When a company is up for sale - or selling off one of its parts - it needs
to show an in-depth report on its financial health to potential buyers. This
is called vendor due diligence. PwC provides comfort to both buyers (acquirers)
and sellers (vendors) with an independent view of the business, encompassing
its performance and prospects.
Vendor due diligence aims to address the concerns and issues that may be relevant
to even the most demanding purchaser. For vendors undertaking a disposal or
selling off a part of their own business, vendor assistance provides bespoke
solutions to assist you in successfully completing your divestments.
Our vendor assistance specialists work alongside company management and their
lead advisers throughout the process, ensuring that opportunities and issues
are understood and the correct steps are taken.
Potential issues
- Your company’s strategy involves disposing of part of the business,
whether through a carve-out of business units, or by the sale of existing
entities
- Your company is in the process of restructuring/re-focusing its activities
- You want to reposition your portfolio focus on core businesses, or return
value to shareholders
- You have started to feel pressure from financiers as a result of deteriorating
financial ratios
How we can support you
- Provide vendors with greater control over the sale process and the timing
of sale, which can help secure a higher price for the business
- Provide purchasers with greater certainty over the nature of the business
and the characteristics of its cash flow. This helps pricing decisions and
the level of gearing the structure will support
- Reduce disruption to the business as the sale process is more controlled
- Help add credibility to the facts, figures and information provided in the
sales memorandum
- Remove the necessity for a buyer to have substantial access to do their
own due diligence work as they will be able to rely on the vendor due diligence
report
- Vendor assistance specialists can ensure that the vendor retains pace and
initiative throughout the sale process
- Early identification of value critical issues, providing the option to "regroup
and fix" outside the glare of publicity
- Rapid execution of the divestment from the point of announcement. This reduces
the business disruption and accelerates transfer to new owners
- Reduces uncertainty risk for finance buyers, potentially justifying higher
offers
Vendor assistance is potentially more suitable in situations where the likely
purchasers are trade buyers and can be less time consuming than 'full scope'
vendor due diligence. The key difference between vendor due diligence and vendor
assistance is that the latter is provided for the benefit of the vendor only.
More about PwC's financial due diligence services
- Vendor due diligence is an in-depth report on the financial health of a
company that is being sold. It provides vendors with greater control over
the sale process and the timing of sale, which can, in turn, help secure a
higher price for the business
- Vendor assistance provides bespoke solutions to assist vendors in successfully
completing divestments. Vendor assistance is provided for the benefit of the
vendor only
