Team EACVA

Team EACVA

Our Team

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Managing Director

Dipl.-Kfm. Wolfgang Kniest, CVA

Founding Member and Managing Director

Founding member and member of the EACVA Admissions Committee
Instructor of the CVA-Training
Seminars & Executive Education in Business Valuation
Editor of the journals BewertungsPraktiker and European Business Valuation Magazine (EBVM)
Independent corporate valuation consultant specialising in business analysis and valuation
Lecturer in Business Valuation at FH Erfurt and at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

Wolfgang Kniest is managing director and co-founder of the European Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (EACVA), the European Chapter of GACVA. EACVA is the largest business valuation association in Europe with more than 17 years of experience in training, certifying, and supporting the business valuation profession. EACVA has more than 1.100 members from over 20 countries.

Wolfgang has a cross-sector experience in the analysis and valuation of listed and non-listed, national, and international companies. As an independent consultant and Certified Valuation Analyst Wolfgang Kniest has more than 20 years of consulting in business analysis and valuation. He has many years of teaching experience on business valuation at the University of Applied Science Erfurt and Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. Wolfgang also teaches and develops seminars and webinars (e.g. Current Update in Valuations, Financial Modelling, Business Valuation Industry Standards, and advanced topics relating to business valuation) and is one of the main instructors at the Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) training classes.

He is a chief editor of the quarterly published business valuation journals BewertungsPraktiker (in German, since 2005) and European Business Valuation Magazine EBVM (in English, since 2022). He is co-author of the book „Henselmann / Kniest: Business valuation: Practical cases with solution (nearly 200 exercises)“, Publisher: NWB, 5^th edition 2015 (in German) and of numerous articles relevant to his areas of expertise.

"For me, the most important (and most challenging) aspects of business valuation are the appropriate recognition of future risks and opportunities in the cash flows and their risk-equivalent consideration in the return required by equity providers. In the CVA training programme, we place great emphasis on a neutral and critical attitude in the plausibility check and preparation of integrated planning calculations and the careful and consistent application of the perpetual annuity formula in the terminal value. Simulations can be a valuable tool for calculating possible risks and opportunities in the assumptions for upstream value drivers. The valuation implications of a future probability of insolvency should also be considered. In my opinion, a critical attitude is also required when applying capital market-based risk premiums, especially when valuing small and medium-sized companies that are far removed from capital market-based trading of their shares. In the CVA training, we sensitize the participants to the need for risk equivalence also in valuation situations outside the capital market-oriented mature companies, such as young companies, companies in difficulty or small and medium-sized companies.“

Publications of Wolfgang Kniest

Editorial BWP 4/2024: Aus Fehlern wird man klug.
Dr. Wiktor Patena / Wolfgang Kniest, CVA, Framework for Start-up Valuation, EBVM Volume 3, Issue 3 Fall 2024, S. 4ff.
Editorial BWP 3/2024: Erfahrungen aus 19 Jahren CVA Fallstudien-Bewertungsgutachten.
Kniest, Wolfgang / Meitner, Matthias / Streitferdt, Felix: Zur Bewertung von Krisenunternehmen und negativen Cashflows in der CAPM-Welt, BWP 2021, S. 2-11.
Henselmann, Klaus / Kniest, Wolfgang: Unternehmensbewertung: Praxisfälle mit Lösungen, 5. Aufl., NWB-Verlag 2015.
Henselmann, Klaus / Kniest, Wolfgang: Immaterielle Werte beim Substanzwert im Sinne des Bewertungsgesetzes, BWP 3/2011, S. 10-17.
Gleißner, Werner / Kniest, Wolfgang: Unternehmensbewertung oder Aktienbewertung, BWP 3/2011, S. 24-25.
Kniest, Wolfgang: Bewertung nicht börsennotierter Unternehmen, in: Rabel, Klaus/Königsmaier, Heinz (Hrsg.): Unternehmensbewertung – Theoretische Grundlagen – Praktische Anwendung – Festschrift für Gerwald Mandl zum 70. Geburtstag, Linde Verlag 2010.
Henselmann, Klaus / Kniest, Wolfgang: Unternehmensbewertung: Praxisfälle mit Lösungen, 4. Aufl., NWB-Verlag 2010.
Kniest, Wolfgang: Income Approach: Discounting Method in: Catty, James (Hrsg.): Fair Value Guide under IFRS, Wiley 2010.
Henselmann, Klaus / Creutzmann, Andreas / Kniest Wolfgang / Essler Wolfgang (Hrsg.): Tagungsband Symposium Unternehmensbewertung in der Rechtsprechung: 18. November 2008 in Frankfurt am Main, 2009.
Kniest, Wolfgang: Die Zinsschranke bei der Unternehmensbewertung: ein Fallbeispiel, BWP 2/2008, S. 2-8.
Kniest, Wolfgang: Korrekte und falsche Restwerte, BWP 1/2006, S. 9-11.
Kniest, Wolfgang: Quasi-risikolose Zinssätze in der Unternehmensbewertung, BWP 1/2005, S. 9-10.
Henselmann, Klaus/Kniest, Wolfgang: Unternehmensbewertung: Praxisfälle mit Lösungen, 3. Aufl., NWB-Verlag 2002.
Henselmann, Klaus / Kniest, Wolfgang: Investitionsplanung, Steuerplanung und Steuerveranlagung – Rechenalternativen bei Personenunternehmen nach der Steuerreform-, in: BBK Beilage 1/2001 zu Heft 13/2001, S. 1-23.
Henselmann, Klaus / Kniest, Wolfgang: Unternehmensbewertung: Praxisfälle mit Lösungen, 2. Aufl., NWB-Verlag 2001.
Henselmann, Klaus / Kniest, Wolfgang: Sponsoring, auch steuerlich attraktiv, in: CWG-Dialog 1/1999, S. 1-7.
Henselmann, Klaus / Kniest, Wolfgang: Unternehmensbewertung: Praxisfälle mit Lösungen, 1. Aufl., NWB-Verlag 1999.