Solutions / Due Diligence & Research / Financial Research
Financial Research
Financial disclosure is designed to satisfy a requirement, not to answer your question. Getting to the second usually takes reconstruction.
Normalised for comparisonStatements reconstructed so periods and entities can be compared on the same basis.
Built where disclosure stopsUnit economics rebuilt from evidence where reporting does not provide them, with the method stated.
Peers chosen properlyBenchmarks selected on business model rather than sector classification.
In simple terms
You tell us the company or sector. We rebuild the financial picture from filings and evidence rather than summary databases, so comparisons actually mean something.
What Financial Research is. Financial research covers company and sector financial analysis, peer benchmarking, unit economics reconstruction, and valuation support, built from filings, disclosures and industry evidence rather than from summary databases.
What makes this different. A review that always supports the transaction is comfort, not diligence. Ours reports what it finds, including the findings that change the price or stop the deal.
What the service covers
These are the areas we work across, such as the ones below. We combine them in the proportion your question needs, and we tell you which ones your question does not need.
Company financial analysis
Statements reconstructed and normalised, so comparison across periods and entities means something.
Peer benchmarking
Comparison against a defensible peer set, chosen on business model rather than on sector code.
Unit economics
Cost and revenue rebuilt at unit level where disclosure does not provide it, with the estimation method stated.
Valuation support
Multiples, precedent transactions and DCF inputs assembled with the assumptions exposed for challenge.
Questions this answers
If something like this is on your agenda, the engagement is already half scoped.
- What do this company's unit economics actually look like?
- How does their margin structure compare with real peers?
- What is driving the change in their working capital?
- How much of reported growth is organic?
- What does the segment disclosure hide rather than reveal?
How you can use this
A few of the situations where this service does real work.
Understanding a private company
Disclosure is thin and you need a real financial read.
Benchmarking performance
You want to know how your margins compare with real peers.
Supporting a valuation
You need multiples and precedents you can defend.
Testing a reported number
Growth or margin looks stronger than the business feels.
What changes for your business
The practical difference between running on this and running on what you have now, such as the following.
You price the risk instead of discovering it
Issues found in your own diligence are negotiable. Issues found in the other side's are deductions.
You spend diligence budget in the right order
A fast screen surfaces deal-stoppers before you commit to full scope on an asset that will not clear.
Committee papers stand up
Findings are evidenced, severity-rated and structured the way an investment committee expects to receive them.
You get the uncomfortable findings too
A review that only supports the deal is comfort, not diligence. Ours reports what it finds.
Valuation rests on tested assumptions
The parts of the model carrying the valuation are identified and tested separately, rather than accepted as a set.
You can act on it after close
Findings come with commercial consequence and owner, so the first hundred days start from something concrete.
Who this is for
Roles that commission this work most often include those below. Each asks a different question and gets a different cut of the same evidence.
Investors and deal teams
Does the investment case hold under independent testing?
Findings with severity, evidence and commercial consequence, in a format an investment committee accepts.
Corporate development
Are we buying what we think we are buying?
Independent assessment of market position, customers and growth assumptions, including the uncomfortable parts.
Finance and CFO teams
Are these numbers defensible?
Reconstructed and normalised financials with the estimation method stated wherever disclosure runs out.
Risk and compliance leadership
What are we inheriting that we have not priced?
Regulatory, environmental and governance exposure with cost and timing attached.
Founders and vendors preparing to sell
What will a buyer find that we have not addressed?
The issues a buyer's adviser will raise, ranked by likely price impact and whether they can still be fixed.
Typical clients
How we work
The third step is the one that makes the output usable, and it is the one most work of this kind skips.
Understand the decision
We start from the decision the work supports: proceed, reprice, or walk. That decides what has to be proven and to what standard.
Gather and test independently
Market, customer and financial evidence gathered directly, then tested against what management has represented.
Read it for your position
What matters depends on your hold period, your thesis and your risk appetite. The same finding is fatal for one buyer and immaterial to another.
Report to committee standard
Findings with severity, evidence and commercial consequence, structured the way an investment committee expects to receive them.
What you receive
Diligence report structured to investment committee standard
Findings register with severityevidence and commercial consequence
Financial or commercial model with scenarios
Management presentation and a live question session
Access to Phi, our AI research platformincluded
Every engagement comes with access to Phi. Ask questions of your own findings in plain language, pull the evidence behind any number, and keep querying long after the work is delivered. Your team gets the working intelligence, not just the document.
Open PhiWays to start
Tell us the decision and the date it has to be made by. We will recommend the smallest engagement that gets you there.
Red-flag review
A fast screen surfacing the issues that would stop a deal, before you spend more.
Full diligence
Complete commercial, financial or operational review to committee standard.
Portfolio monitoring
Continuous watch on holdings, with alerts on material change.
Common questions
Do you cover private companies?
Yes, through filings, registry data, trade evidence and primary research. Coverage depth varies by jurisdiction and we say what we could and could not establish.
Is this investment advice?
No. We provide research and analysis; investment decisions and any regulated advice remain with you and your advisers.
Who owns the work?
You do. It is exclusive to you, it is not resold, and working files are handed over unlocked.
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes, before the first conversation if you prefer.
Tell us the decision you are facing
Send us the question, the context and your timeline. You get back a recommended first step, what evidence it needs, and what it costs. Not a capability deck.