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A practice anchor at D Somani & Associates

Financial Due Diligence.


At a glance

The five things you need to know.

What it is

Buy-side, sell-side, focused/investigative and pre-IPO due diligence. Quality of earnings, working-capital normalisation, debt-like items, red-flag identification.

Who it's for

Acquirers, sellers, PE/VC investors, founders preparing for a fundraise or listing.

How we run it

Sector-relevant working files. Direct lines to target management. Deal counsel kept in the loop on findings that change deal-doc drafting.

You walk away with

A focused QoE + red-flag report (buy-side), a clean vendor DD pack (sell-side), or a pre-transaction readiness memo (pre-IPO / pre-funding). All deal-doc-ready.

Typical timeline

Buy-side: 3-4 weeks. Vendor DD: 4-6 weeks. Pre-IPO readiness: 6-8 weeks.

Four kinds of FDD, run by the same team.

Buy-side FDD.

Acting for the acquirer. We rebuild a quality-of-earnings, normalise working capital, surface debt-like items, and write a red-flag report your deal counsel can use directly in the SPA. We are not interested in 300-page reports. We are interested in the three or four findings that move the price or the terms.

Sell-side / Vendor DD.

Acting for the seller. A vendor due diligence pack prepared before buyers are in the room - adjusted EBITDA defended, working-capital target defined, debt-like items already negotiated on your side. Tightens negotiations and shortens the deal calendar.

Focused / investigative DD.

Targeted reviews - related-party leakage, revenue cut-off, capex vs opex classification, contingent liabilities. Used when a specific concern arises mid-deal or when the audit committee needs a forensic-flavoured second look.

Pre-IPO / pre-funding readiness.

A diagnostic against listing or fundraise requirements - financial hygiene, related-party disclosures, segment reporting, MAT credit, the small accounting choices that become expensive in an IPO. Run 12-18 months before the transaction window opens.

How we are different.

  • FDD by people who run internal audits. The same investigative discipline - walk-throughs, full-population analytics, evidence over assertion - applied to a deal calendar.
  • No template-padded reports. Our deal reports are short and ordered by materiality. The top three findings are on page two.
  • Deal-counsel-ready. Findings cross-reference SPA clauses (purchase price, target working capital, indemnities) so the legal team can act on them without a translation step.
  • The same partner from kick-off to closure. Every engagement is led by the founder, with continuity across the working capital negotiation, the SPA mark-up and the closing-statement review.

The deliverables, by side.

Buy-side: QoE memo · working-capital analysis · net debt schedule · red-flag report · SPA input.
Sell-side: Vendor DD pack · adjusted EBITDA build · normalised WC · pre-emptive disclosures.
Pre-IPO/funding: Readiness memo · gap list · remediation plan.

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