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As businesses place a greater emphasis on the Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance (ESG) considerations in their operations, there is a growing interest in how to incorporate ESG performance into business valuation methodologies. In the following section, we will describe the two main approaches of incorporating ESG into business valuation: the income approach and the market approach.

The income approach entails modifying the Discounted Cash Flow valuation method. It takes into account the impact of ESG on either the discount rate or the cash flows². The discount rate can be adjusted to account for lower risks and capital costs associated with "greener" companies with higher ESG ratings. When valuing a company, the impact of ESG policies on risk should be factored into the discount rate calculation using:

·        Beta: a measure of the systemic security’s risk compared to the broader market.

·        Alpha: a measure of the security's ability to outperform the market.

Furthermore, it's crucial to avoid double-counting ESG factors that have already been taken into account in the valuation calculation.

In contrast, the cash flow perspective suggests considering the additional value created by specific ESG practices in the company's cash flows and long-term growth rate. Companies that implement ESG policies may become more resource efficient and decrease operating costs. However, ESG policy implementation and verification incur additional costs. The growth rate of companies incorporating ESG measures should be determined by their performance; strong ESG performance may support growth, whereas low performance may indicate decline. While the impact of ESG on cash flow is still uncertain, poor ESG performance can increase funding costs for companies and potentially exceed expected acquisitions for firms investing in ESG aspects. Cash flow projections may be challenging due to a variety of ESG factors. Thus, conducting a sensitivity analysis can help determine the impact of ESG factors on business value under various scenarios.

The market approach involves amendments to the Market Multiple Valuation method by following these three steps³:

1.      Identifying and assessing relevant ESG criteria for a specific sector.

2.      Assessing the performance of the subject company in relation to the criteria.

3.      Adjusting valuation parameters (such as the EBITDA multiple) to reflect the subject company's relative performance in comparison to market peers based on the ESG criteria selected.

These approaches have their strengths and limitations and the choice of approach shall depend on the specific circumstances of each case. Regardless of the approach taken, the key to successful ESG integration into business valuation methodologies is to consider ESG performance in a comprehensive and consistent manner.