Exit Readiness
Exit preparation starts long before you appoint an adviser.

Exit outcomes are determined by the preparation completed eighteen to twenty-four months before a process begins — not by the sale process itself. Basis provides structured exit readiness scoring across every portfolio company, updated each cycle, so the gap between current position and buyer expectations is visible and actively closed.

Start with a readiness assessment
What this service scores
Financial quality and EBITDA normalization status
Management team depth and succession readiness
Customer concentration and revenue quality
Governance documentation and board structure
Vendor due diligence readiness
Commercial positioning and buyer narrative
Operational systems and reporting quality
Legal and IP documentation completeness
4
Readiness dimensions scored per portfolio company per cycle
18 mo.
Minimum lead time for effective exit preparation before process
Monthly
Score updates, tracked against prior periods and gap flags
VCP-linked
Exit scoring aligned to value creation tracking throughout the hold
Scoring dimensions
Four dimensions. Scored, tracked, and gap-flagged every cycle.

Exit readiness is not a single measure. It is a composite of financial quality, operational credibility, governance discipline, and commercial positioning — each assessed independently and tracked over time.

01 — Financial
Financial Quality & Earnings Defensibility

A buyer's QoE process will test whether the EBITDA being presented is the EBITDA that will be confirmed in diligence. We score the strength of the financial foundation before that conversation begins.

EBITDA normalization completeness
Revenue recognition quality and consistency
Working capital cycle and cash conversion
Historical audited accounts quality
Financial reporting frequency and reliability
02 — Operational
Operational Credibility & Management Depth

Buyers price management dependency risk. A business that cannot operate without its founders, or that has a second tier too thin to withstand post-completion turnover, receives a lower valuation and more protective terms.

Management team depth below C-suite
Founder / key person dependency assessment
Customer concentration by revenue contribution
Supplier concentration and contract duration
Operational systems and scalability
03 — Governance
Governance Documentation & Compliance

Governance gaps discovered in diligence are never neutral. They create price chips, condition precedents, and — in the worst cases — conditions that allow a buyer to restructure terms or withdraw.

Board composition and committee structure
Statutory and regulatory compliance status
IP ownership and protection documentation
Employment contracts and leaver provisions
Material contract completeness and assignment
04 — Commercial
Commercial Positioning & Buyer Narrative

The commercial story told in a CIM needs to be supported by operational evidence. Market position, competitive differentiation, customer quality, and growth credibility are assessed and tracked against the buyer narrative being built.

Market position and competitive moat
Revenue quality and recurring proportion
Customer relationships and contract duration
Growth story credibility and evidence
Buyer universe fit and strategic rationale
Why exit readiness requires continuous discipline
The funds that achieve the best exits are the ones
that started preparing long before anyone knew they were selling.
01 — The diligence gap
Buyers identify problems your team has normalised
A well-resourced buy-side team will identify concentrations, management gaps, and financial anomalies that the selling fund has normalised over the hold period. For a buyer, these are leverage. The fund that has identified and addressed these issues before the process begins negotiates from a materially stronger position.
02 — The timing constraint
Eighteen months is the minimum preparation window.
Improving management depth requires twelve to eighteen months of hiring and embedding. Normalising EBITDA requires at least two clean reporting periods. Governance documentation and IP registrations each take time that cannot be compressed — and funds that begin preparation when a sale is already being contemplated are working with a fraction of the lead time required.
03 — The valuation impact
Exit readiness gaps affect the multiple directly.
Customer concentration, management dependency, and revenue quality each affect the multiple at exit — as valuation methodology positions applied consistently by buyers. The fund that has spent two years addressing these before the process begins negotiates from a materially different position.
"Exit readiness scoring is a continuous investment in the valuation your portfolio company will achieve when the time comes to realise it."
What you receive
A scored readiness view. Every company. Every cycle.
01
Exit readiness scorecard

A scored assessment of each company across the four readiness dimensions — financial, operational, governance, and commercial — updated each cycle with movement tracked against prior periods.

Score per dimension per company
Movement since last review period
Gap flags and priority actions
02
Diligence risk register

A structured register of the findings a buy-side diligence team is likely to raise — categorised by severity, addressability, and the time required to resolve each issue before the exit window opens.

Risk items by severity and type
Addressability and lead time required
Resolution status and owner
03
Portfolio readiness summary

A fund-level view of exit readiness across the full portfolio — which companies are closest to exit-ready, which are furthest from it, and where the most material preparation gaps sit across the book.

Readiness ranking across portfolio
Time-to-ready estimate per company
Fund-level priority actions
How we start
We begin with a baseline readiness assessment.
01
You identify the companies closest to exit.
We prioritise the scoring work on companies where the exit window is within three to five years — though we can run the assessment on any holding in the portfolio.
02
We assess baseline readiness across the four dimensions.
Using IC papers, board packs, management accounts, governance documents, and KPI data — we produce the first scored readiness view per company without requiring new information gathering.
03
We flag the gaps and estimate the preparation time required.
Each gap is assessed for addressability and lead time. Some can be closed in a quarter. Others require twelve to eighteen months of sustained effort. Knowing the difference is the starting point for a credible exit plan.
04
We track progress on a monthly cycle until exit.
Score updated each cycle. Gaps tracked to resolution. Readiness narrative built as the company improves — so the exit conversation starts from a position the evidence supports.
Integrated with value creation tracking
Exit readiness scoring works alongside VCP execution tracking — so the progress being made on value creation levers (management depth, revenue quality, operational improvement) feeds directly into the readiness score each cycle. The two services are designed to be run together.
Useful at any point in the hold period
The earlier exit readiness scoring begins, the more time exists to act on the findings. We can run the assessment on companies in their first year of the hold period as well as those in the final stages of exit preparation.
No commitment beyond the first assessment
The baseline readiness assessment produces immediate value — a clear view of where each company stands and what needs to happen before the exit window opens. You assess the output before deciding to continue.
Start with a readiness assessment
Know what a buyer will find before they find it.

Start with a baseline exit readiness assessment. No commitment beyond the first review.

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