PE READINESS
FOR COMPANIES SEEKING PE INVESTMENT
Your company through the eyes of a
private equity buyer.
Before they arrive.
Most founder-owned businesses lose the valuation conversation before the numbers are reviewed. The data room is unstructured. The board minutes read as rubber stamps. The governance gaps a PE buyer finds become price chips. Valmarga closes that gap.
6
PROGRAMME COMPONENTS
90
DAYS
PROGRAMME
1
PRACTITIONER. ONE DESK.
What PE sees when it looks at your company.
A PE buyer’s governance counsel opens the board minute book first, before the model. They find minutes that read as retrospective ratifications. A founder compensation arrangement that was never independently priced. Related-party transactions that were never disclosed. Management accounts that tell a story of operational reality but not of institutional readiness. None of these things reflect the quality of your business. But all of them affect your valuation. Valmarga brings the PE perspective because we have worked from inside that process, and we know exactly what a GP’s diligence team reads before they read your numbers.
WHAT IT IS
The PE Readiness Program
A structured 90-day engagement that closes the gap between what your company is today and what a PE buyer expects to find. Not a pitch-deck exercise. A governance foundation, built from the inside, evidenced by documents a buyer can read.
- Not a pitch deck service :We build governance infrastructure, not a presentation. What changes is the data room, the board minutes, the management accounts, and the compliance record. Those are what PE actually reads.
- Built from the PE buyer’s perspective : Valmarga advises PE funds on what to look for when they acquire. That means we know exactly what a GP’s governance counsel looks for, scores, and flags. We prepare against that specific standard.
- One practitioner. One desk : The person you meet is the person who does the work. No handover to a junior team. Every finding and every recommendation carries the same professional accountability.
- Measured against fund value, not compliance : Every gap we find is expressed in the language PE uses: what it costs you at entry valuation. Not “governance is important.” The specific price it commands or concedes at the negotiating table.
WHO IT IS FOR
The right programme for the right moment.
PRIMARY AUDIENCE
Founder and Family-Owned Businesses Preparing for First PE Investment
You have built a real business. Your fundamentals are strong. But you know that when a PE firm opens the data room, they will find a company that was run by its owners, not by an institutional governance standard. The programme closes that gap before the first meeting.
- Revenue between 20 million and 250 million dollars
- First PE investment in the next 12 to 24 months
- No prior PE ownership or institutional investor oversight
- Strong business fundamentals but informal governance practices
- Founder or family compensation arrangements never formally documented
SECONDARY AUDIENCE
Management Teams at PE-Backed Companies Preparing for a Subsequent Investment Round
Your fund’s hold period is ending. A secondary transaction, a management buyout, or a co-investment round is on the horizon. The governance infrastructure from the initial investment needs to be updated, evidenced, and ready for a new buyer’s scrutiny.
- PE-backed for three to five years and approaching an ownership transition
- Governance infrastructure from initial investment now needs a refresh
- New regulatory obligations have accumulated that were not addressed at entry
- Management team seeking buy-in alignment ahead of a secondary
- Board composition needs updating before a new investor arrives
Most founder-owned businesses do not lose PE conversations on fundamentals. They lose them on governance gaps a buyer finds in week one of the data room. The PE Readiness Programme closes those gaps before the buyer arrives.