For owner-operators, family offices and independent sponsors adding a company to what they already own. Cordis designs the strategy with you, runs the search under its own name, and stays through the first quarter of ownership.
Why acquire
The business you run today was built one customer, one hire and one year at a time, and that remains its foundation. Acquisition is a different instrument. It adds capability, territory or people that would take years to build, and it carries risks organic growth never does.
Acquisitions that disappoint often trace to decisions made before price: the wrong target, a ceiling never set, earnings never tested, a seller who left too early. The work is designed around those moments.
Who it is for
The buyers differ. The questions that protect them are the same.
Founders and families growing a company they run, often by buying a competitor, a supplier or customer, or a business in a neighboring territory.
Long-term capital looking for a durable private company to hold, with a clear view of what is being bought and who will run it.
Deal-by-deal acquirers who need a researched pipeline, disciplined screening, and a target whose earnings hold up under review.
The four stages
At the close of each stage you choose: proceed, adjust the criteria, or stop.
What you receive
Each is written so a deal can be judged on paper before anyone spends a day on it.
Where acquisitions lose value
Each is answered at a specific point in the work.
Reported profit that does not survive review. Reduced by testing earnings independently before the price is final.
Momentum carries the price upward. Reduced by setting the ceiling in writing during the build, before any seller is met.
Key employees leave after closing. Reduced by retention agreements signed before closing.
Knowledge walks out the door, or authority stays blurred. Reduced by agreeing the seller's departure date at the outset.
How fees work
Fees for a buy-side engagement are set in writing before the first approach: one for the build and a monthly fee while the search runs. Neither moves with the price you pay, so our advice on price carries no incentive to pay more.
While the search runs, the monthly fee covers the outreach and the quarterly market read. Everything is quoted in writing before work begins.
If a specific company is already in view, Cordis can be engaged for that one transaction: pricing, diligence, structure and the offer.
Conflicts and scope
Cordis advises owners who sell and owners who buy, and it represents one side of any transaction, and discloses any overlap in writing to both.
If a company Cordis represents in a sale could be the right fit for a buy-side client, Cordis discloses that relationship in writing to both before any introduction. In any transaction, Cordis represents one side.
Cordis does not raise capital, arrange financing or assemble investor groups. Clients acquire control and run the company.
Related
Questions
Not until you decide. Approaches go out under the Cordis name, and your identity is shared with a seller only when you choose to proceed.
If that company could be the right fit, Cordis discloses the relationship in writing to both before any introduction, and represents one side of the transaction, and discloses any overlap in writing to both.
Yes. Cordis can be engaged for a single transaction: pricing, diligence, structure and the offer.
Fees are set in writing before the first approach: one for the build and a monthly fee while the search runs. Neither moves with the price you pay.
No. Cordis does not raise capital, arrange financing or assemble investor groups. Clients acquire control and run the company.
Yes. The discipline is the same: criteria in writing, a ceiling set early, earnings tested before the price is final, and a clear plan for who runs the company after closing.
Advisory continues through the first quarter of ownership, carried by the people who negotiated the terms, with a ninety-day plan that names an owner for every item.
A first conversation about an acquisition is confidential and at no cost. A senior member of the firm replies within one business day.