Every problem the seller does not solve before going to market, the buyer solves afterwards and charges for. Before, it costs work. After, it costs price.
Also for those about to bring in a partner, buy out a partner or open their capital to a fund, and who want to know whether the company can withstand due diligence before sitting down to negotiate.
Auditable financial statements, normalized and defensible EBITDA, reconciliations between accounting, tax and management figures. It is the first thing a buyer reviews and the first thing a buyer discounts.
Management, decisions and commercial relationships that work without the shareholder. A buyer pays less for a company that leaves with its owner.
Concentrated customers and suppliers, verbal agreements, change-of-control clauses. Each one becomes a condition precedent or a discount in the negotiation.
Labor, tax, environmental, corporate. Whatever surfaces in due diligence ends up in escrow, in specific indemnities or in price.
In a representative case, around USD 500 thousand invested in preparation over 12 to 18 months avoided close to USD 2 million in discount on the final price. Four to one, before counting the value of reaching closing instead of watching the deal collapse in due diligence.
Preparation does not discover problems. You already know what they are. What it does is solve them while they still cost work rather than price.
Preparation does not discover problems; it solves the ones you already know.
We start with a 45-minute conversation, at no cost and under confidentiality. Three concrete things come out of it.
A traffic-light reading of the four axes, an indicative value range and the two or three actions we would take first. No cost, no commitment.
If there is work to do: a 6-to-18-month plan with quarterly milestones, led by the managing partner alongside your team and our network of specialists.
When the company is ready, we execute the sale, the acquisition or the entry of a partner with the process already under control. If it was ready, we go straight here.
We will tell you candidly whether your company is ready for the market, what it could be worth and what we would do first. No cost, no commitment.