Mandate 04 · Either side
Carve-out
Divisional disposals and acquisitions, worked in the interval between a parent deciding and a parent appointing.
The position
A divestment by a large parent is the output of a portfolio review, a refinancing, a change of chief executive, or a segment that has missed its plan for enough consecutive periods to become a question on every earnings call. That timetable runs on a corporate calendar and it runs slowly.
The signal precedes the process. Segment reporting changes, a division moves out of a reporting line, a divisional chief executive is replaced on an interim basis. None of it is confidential and none of it is assembled anywhere.
How it runs
We read the parent's own filings, personnel record, and trade coverage for the shift, and reach the division in the interval between the decision and the appointment. On the buy-side that means negotiating with a seller who has decided to sell and has not yet decided how.
The work then moves to the cost base. A carve-out is priced on a standalone cost that does not exist yet, and the gap between the parent's allocation and the real number is where the transaction is won. The transitional agreement — scope, duration, exit — is settled before exclusivity rather than after it.
What it holds
For a parent, a buyer who completes and does not reopen price on separation complexity. For a buyer, a division whose standalone cost is understood before the money is committed.
We act for one side. Which side is fixed at the point the mandate is signed.