Business acquisition · Due diligence · Share purchase
Essential Due Diligence checks the tax, accounting and legal position of the company you want to buy and gives you a report with the red flags, their impact on the price and the clauses to put in the contract. Fixed fee, 2-3 weeks from the data room. Credited in full if we then assist you with the acquisition.
Video call or at our office in Erba (Como) · Before signing the preliminary agreement
Three situations we see every month
You know the market, perhaps you know the owner. But knowing the business is not knowing the books: tax debts, contracts that fall away on a change of control, inventory worth half what it seems. You need someone who looks where you wouldn't.
The accounts are always fine, until someone reads them. Due diligence is the only moment when you can renegotiate with arguments, not feelings.
You become jointly responsible for everything that came before. You need to know what you are taking on, and write it into the contract: warranties, indemnities, an adjustable price.
The product
Not a 200-page analysis that nobody reads and that costs as much as the company: a defined scope, a fixed price, a deadline, and a report that tells you what to do.
How it works
Free. You tell us about the target, where the negotiation stands and what worries you; we define the scope and price of the Due Diligence.
Video call or officeWe give you the request list to pass on to the seller. The 2-3 weeks start once the documents are in.
Standard request listYou receive the red flag report. We go through it together (90'): what really matters, what to ask the seller, what to write in the contract.
90 minBuy with our assistance (fee credited), renegotiate, or walk away. In every case you have spent a fraction of what you would have risked.
Within 60 days for the creditHonesty first
The firm
A tax, accounting and corporate advisory firm for businesses. We advise entrepreneurs and family groups on extraordinary transactions — sales and acquisitions of businesses, contributions, reorganisations — from pre-deal to post-closing, with a single point of contact for tax, accounting and contractual matters.
We also make acquisitions for our own group: we know what you find inside a company, because we have been there on the buyer's side.
We work from Erba with clients throughout Italy, by video call and with a confidential data room. We work alongside the accountant and the notary who already look after the company.
Frequently asked questions
Before the binding preliminary agreement, always. After signing you have much less leverage to renegotiate. Essential Due Diligence is designed to sit between the letter of intent and the contract: 2-3 weeks, with the seller's data room.
Tax (tax returns, VAT, audits, assessment risks), accounting (quality of earnings, receivables, inventory, hidden liabilities, real net financial position), legal and corporate (articles of association, agreements, officers, key contracts, change of control, employees, litigation). The report lists the red flags, quantifies them and says what to put in the contract: warranties, escrow, earn-out, price adjustment.
Essential Due Diligence has a fixed fee, set during the call based on the size of the target and the scope, and agreed in writing before we start. It is a fraction of what it costs to discover a tax liability after closing. If we then assist you with the acquisition, the fee is credited in full.
Because reading the documents — financial statements, contracts, tax returns — is supported by proprietary analysis software that extracts and cross-checks the data; the professional's time goes on judgement, not transcription. Same rigour, fewer weeks, fixed price.
Yes. After the report you can engage us for acquisition support: price renegotiation based on the red flags, deal structure (shares or business, vehicle, financing, holding company), contract and closing, post-acquisition integration. We work with the notary and, if you have one, with your accountant.
The first step
You tell us about the target and the negotiation. You leave with scope, price and timing — or with the advice not to spend, if the case doesn't call for it. On the other side of the table? Want to sell your company →
Choose a day and time
The calendar is loading. If it doesn't appear, book from the dedicated page or write to us: we will propose three time slots within one working day.
Open the full-page calendarPrefer the full page? Book on /en/book/ · Confirmation and video call link by e-mail
Further reading from the blog