Preparing the business for the decisions and scrutiny ahead of it — succession, ownership transition, refinancing, new investment, investor or lender examination: clean numbers, a defensible EBITDA bridge, value-driver analysis, management packs, commercial narrative and governance uplift.
The situation it addresses
An important decision is approaching — succession, a transaction, a refinancing, a new investor — and the business will shortly be examined by people whose job is to test every number. The operations may be genuinely good; the question is whether the numbers, the reporting and the governance can demonstrate it under scrutiny.
A diligence finding fixed a year out costs a re-estimate. The same finding discovered in the process costs price.
What readiness actually means
- Clean numbers — a financial record that reconciles, restates cleanly and holds up when a diligence team pulls the thread
- A defensible EBITDA bridge — every normalisation and adjustment evidenced, so the bridge survives its first challenge
- Value-driver analysis — knowing which levers the buyer or lender will price, and improving them while there is still time
- Management information — packs that let outsiders understand the business quickly, on management's terms
- Commercial narrative — a growth and performance story the numbers actually support
- Governance uplift — the approvals, registers and controls diligence expects to find
Typical mandate outputs
- Readiness review — where the business stands against the decisions and scrutiny it will face.
- Readiness gap plan — what to fix, in what order, and what each gap risks costing in the event.
- Management information pack — the reporting layer the process will run on.
Where the question is not only readiness but direction — whether to sell, transition to management, bring in an investor or keep building — the options and their economics are assessed as Corporate Development and Transaction Support.