What is a vendor due diligence?
Few years ago, the term sell-side due diligence would have puzzled many corporate development officers and investment bankers. Today, the phrase has made its way into corporate boardrooms, and vendor due diligence is fast becoming an integral part of the sell-side process in any M&A transaction. Sellers today include private equity (PE) houses planning to divest/ monetise their holding in the target companies, or companies requiring capital infusion, and companies planning to divest non-strategic/ non-core assets. The transactions environment in India has witnessed a change in recent years much in line with trends seen in the European market, with a gradual shift in focus and effort from buy-side due diligence to sell-side work. This has largely been driven by the increase in the number of PE investors active in India and emergence of a new generation of more sophisticated buyers and sellers who are used to standardised sell-side processes. Who starts VDD? Vendor due diligence (VDD) is
