How we approach a financial decision
Scope varies with the engagement; the sequence does not:
- Understand the decision. The objective, who decides, what information exists and on what timeline. A valuation prepared to negotiate a sale is not built the same way as one prepared to admit a shareholder.
- Build the analysis. Financial diagnostic, model, scenarios and whatever valuation the case calls for, with assumptions stated rather than buried in a spreadsheet.
- Turn analysis into a decision. A clear recommendation including the range of uncertainty and, where appropriate, support through the financial discussion of the transaction.
What holds that together is quantitative work rather than opinion: projections built up from operations, sensitivity analysis on the assumptions that genuinely move the result, and local inputs instead of parameters imported from another market.
Who we work with
- Privately held companies. Businesses without a public listing, where the information is not in the market and has to be constructed.
- Family-owned businesses. Where the economic decision and the relationship between shareholders intersect.
- Boards and shareholders. Who need an independent reference to decide, or to discuss among themselves.
- Investors. Local and international, assessing an opportunity in the Dominican Republic.
Why local context changes the analysis
Corporate finance frameworks are international; the inputs they are fed are not. Several Dominican conditions need to be handled explicitly rather than assumed away: private transactions are seldom published, which limits observable comparables; country risk and local financing conditions affect the cost of capital; a number of sectors are concentrated among relatively few significant participants; closely held and family ownership predominate; and businesses that earn and spend in different currencies carry an exposure that has to be modelled.
For an international investor in particular, applying developed-market parameters without adjustment is not a shortcut. It is a source of error with a price attached.
Valnova's experience
Valnova Partners is a boutique financial advisory firm founded in 2019, with its office in Santo Domingo, working across the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean.
- Transaction track record. Our track record includes sell-side valuation and negotiation support as sole adviser to a family board, an expansion feasibility analysis with capital raising support as sole adviser to a board of directors, and a real estate carve-out analysis with debt restructuring.
- Accredited professional judgement. Nicolas Diaz Garelli, Partner, is a CFA charterholder and an economist specialising in corporate finance, with more than 15 years of experience in private equity transactions, valuation, investment structuring and project finance. The firm works to the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.
- Sector breadth. Healthcare, hospitality, industrial production, energy, real estate, banking, insurance, commerce, retail, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals.
- Strategic partner. We collaborate with Moonshot Advisory, a Santo Domingo-based advisory firm, on engagements that call for it.
Frequently asked questions
What does a corporate finance adviser do?
They analyse a company's financial decisions — what the business is worth, how much capital it needs, how that capital should be structured, what return an investment must produce and what a transaction would mean — and turn that analysis into a recommendation for whoever has to decide. The adviser works for the company, its board or its shareholders, not for the counterparty.
How is this different from personal financial advice or wealth management?
Wealth management concerns an individual's or a family's personal assets: savings, portfolios, retirement, insurance. Corporate finance concerns a company's financial decisions: enterprise value, capital structure, financing, investment and transactions. Valnova works only in the second of those. We do not manage personal portfolios or distribute financial products.
Is Valnova an investment bank?
No. Valnova is an independent corporate finance advisory firm. We do not underwrite, place or broker securities, we do not audit, and we do not distribute financial products. We provide the financial analysis behind a decision — valuation, modelling, structuring and negotiation support — which means our recommendation does not depend on a transaction closing.
When does a company need corporate finance advisory?
When a decision carries financial consequences beyond day-to-day operations: weighing strategic alternatives, financing growth, reviewing a debt structure, assessing an acquisition or a sale, resolving a difference between shareholders, preparing a succession, or giving a board a common basis on which to decide.
How do valuation, financial planning and capital decisions relate to one another?
They are three views of the same analysis. Valuation estimates what the business is worth today and what supports that figure. Financial planning projects what it will take to get where the company intends to go. Capital decisions determine how that path is funded. In practice a single financial model usually feeds all three conversations.
Do you advise international investors evaluating a Dominican business?
Yes. Cross-border investors are one of the profiles we work with, and our work concentrates on the financial analysis: valuation, modelling, return scenarios, capital structuring and support in the financial discussion of a transaction. International investment usually also calls for legal, tax and regulatory advice, and we coordinate with the specialists a project requires rather than substituting for them.
Do you work with family-owned businesses?
Yes. Family-owned businesses are among the profiles we work with regularly, and several of our engagements have been conducted as adviser to a family board. These decisions combine an economic dimension with a relationship between shareholders, and an independent financial reference helps keep the two separate.
