Due diligence is an essential factor when buying or starting any business. This is usually agreed upon after the principal deal has been signed between the buyer and seller. Businesses should investigate the state of corporate due diligence in many different situations for different reasons. This article will discuss some of those situations and how businesses should go about ensuring they are satisfying the minimum requirement for their corporate due diligence before any money is exchanged.
When You Should Hire a Corporate Due Diligence Investigation Company
These are the situations in which you need to give attention to your business’ due diligence and how it goes about enforcing these policies to ensure everything is compliant and functioning properly. You may consider hiring a company to a conduct a corporate due diligence investigation when:
- Buying a business
- Starting a business
- Merging two or more businesses
- Taking on a new partner
A company offering due diligence services, like D&K Management Consultations, will reveal any short comings and offer the solutions to fix them. The huge impact that this advice will bring to any business is often overlooked and, as a result, businesses have suffered great losses. Taking things at face value may make for less conflict, especially in business ventures, but verifying that what you have been “sold” is, in fact, the truth is crucial to the success of your business. This process is also imperative to determine whether your new business partners have the business’ best interest at heart or potential ulterior motives.
The Three Components of Corporate Due Diligence
The three components of due diligence are:
- Legal
- Financial
- Operational
Legal Due Diligence
This covers any legalities that have to do with the business. All information from the company’s documentation; including certificates, operating agreements and membership certificates, need to be verified through an investigation. If the business is operational in more than one country this investigation will also include foreign qualification documents. The same process should be followed for the documentation of any subsidiaries or affiliates. At the end of the day, this procedure is in place to ensure you are purchasing a business rather than a lawsuit.
Financial Due Diligence
This process must ensure the following four factors:
- Ensuring the financial information provided when making the decision to purchase the business is accurate.
- The future contingencies and financial forecasts for the target companies have been taken into consideration, and the buyer has a comprehensive understanding of what this means.
- Confirming that there are no customer collection or cash flow problems, as could be revealed by the existing financial data.
- The buyer has given written confirmation that they understand the possibilities of future liabilities like pensions and benefits for the company’s future retirees.
Operational Due Diligence
Operational due diligence is responsible for determining whether the business is profitable for the person(s) purchasing it. Due diligence will cover factors like whether the purchaser has the capacity to keep the operations functioning at a level that will cover costs, pay salaries and profit the company. This could mean the termination of certain employees and other restructuring.
What Does a Corporate Due Diligence Investigation Include?
All due diligence projects undertaken by D & K Management Consultants will include the following:
- Financial performance of the business
- Brand value
- Business condition
- Future prospects of business
- Competitive environment
- Human capital
- Quality of assets
- Structure of purchase transaction
- Other related risks
The factors that contribute to the profitability of a business are widely varied and plentiful, so having a team to make the proper predictions and verifications is crucial. Before any money is exchanged contact us at D&K Management Consultants for corporate due diligence that shines a light on how bright your business’ future will be.