A thorough review covers corporate records and licensing status, material contracts and their terms, litigation and dispute history, and financial red flags, giving a clear picture of what you're actually entering into before you commit.
This is standard practice before an acquisition or investment, but it's equally valuable before a smaller commitment — a new business partnership, a significant supplier relationship, or extending substantial credit to a new counterparty.
Beyond the formal corporate record review, this also covers broader business intelligence — understanding a counterparty's actual market reputation, ownership structure, and any less formal red flags that a purely document-based review might miss.
The scope of a review is tailored to the size and nature of what's at stake, from a light-touch check before a modest commitment to a comprehensive review ahead of a major transaction.
A warm, trusted introduction says something genuine about the person making the introduction, but it doesn't actually verify the counterparty's corporate standing, financial position, or litigation history — these are separate, factual questions that a personal relationship, however well-intentioned, simply cannot answer on its own, regardless of how much good faith exists between the parties involved.
We conduct the same rigorous review regardless of how a deal originated, since the value of due diligence comes from verifying facts independently, not from any judgment about the trustworthiness of the people involved in bringing the parties together in the first place.
A company's actual ownership structure — who genuinely controls it, whether that matches what's been represented, and whether any related-party relationships exist that haven't been disclosed — is often more revealing about real risk than the financial statements alone, since a company can look financially sound on paper while still carrying governance or control issues that only surface once a transaction is already underway.
We specifically examine ownership and control structures as a core part of every review, since this is an area where the gap between what's represented and what's actually true tends to matter most, and where a document-only review focused purely on financials can miss the real risk entirely. For foreign investors, this pairs naturally with our foreign investment and MISA licensing work, where verifying who you are actually partnering with is half the battle.
It depends heavily on the target's size and how organized its records are, along with the scope you need. We'll give you a realistic estimate once we understand the transaction.
No — a lighter-touch review can be valuable before any significant commitment, including a new business partnership or extending substantial credit to a new counterparty.
Undisclosed litigation, licensing issues, financial irregularities, and ownership structures that don't match what's been represented are among the most common things a review surfaces.
We'd recommend against it — a personal introduction doesn't verify corporate standing or financial position, which are separate factual questions diligence is specifically designed to answer.
Often the real risk — undisclosed control issues or related-party relationships can exist even when the financials look sound, which is why we examine ownership structure as a core part of every review.
Yes — we tailor the scope to what's actually at stake, from a lighter check for a modest commitment to a comprehensive review for a major transaction.
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