By Dan Booth, Transaction Services Partner

Selling a business is a big moment. In a fast-moving M&A world, speed, confidence, and clarity can make all the difference. That’s where Vendor Due Diligence (VDD) comes in — it helps shareholders take control, reducing deal risk, and making your business stand out to buyers.

So, What Exactly Is Vendor Due Diligence?

In short: it’s when the seller commissions an independent review of their own business before going to market. This usually focuses on financials and tax, but can also include areas like technology, HR, ESG, or commercial positioning.

The big difference from something like Vendor Assist? A VDD report is built to be relied on by buyers — to ensure they are making sound investment decisions.

VDD works especially well when:

• You’re running a private equity process, where speed matters,
• You expect multiple bidders, and want everyone reviewing the same equity story,
• There are complex financials, and you want to get ahead of any questions about cashflow, EBITDA, performance, or future growth potential.

What Are the Benefits?

Done properly, VDD can:

• Put you in control of the story you’re telling,
• Keep disruption low — so your team can stay focused on running the business, and achieving the plan,
• Speed things up by answering buyer questions before they even ask,
• Support the rest of your sale materials, like the Information Memorandum and the SPA.

In other words, it helps make your business easier to buy — and that’s usually good news for value.

Why Choose Cortus for VDD?

We know mid-market deals inside out — and we know what good looks like. Clients come to us because:

• Our senior team remains hands-on throughout every assignment, bringing over 50 years of combined VDD experience to each project
• We’ve built a strong, specialist Transaction Services team to keep pace and quality high
• Our sector knowledge runs deep — from fire & security to legal, environmental consultancy, manufacturing and business services
• Our reports are trusted by PE firms, lenders and acquirers alike
• We collaborate closely with your wider deal team — legal, tax, CF, the lot

At Cortus, we recently supported a number of projects through the delivery of focused, pragmatic VDD reports — designed to build trust, keep deal momentum, and highlight the value in each business.

Specifically we undertook VDD on the sale of HD Sharman to PTSG, the sale of HESIS to Andwis Group and the sale of The Superbia Group to August Equity.  In addition, we performed VDD supporting the MBO of Prestige Gifting funded by Thincats and the refinancing of My Pension Expert by OakNorth, amongst many others.

Final Thoughts

VDD isn’t just another box to tick — it’s a way to take control of your deal, avoid surprises, and give buyers confidence from the start. For sellers who want to maximise value and keep momentum, it’s one of the smartest early steps you can take.

And if you want a team who’s been there, done it, and gets what really matters? That’s us.

Got a deal coming up? Let’s talk.