Twenty questions we hear most often from owners who are weighing a sale, preparing for one, or growing by acquisition. If yours is not here, ask it directly. A senior member of the firm replies within one business day.
Confidentiality
The question most owners ask before any other.
Not from us. Your employees, customers, lenders and competitors hear nothing from Cordis without your say-so, and that holds from the first email.
No. A first conversation requires no engagement and no NDA. What you share is treated as confidential from the moment you share it.
Only when you decide. Preparation happens out of view, approaches go out under the Cordis name, and each buyer is qualified on identity and source of funds before receiving any confidential information.
The Cordis team working on your file, and the service providers bound to confidentiality that support its work. Nothing is shown to a buyer, an investor or anyone else without your approval, and the advisor who introduced you sees a study only if you agree.
Cost and fees
Every engagement is priced in writing before work begins.
There is no cost. The first conversation commits neither side, and the Value Protection Study, a fifteen-page written read of how a buyer would see your company, also comes at no cost.
A work fee for the preparation and a success fee for the outcome. Both are quoted in writing before any work begins, and expenses you have not approved are borne by Cordis.
Under a success fee alone, the advisor is paid only when a deal closes. Paying for the preparation separately is what allows Cordis to tell you when the right answer is to wait.
Fees are set in writing before the first approach: a fee for the build and a monthly fee while the search runs. Neither moves with the price you pay, and everything is quoted in writing before work begins.
Process and timing
Most of what decides the outcome happens before the market hears your name.
A full sale usually runs nine to twelve months from the start of preparation to closing. Preparation is the longest stage, and it shortens the rest.
Two to three years ahead gives you time to change what a buyer will see. Even a few months ahead lets you learn what a buyer will find before they find it.
The study is a fifteen-page written read, delivered five business days after your documents and one conversation, at no cost. The Cordis MRI is a deeper diagnostic that models how each type of buyer would price the company, built from your own documents and delivered within ten business days after your documents and answers are complete.
Whether the earnings hold up under review, how much depends on a few customers, whether the business runs without its owner, and whether the books can be tested month by month.
The buyer's confirmatory diligence, and often an attempt to adjust the price. A company prepared in advance answers both from a file that already exists.
Often, yes. The Readiness Program is designed to leave a company documented, less dependent on its owner and easier to finance or pass to family, whatever you decide.
Buying a company
The same discipline, from the other side of the table.
Yes. Cordis advises owner-operators, family offices and independent sponsors growing by acquisition, from strategy and search through pricing, diligence and integration. Cordis does not raise capital, arrange financing or assemble investor groups.
Not until you choose to proceed. Approaches go out under the Cordis name.
Cordis represents one side of any transaction. If a company Cordis represents in a sale could be the right fit, Cordis discloses that relationship in writing to both before any introduction.
Working with your advisors
Cordis coordinates with the people you already trust.
No. Cordis works alongside your existing advisors, and findings in their field go to them to resolve. Cordis offers no accounting, legal or wealth services.
Yes, with your written consent. Your accountant usually holds everything a study needs, which saves you time.
No. Cordis is an M&A advisory firm. Tax, legal and investment decisions stay with your accountant, attorney and wealth advisor, and Cordis coordinates with them.
Related
A first conversation is confidential, at no cost, and requires no engagement and no NDA.
A written read of how a buyer will see your company.