Are you thinking about acquiring or selling a company? At Houdart A&C, we conduct due diligence regarding the financial and social aspects. Our goal is to understand the company’s potential, identify risks and decide the basic elements required for financial valuation.
Acquisition audits
In the event of a proposed acquisition of an asset or shares, we conduct an audit focused on financial and social aspects. Our audit aims to identify any deal breakers, normative adjustments on the main aggregates, items impacting valuation, risks that have to be restated in asset and liability warranties, operational issues and after-sale issues.
The ultimate objective of our due diligence is to help you make informed decisions and to safeguard your transaction, as regards your company’s past actions and future potential alike.
Working together against this background, we map out the scope of the due diligence needed to assess the risks that have already been identified, profile the entity’s operations and organisation in its market environment. Our audit usually zooms in on legal, accounting and financial, taxation, social, organisational and prospective aspects.
Our approach combines shared understanding of the intricacies of business sectors, challenges, business models and their financial impact. We work in all economic sectors and can even analyse vast quantities of information during these kinds of projects, which tend to demand fast turnaround time.
Acquisition auditing involves conducting a partial review of the target company and examining its accounting, financial and social, taxation and legal aspects. To this end, we highlight any financial adjustments and determine normative items such as EBIT, EBITDA, WCR, and more.
Acquisition auditing also identifies which risks must be covered by asset and liability warranties and quantifies them, potential synergies related to acquisitions and post-acquisition measures to be adopted by the acquiring company.
Acquisition auditing either occurs before an agreement between the parties is drafted, as part of a memorandum of understanding, or following such an agreement, generally as a suspensive condition on the completion of the transaction.
Our due diligence is conducted remotely or on the premises of the target company and with our client’s employees if necessary.
Pre-sales audits
In the event of a sale, Houdart A&C conducts an audit and drafts a Vendor Due Diligence (VDD) report. Our goal is to present the acquiring company with information that can be used for reference purposes.
A VDD report aims to outline the historic and projected financial performance of the relevant company. Moreover, a VDD seeks to explain developments, identify normative items on which the assessment will be based and pinpoint specific target company-related risks.
To reduce financial, legal and asset-related risks linked to a planned company divestment and optimise the transfer, we prepare our clients’ sale transaction ahead of time. Our preparation spans all aspects — tax, legal and assets — so we can deliver optimal solutions from a fiscal and financial standpoint that meet company expectations and tight schedules.