Any business (a corporate or a private equity house) seeking to make an acquisition needs to understand not only the specific performance of the intended target, but also how this relates to projected market conditions and its competition within a specific industry. Without understanding the unique qualities of the sector a business is in, it is impossible to arrive at a realistic valuation. PwC can provide commercial and market due diligence reports, involving a thorough review of the company’s business in the context of market conditions and competition.
Potential issues
- You are considering acquiring a company, but there is market or competitive uncertainty, such as new technologies, customers, trends, legislation, powerful buyers, or a new geographic market etc, and you need to know how these issues might impact the current and future value of the company.
- You are considering acquiring a company, and the revenue/EBIT projections appear to be very aggressive (relative to historic performance). You therefore need to test/validate the achievability of these projections.
- You are considering acquiring a company, and a significant proportion of the revenue/EBIT projections appear to be based upon the success of new products, customers and/or markets. You therefore need to test/validate the reasonableness of these assumptions.