Six phases.Most of the value is in the second.
Nothing about a divestiture process is secret. What separates outcomes is how much work happens before an acquirer sees the asset, and whether the field they are placed in is competitive or convenient.
1 – 2 weeks
Confidential consultation
We read the asset before saying anything about price: what it is, why it is being sold, and whether a process now is the right call.
- Assessment of strategic objectives and the constraints behind them
- A preliminary view on value, with the reasoning set out
- A straight read on market timing, including when the answer is to wait
- Proposed engagement structure and terms, in writing
Free, and carries no obligation. Roughly a third of these conversations end with us recommending the seller wait two quarters.
8 – 12 weeks
Mandate and preparation
The unglamorous phase that decides the outcome: standalone financials, a defined perimeter, and materials a buyer's investment committee can use.
- A standalone financial model with an independent cost base that holds up
- Perimeter definition: what transfers, what stays, what sits under a TSA
- Confidential Information Memorandum built around the real growth case
- Data room populated and stress-tested before anyone is approached
This is where sellers who rush lose money. Preparation you skip now is paid for later, in diligence.
1 – 2 weeks
Acquirer intelligence
Building the buyer universe from evidence: who has transacted at your size, in your vertical, recently. Not from whoever we happen to know.
- Strategic platforms with genuine product or customer adjacency
- Sponsors and consolidators with a live thesis at your scale
- International acquirers buying market access rather than technology
- An explicit exclusion list, covering competitors who would gather information and never bid
In a middle-market process the gap between the highest and lowest credible bid is commonly thirty percent or more.
4 – 6 weeks
Confidential marketing
Staged disclosure to the curated field, in parallel and on one clock. Your name is attached to nothing until an NDA is signed.
- Anonymous teaser distributed to the approved list
- NDA execution and management on every counterparty
- Controlled release of the CIM to those who engage
- Management presentations scheduled in a compressed window
In parallel, never one at a time. Bidders who believe the deadline is real behave differently from bidders who suspect it is not.
3 – 4 weeks
Proposal management
Indications are requested for a fixed date and compared on more than headline price. Structure is where indicative numbers quietly diverge.
- Formal request for indications of interest, all on the same deadline
- Comparison on price, structure, conditionality and certainty
- Buyer due diligence facilitated without ceding process control
- Shortlist selection and a second round where competition warrants it
We resist early exclusivity. Indicative bids cost nothing to make and are easy to withdraw.
4 – 8 weeks
Negotiation and closing
From LOI to completion, run so that your operating team can stay on the business instead of the transaction.
- Letter of intent negotiated on terms as well as price
- Working capital peg, escrow and warranty package negotiated to your side
- Purchase agreement, disclosure schedules and transition services finalised
- Closing conditions and regulatory approvals managed to completion
We resist earnouts in a competitive process. They turn a certain payment into a claim against a business you no longer control.
What this desk will not do.
A badly run process is worse than no process. The market remembers an asset that was shopped and did not sell.
Take a mandate we cannot run
If the asset is not ready, or the price expectation is unreachable, we say so and decline. Taking the mandate anyway would cost you a year and cost us nothing, which is the whole reason our fees are success-based.
Run a bilateral process
One buyer with no competition sets the price. If you already have an inbound offer, test it against a field rather than negotiating against yourself.
Approach anyone without your sign-off
You approve every name on the list before a single call is made. Competitors, customers and partners are yours to include or exclude.
Find out where you stand first.
The readiness assessment scores your division against what buyers diligence in phase two. It takes three minutes and shows the result before asking anything of you.
- 01Confidential consultation
- 1 – 2 weeks
- 02Mandate and preparation
- 8 – 12 weeks
- 03Acquirer intelligence
- 1 – 2 weeks
- 04Confidential marketing
- 4 – 6 weeks
- 05Proposal management
- 3 – 4 weeks
- 06Negotiation and closing
- 4 – 8 weeks
Every mandate startswith one conversation.
Tell us what you are considering. A senior advisor from FIH will come back with a straight read on value, timing and who would actually buy it, before you commit to anything.
- Confidential. Nothing you share leaves the advisory team.
- Success-based. No retainer, no upfront fees, no obligation.
- A senior FIH advisor responds within one business day.