When we receive an enquiry from a PI, we first ensure they have completed a Confidentiality Agreement (CA), then prepare a summary of their background, experience and reason for interest in your business. Once processed, the details are emailed to you — contact name, organisation and summary — so you can assess whether to approve them to receive the IM. Each PI is sent on a separate email. Where requests go to multiple contacts, please complete any internal discussion first; an approval (or otherwise) from any contact is assumed to represent all contacts.

What we consider when qualifying PIs (in no particular order)

• Whether the business is marketed with a price or EOI
• Size of the business they have enquired on
• Quality / amount of information provided on the CA
• Insufficient funding amount or unacceptable funding terms on the CA (e.g. 100% vendor finance)
• Questions raised by CA info — e.g. preferred location Sydney but the business is in Darwin
• Whether the PI's company is well known; whether they have a company website
• General fit — relevant experience / genuine investor vs a random enquiry
• The specific client's expectations regarding PIs
• How well the PI's profile meets the owners' aspirations — strategic or logical fit beyond a basic financial reason
• News articles / court documents from Googling the PI (included with the summary)
• Quality of the company website; number of locations/offices; team members and roles shown
• LinkedIn profile quality and employment history
• Previously provided info in our database / old correspondence / other PI reports

What we ask of you

Review each PI and decide whether you're comfortable releasing the IM (they've already completed the CA). Because we include links to PIs' LinkedIn profiles, we recommend you check your LinkedIn privacy settings so PIs aren't notified you've viewed them. Then reply by email to approve, decline, or request more information for each PI. If you need more information first, we'll arrange for an advisor to contact them.

Guidelines when assessing PIs

• You always have final say.
• The key question is whether them knowing your business is for sale — or having the IM — poses a risk. When in doubt, we recommend declining.
• Are they known to you? Would they have the financial capacity, or just be snooping?
• Even if they don't appear a logical fit, there may be more to their plans — we can always ask.
• If your response is grey, there are options before sending an IM, e.g. offer a meeting first.

Please contact us if you have any queries.

Enquiries

A live view of every enquiry received to date. Filter by Active / Signed Off, by Enquiry Stage, or by reason for sign off.

• Enquiry — the number for each enquiry; newest at the top.
• Prospective Investor — company name, contact name/s and position/s.
• Enquiry Details — info from the PI, our research and previous enquiries.
• Enquiry Status — all actions / correspondence; newest at the top.
• Next Step — the next step and applicable date.

Marketing

Sets out all marketing completed to date.

Dashboard

Charts analysing enquiry sources, stage, sign-off reasons and more.

PI

Prospective Investor

CA

Confidentiality Agreement

NDA

Non-Disclosure Agreement

RFA

Response for Approval

IM

Information Memorandum

Fins

Financials

PE

Private Equity Firm

EBIT

Earnings Before Interest and Taxes

EBITDA

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation

EOI

Expression of Interest

NBIO

Non-Binding Indicative Offer

DD

Due Diligence

Our resources help you build knowledge of the most common questions and issues you're likely to face during the business sale process.

View Resources →