Due diligence is one of the most critical parts of mergers and acquisitions of any firm. It is the process of evaluating the potential of the company, which is to be acquired. It helps the buyer company in confirming whether the claims made by the seller company are valid or not. Mainly assets of the selling company, liabilities, and financial capabilities are checked to identify its potential. There can be a vast number of due diligence according to the parameters that are verified. In this post, we will describe the seven most essential types of the process.
Financial Due Diligence
It is one of the essential strategies to carry out the process. In financial due diligence, the buyer checks whether the selling company is disclosing accurate financial records or not. It helps in understanding the past performance of the company with the help of a sales book, balance sheet, and many other business documents.
Asset Due Diligence
The correct evaluation of all the assets is highly essential for the overall assessment of the company. That’s why this method aims to evaluates the net worth of all the assets of the company. The buyer can also do a physical verification of all the assets to ensure all the figures mentioned in the report are accurate or not.
Customer Due Diligence
It involves accurately measuring the company’s customer base. It also requires categorising the customers based on different parameters like age, gender, purchasing power, etc. This method helps in identifying the size of the business as well as the future growth potential.
Taxes Due Diligence
Before acquiring or merging with any company, it is vital to identify all the tax liability that the company will have to incur Here, the tax method comes into the picture. It is a kind of analysis of debt that will be upon the buying company once the acquisition or merger is successful.
Human Resource Due Diligence
The human resource method analyses what the workforce capability of the company is. It helps in estimating how many individuals have to be hired or fired after the merger or acquisition.
Administrative Due Diligence
The administrative method involves checking the admin-related components like the hierarchy structure of the company, the number of directors, occupancy rate, etc. They help in giving an idea about the cost that the buyer will have to incur if they plan to expand the company further.
Legal Due Diligence
The legal process involves verifying the legal documents related to the integrity of the company. It helps in identifying whether any fraud is going on inside the company or not. Another utility of the legal method lies in understanding what legal matters the buyer will have to handle after the acquisition.
All the above types of due diligence are highly crucial for evaluating the net worth of the company and to quote a reasonable amount during the processing of an acquisition or a merger. This, in turn, ensures that a fair deal can take place between the buyer and the seller.
