Commercial Due Diligence

Senior level interim executives invariably have successful track records in the delivery of tangible corporate results and in extracting value from the businesses with which they have been associated. As often as not this career success has been defined within one or perhaps two sectors.

It is therefore hardly surprising that interim executives are increasingly being tasked by private equity investors to take leading roles in early to mid stage commercial due diligence of potential acquisitions. Financial issues apart, interim executives play a pivotal role in supporting investment decisions as a result of their deep industry knowledge as well as their contacts within key sectors.

They will have clear independent opinions and judgements on a target’s customers, infrastructure and technology, distribution and production processes, etc, not to mention an assessment of the management team and staff. This can be accomplished in only a few days on site followed by a report to the investor.

Our experience is that such projects invariably deliver high quality information in short order to investors who may not have the depth of operational knowledge required to make finely measured early stage decisions – either reaffirming their pursuit of the deal or sometimes leading to withdrawal of their interest from the target.