A practitioner's compendium of the analyses, adjustments and drafting behind institution-grade diligence reports — organised so a team can bring analysts up to speed quickly, seeing not just what each analysis is, but why it earns a page and what it does to the price.
Built to be immediately value-accretive for:
The compendium was conceived and written by transaction services professionals whose careers have been spent on live buy-side and vendor due diligence across the UK, Germany, wider Europe, the UAE and India — for private equity sponsors, strategic acquirers and lenders. It captures the judgement that normally takes years of report reviews to absorb.
With 15+ years of financial diligence experience across Europe and India, Ricky has led over 150 transactions. He has advised both Indian corporates and global giants on deals exceeding billions in value. His skillset spans the M&A lifecycle — from origination and SPA support to integration. Since founding Hillpine in April 2022, he has built a strong team and executed 25+ projects in year one alone.
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Prateek brings 10+ years of M&A experience across the UAE, UK, and Germany. He specializes in financial due diligence but also supports broader M&A strategy, especially in infrastructure and real estate. At KPMG Frankfurt, he advised top private equity clients across Europe. His insight bridges financial rigor with commercial value creation, making him a trusted advisor across deal types.
View LinkedIn profileReferences to the authors' previous employment are biographical only. The Compendium is a Hillpine Consulting product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any former employer or client.
Every entry reflects how the analysis is run and challenged on actual deals — the triggers, the data you'll really get, and the questions an investment committee asks.
Findings are connected to their consequence: maintainable EBITDA, the net debt bridge, the working capital peg, and the protections negotiated into the SPA.
De-identified drafting language in the register used in institutional reports, so you learn to communicate a finding — not just calculate it.
The compendium is organised around the same two frameworks we apply on live deals: the bridge that turns enterprise value into the equity price actually paid, and the value driver tree that decides where diligence effort is spent.
Monthly and year-on-year sales (price and volume) and margin analysis.
Understanding true profitability between customers and segments, and identifying opportunities for margin expansion.
Analyse trading performance by customer, segment and region, illustrating product penetration and the pipeline of opportunities.
Identify new markets and white spots, anchored on outside-in analysis using external benchmarks.
Deep-dive into cost composition and understanding of the cost drivers.
Analyse operational KPIs to improve production costs and bolster market competitiveness.
Analyse purchases by supplier, illustrating length of relationship, pricing and terms (including change of control).
Price dispersion, supplier consolidation and process streamlining as levers for procurement cost savings.
Analyse cost composition and identify the sustainable structural and operational drivers affecting the cost base.
Benchmark the support function workforce, including span of control and management layers relative to the comparator group, to identify rationalisation opportunities.
Analyse the scalability of costs — fixed against variable — to realise operating leverage and drive margin expansion.
Overhead costs benchmarked to the comparator group to identify improvement opportunities, such as headcount rationalisation or contract renegotiation.
Analyse monthly working capital adjusted for non-recurring features.
Identify working capital optimisation initiatives and the indicative favourable impact on free cash flow.
Understand the planning philosophy — cost tightness or buffer for cost overruns.
Deep-dive into the age and capitalisation profile of the asset base.
Organised the way a diligence report is organised, so you can follow the logic from the trading history through to the adjustments that set the price.
The analyses that recur in institutional reports — what each answers, when it earns a page, the to-scale exhibit, how it is built, what good and bad look like, and how it is written up.
Every recurring adjustment — whether it is adjustment-worthy, how buyer and seller each argue it, the quantification mechanics, the procedures, and the drafting.
Each entry is written to be read in ten minutes and used for a career. The structure never changes, so you always know where to look.
The compendium is built around the equity bridge, because that is where diligence becomes money. Each adjustment entry tells you where it lands — and what the SPA does about it.
Reported earnings, normalised for one-offs, run-rate effects and accounting policy.
QoE adjustmentsEach $1 of EBITDA removed costs a buyer the full multiple in headline value.
Exhibits · forecastBorrowings, plus the obligations that behave like debt but sit elsewhere on the balance sheet.
Debt-like topicsDelivered working capital versus a normalised target; each shortfall comes off the price.
NWC topicsWhat the seller receives — and what the SPA mechanisms protect.
Pricing mechanismDon't read it cover to cover. Follow the order a real diligence engagement runs in, and search the rest when a live question comes up.
Rolling LTM, current trading and seasonality — the shape of the business.
The adjustment test, then the categories buyers and sellers fight over.
Perimeter first, then normalisation and the individual balances.
The debt-like and cash-like test, and the items hiding in working capital.
Track record, bridges and sensitivities — then write it up.
The full index of all 86 analyses is open to everyone — one lead exhibit per analysis, grouped by pillar. Every exhibit downloads as an editable PowerPoint chart with its Excel data. A sample from each pillar is below.
Browse the index and read a full sample entry from every pillar for free. Full access for firms and their teams is launching soon.
| What you get | Free | Full access |
|---|---|---|
| Index of every entry and the full chart index | ✓ | ✓ |
| One complete sample entry per pillar | ✓ | ✓ |
| The question and summary for every entry | ✓ | ✓ |
| All 245 complete entries across both volumes | — | ✓ |
| Every exhibit, design specification and build mechanic | Lead chart | ✓ |
| PowerPoint charts and Excel data for every exhibit | Samples | ✓ |
| Signals, red flags and the traps to watch for | — | ✓ |
| Buy-side vs sell-side arguments and quantification | — | ✓ |
| Report-ready drafting language | — | ✓ |
| Full-text search across the entire compendium | Titles | ✓ |
| Future updates to both volumes | — | ✓ |
Boutique and mid-market advisory firms, transaction services and financial due diligence teams, and in-house corporate development, private equity and lending teams that review diligence reports. It is designed to bring new joiners up to the house standard quickly and to give experienced staff a reference on live deals.
A working knowledge of the three financial statements is enough. Every entry starts with the plain-English question it answers before any mechanics, and the learning path tells you what to read first.
Yes. Every exhibit downloads as a native, editable PowerPoint chart and as an Excel workbook with the illustrative datapoints behind it. The free sample entries are downloadable by everyone; full access unlocks downloads for every exhibit.
Access is being licensed to firms and their teams rather than sold per individual, with updates to both volumes included for the licence period. Terms and pricing are confirmed on enquiry; the free preview stays open in the meantime.
The Compendium is an educational resource informed by the authors' practitioner experience. Its exhibits are illustrative layouts built on synthetic numbers, and its drafting examples illustrate how diligence findings may be communicated. They do not establish that any work has been performed or that any conclusion is appropriate for a particular engagement; users must verify facts, calculations, scope and applicable professional requirements before adapting an example.
Yes. After purchase your browser is unlocked immediately. On another device, use Restore access and we'll email a link to the address you bought with.
No. The compendium is an educational resource. Every adjustment is judgemental and fact-dependent, and the positions described are starting points for analysis, not conclusions for any specific transaction.