Financial Due Diligence
The quality of a target's financials — earnings sustainability, working capital dynamics, off-balance-sheet obligations, and management reporting integrity — is central to testing any investment thesis. We assist acquirers, PE investors, and strategic buyers in conducting financial due diligence that goes beyond the numbers to reveal the business drivers behind them.
Our approach is built around a single question: does this business generate the returns it appears to, and will it continue to do so post-acquisition? We combine financial analysis with commercial judgement — helping deal teams distinguish structural value from one-off distortions, and genuine growth from financial engineering.
Areas Of Expertise
Quality of earnings analysis — normalised EBITDA, one-off adjustments, and recurring revenue assessment
Working capital assessment and net working capital peg determination for completion accounts
Capex, debt, and debt-like item identification for price adjustment mechanisms
Cash flow quality and free cash flow conversion analysis
Revenue recognition policy and accounting practice review
Key business risk identification — customer concentration, regulatory dependency, management reliance
Management information systems, reporting quality, and financial controls assessment
Sector-specific financial diligence: real estate, technology, healthcare, and financial services
Tax Due Diligence (Direct and Indirect)
Tax risk in any acquisition target spans multiple dimensions, from the robustness of historic compliance and the defensibility of positions taken, to structural arrangements that may be challenged in the future. We conduct a holistic review of all tax areas, examining the quality of historic compliance, the strength of positions adopted, the status of ongoing disputes, and the sustainability of existing structures. Our due diligence practice is designed to cut through this complexity, identify material exposures across all applicable tax areas, and translate findings into clear, actionable inputs for deal negotiation and documentation.
We cover all tax areas such as direct tax (including transfer pricing, withholding tax), and indirect tax within a single, integrated review. Our analysis goes beyond listing exposures: we quantify risk, assess probability of crystallisation, and recommend mitigants that can be built into the transaction itself.
