Buy-Side Due Diligence
Equip yourself with precise financial insights before making acquisition decisions. Our buy-side due diligence services identify critical risks and opportunities.
What Acquirers Need
As an acquirer, understanding the true financial health and operational nuances of a target company is paramount. We provide:
- Deep-dive analysis of historical financial performance.
- Identification of one-time, non-recurring, or discretionary expenses impacting EBITDA.
- Assessment of working capital requirements and impact on deal value.
- Evaluation of key revenue drivers, customer concentration, and cost structures.
- Forensic review of financial records to uncover potential red flags.
Our Approach to a Clean Data Room
We help you navigate the data room effectively, ensuring all critical information is scrutinized:
- Typical Timeline: Our focused process delivers insights within tight deal timelines, typically 2-4 weeks depending on scope.
- Red Flags We Surface: Hidden liabilities, aggressive revenue recognition, unrecorded expenses, and unsustainable cash flow patterns.
- Optimizing Your Due Diligence: We guide you through the process, providing clear data requests and a structured approach to validate financial data.
What we do on the engagement
Target screening support
Before a full diligence, the question is whether the target is worth the fee. We build the first-cut databook from public data and the seller's teaser so the investment committee can decide on evidence rather than instinct.
Full-scope buy-side diligence
The complete quality-of-earnings, working-capital and net-debt work that underpins the investment case and the SPA negotiations.
Vendor due diligence review
When the seller has produced a VDD, we review it for completeness and bias. Seller packs are not unreliable, but they are not neutral either, and the buyer needs to know where.
Post-acquisition baseline
The databook becomes the opening position for portfolio reporting and the baseline against which value creation is measured. We structure it for that purpose from the start.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between buy-side and sell-side diligence?
Buy-side diligence is commissioned by the buyer to underpin the investment case. Sell-side diligence is commissioned by the seller to prepare for the process. The analytical work is similar; the framing is different. A buy-side pack asks 'what is this worth to me'; a sell-side pack asks 'how do I maximise what a buyer will pay'.
Can you work alongside our deal team?
Yes. We integrate with the team you already have, in your templates under your branding. We do not require direct access to the target's management.
How quickly can you start?
On a fixed-project engagement, 48 to 72 hours from receiving the data room index. See our engagement models for how that works.
Why this matters
Buy-side diligence is commissioned by the buyer to underpin the investment case. It answers one question above all else: what is this business worth to us, and what do we need to be true for the returns to work?
The scope is the investment case
We do not start with a standard checklist. We start with the deal thesis: what the buyer believes, what has to be true for the returns to work, and what would kill the deal. The diligence is designed to test those things, not to produce a generic pack.
The output is the negotiation
The databook is not the end product; it is the evidence base for the negotiation. Adjusted EBITDA drives the price. The working capital peg drives the completion accounts. Net debt drives the equity adjustment. We structure the output for that purpose.
Speed matters
On a competitive process, the buyer who understands the target fastest wins. We deliver a first-cut databook inside 72 hours so the investment committee can decide on evidence rather than instinct.