[ucaetano]

I worked in a different consulting company.

We're brought in to double check, but also do conduct due diligence and valuation. There's some overlap between financial services and consulting companies. In some deals, you might have a bank on one side and a bank + consultants on the other.

Also, banks are good at doing standard, off-the-shelf valuations. They usually know little about the specific industry and use one-size-fits-all models.

If you want a detailed valuation, taking in account scenarios, industry changes, etc. you need people who know the industry pretty well, which usually means hiring consultants (who either are industry experts, or hire external industry experts).

In some cases, private equity firms also fill in the role of the bank in valuations. I've worked on a multi-party investment deal where one company had consultants (us), another had a bank, and another had a PE firm helping them. Looking at the different approaches and models from each company was a very interesting experience.

[kawera]

Exactly. I was a partner at McK and, at the time, valuation engagements were an important line-of-business, both for private equity firms or in tandem with bankers (M&A, IPOs...).