How an engagement runs
Six stages, and the uncomfortable one comes first rather than in month four.
Adverse diligence
We run the diligence a buyer would run, looking specifically for what would damage your position. Findings are reported unedited and each one is quantified against likely price impact.
Remediation or disclosure decision
For each finding: fix it, disclose it early, or accept the reduction knowingly. Some engagements end here with a recommendation to wait eighteen months.
Valuation range
A defensible range rather than a single number, with each assumption stated separately and the ones a buyer will attack identified explicitly.
Preparation
Materials built on the position as it actually is, which is considerably easier to defend than a story assembled around the good parts.
Process
Run to your timetable rather than ours, with our fee unchanged whether it accelerates, stalls or stops entirely.
Completion or withdrawal
Both are legitimate outcomes and both are charged identically. Withdrawing from a bad process is frequently the most valuable thing an advisor does.
What this approach costs us
We forgo success fees entirely. They are the dominant economics in corporate finance advisory and they would give us an interest in closing rather than in your outcome.
We talk owners out of selling. A meaningful share of pre-market reviews conclude that waiting would produce a materially better result, which forfeits the sell-side mandate.
We hand over findings that reduce price. Every adverse item goes to the client in full, including ones that make our own engagement harder to run.
We accept no commissions. Lender and intermediary fees are routine in this sector and we take none of them.
Frequently asked
Why would we want to find the bad news first?
Because timing determines cost. Customer concentration identified two years out is a solvable commercial problem. The same fact found under exclusivity is a price reduction you cannot negotiate away.
Do you charge a success fee?
No. Fixed fees against scope, identical whether a transaction closes, collapses or never starts. That is what makes advice to postpone possible.
Can we buy the diligence review alone?
Yes, at a fixed fee, with no obligation to sell or to use us afterwards. Owners two or three years from an exit are the ideal clients for it.
Will you tell us not to sell?
Regularly. Where specific work over eighteen months would produce a materially better outcome, saying so costs us the mandate and is the correct advice.
Do you take commissions from lenders?
None, from lenders, buyers or intermediaries, in any direction.
Why a valuation range rather than a number?
Because a single number is a negotiating position dressed as an analysis. A range with stated assumptions tells you which parts you can defend and which a buyer will attack.
What happens if we walk away from a deal?
Our fee is unchanged. Withdrawing from a poor process is frequently the most valuable outcome of an engagement.
Do you handle cross-border businesses?
Routinely. Operations spanning the border are normal here and need explaining clearly to buyers who will otherwise discount what they do not understand.