Due diligence and disclosure

Due diligence

The buyer will carry out legal, financial and accounting due diligence into the seller and the target business, in order to obtain information, inform its negotiations and plan for the integration of the target business into its existing group. See Practice Note: Due diligence—share and asset purchases.

The due diligence process is usually co-ordinated by the buyer’s solicitors. They will prepare a legal due diligence questionnaire and will work with the buyer’s accountants and other appropriate professional advisers (each of whom may end up reporting back to the buyer separately with their findings from the due diligence). Specialist advisers may be needed to help with a variety of potential specialist legal issues, such as:

1. •

   employment (see Practice Note: Employment due diligence—share and asset purchases)

2. •

   pensions

3. •

   competition (see Checklist: Competition law due diligence—checklist)

4. •

   regulatory

5. •

   intellectual property/IT (see Checklist: Buying