin is a tried and tested forensic accountant and expert witness, mediator, and expert determiner with a solid reputation in his area of work. With 20 years as a general practice chartered accountant, followed by 25 years as a forensic accountant and expert witness, the last 16 of which has also been as a commercial mediator, he is accredited as mediator by CIArb; accredited as expert determiner by The Academy of Experts; accredited as forensic accountant and expert witness by ICAEW; and is APIL approved as an expert.

He has conducted some 100 mediations with 80 per cent settlement rate and acted as mediator in partnership, director, share valuation, company sale and purchase, Section 994, construction, rights of way, boundary, defamation, intellectual property, professional negligence, business interruption, housing disrepair, ToLATA, employment and several other kinds of contract disputes He has also been a frequent lecturer on mediation matters and is trained in time limited and advanced mediation techniques. He has participated in mock mediations to demonstrate power of mediation to judges, barristers and solicitors.

In litigation support experience, he has been involved in both civil and criminal matters for 25 years, covering areas such as loss of profit and consequential loss, business and share valuations, matrimonial valuations, partnership disputes, professional negligence, criminal and commercial fraud investigations, personal injury and fatal accident, and drug trafficking, asset tracing and confiscation. He has attended court and meetings of experts and given expert evidence about 100 times.

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Chartered Accountant | Accredited Civil Mediator | Accredited Expert Determiner Indeed, the list seems endless but such is Makin’s formidable and impressive list of achievements.

has never stopped, and I help an awful lot of people.”

“I ‘retired’ from a national firm as national head of litigation a few years ago, and thought it might be pleasant to do a couple of mediations a month.

“It helps people to avoid court, and would give me some income to fend off the day when I start to draw my pension,” recalls Makin

Makin usually works from home, but does travel a lot. “I also have a small office in Gray’s Inn Square, in the heart of legal London, which works perfectly for me.”

“So I started writing to solicitors about mediation, and the response I got, from many solicitors I had never heard of, was ‘I thought you were a forensic accountant. Can you just have a look at some papers for me?’ Since then, I have never stopped being a forensic accountant, a valuer, an expert determiner, and a mediator. The flow of new work

A friendly and cost-effective approach towards cases and clients has allowed business to thrive.

“I would say that what sets me apart is my professional and caring approach towards clients – both potential and on-hand ones.

“The first aspect of my approach is that I offer an initial review of any potential appointment. I

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look at the key documents, type out a summary and share it with the instructing solicitor, and only then quote a fee. If for whatever reasons instructions do not follow, I do not make any charge – and I don’t even sulk. Solicitors and their clients can learn the cost before they commit.

So it costs nothing to find out if I can help, and at what price.

“Another strength would be my extremely helpful nature. I sit on a number of professional committees and am an examiner in mediation and expert determination.

I also act as an honorary counsellor for chartered accountants with ethical problems and give a lot of free advice to individuals besides helping many younger forensic accountants as they develop their practice. I can afford to do this because my income as a forensic accountant is reasonable, I have a good pension to look forward to, and I do not want to retire yet because I enjoy the work so much.

“I would also add my versatility to my strong points. I do civil, family, and criminal litigation, and several methods of ADR, so I can look at a job in the round and work with the solicitor, barrister or litigant in person to help solve their problems, usually at reasonable cost.”

Makin considers himself as an all-rounder based on the significantly long list of types of litigation cases and mediations he does. According to him valuations tend to be needed in certain circumstances such as family proceedings, Company Act matters, and civil proceedings.

Elaborating on family proceedings valuations, he says: “Typically, a husband and wife set up in business early in their marriage; he has the business ideas and becomes managing director, and she keeps the books, drives the van etc.

“As the business grows, he builds his own team of managers and professional advisers and she brings up the children. If the marriage breaks up, a clean break is desirable. She wants a home and cash, and he 4 | FORENSIC INSIDER

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wants to take on the business. The aim is to have equality, and the house and savings are easy to value. But what is the business worth?

This is where I come in.

“In all such cases, and others, the value of the business, and your client’s part of it, must be determined. I have acted frequently as a mediator and as an expert determiner in such matters, but today we are concerned with my work as expert valuer.

“In family cases the expert is usually instructed to value each spouse’s shareholding, estimate the tax which would be payable on disposal of the shares, and say how much cash may be extracted from the company to aid a settlement. Traditionally there would be separate experts on each side, and I remember many happy experiences with Hildebrand documents and the like.”

who doesn’t know CPR or FPR and who cannot write an expert report in acceptable format, and who cannot survive crossexamination at trial.”

In civil proceeding cases, Makin explains, the expert has to be versatile like him.

“Where one business is suing another, the claimant company may be suspected of not having the resources to meet the defendant’s costs if the defendant wins. Winning, but not recovering your costs, is a Pyrrhic victory.

So the Court may be invited to issue a Security for Costs order; it obliges the claimant company to lodge with the Court sufficient funds to meet a costs award; and if the claimant cannot lodge those funds, they are out of the game.

“These days, with judges’ preference for the SJE – so that they don’t have to strike a balance between opposing experts’ opinions of £15 million as against £nil – family valuations are less exciting, but no less worthwhile. And there are always the big cases where party experts are needed.”

Explaining valuation where Company Act matters come into play, Makin says: “In the commercial field, so often one of the founders of a company is elbowed out by others, and has to mount a claim under Section 994 of the Companies Act for unfair prejudice. Normally a ‘fair’ value is required, but what is fair? Is there for example a quasi partnership per Ebrahimi –v- Westbourne Galleries? Such matters need an experienced valuer.

“There are two essential requirements for your choice of valuer: a person who has experience and a deep understanding of business, and a person who has in effect a second profession as expert, for there is no point in choosing someone who knows about business, but

“As valuer, I can be brought in by either side: by the defendant to give expert evidence that the claimant company is without the means to pay, or by the claimant company to give expert evidence that it does have those means.”

Makin prides on his ability to understand business based on his versatility and all-round experience and exposure to it, whether they be big or small enterprises. Having been a managing partner in a series of firms, starting as a sole practitioner and eventually becoming head of litigation in a national firm, he has certainly been there.

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“When in general practice I acted for a huge range of clients, from market traders to PLCs. And my chapter on Loss of Profits for the self-employed, which appeared for many years in Kemp & Kemp, is available to you on request. I do understand business.

“I was also one of the first to be accredited as a forensic accountant and expert witness by the ICAEW, and I am a fellow at The Academy of Experts, one of only 60 worldwide. And with over 100 court appearances, the witness box to me is a very familiar place,” he says.

Makin uses one or more of three techniques when valuing business namely the dividend yield basis, the assets basis, and the earnings basis.

“The first is only for arm’slength investors, and in my work we rarely come across that. This is because owners/directors/ shareholders pay themselves dividends at a rate dependent more on tax planning than on commercial considerations.

remuneration – again more dependent on tax planning than on a market rate of their services – and compare our opinion of future maintainable income with the dividends being paid by similar companies on the stock exchange.”

“The assets basis is used for property companies where the value of the property is more important than the income it produces, though income is often a driver of value); or for companies on the brink of insolvency where expected sale prices of assets is the driver, but also as an underpinning of value on the third basis, which is the earnings basis, which is most often used.

At 72, Makin today is not anxious to increase his business but helping people facing difficulties spurs him on.

“We have to study past earnings history, recognise market changes, adjust for the directors’

“I used to be responsible for forensic units throughout the UK, so I’ve got the T-shirt for that. Now I just want to go on for a few more years, and my sole aim is to help people facing difficulties. In that I think I have been very successful, and I think I have more to give.”

Mobile: 07887 660072 | Telephone: 01924 495888 | Fax: 01924 494421 Email: chris@chrismakin.co.uk | Website: www.chrismakin.co.uk 6 | FORENSIC INSIDER