The issue (1/2012) of Impulse magazine deals with the topic of business broking and lists the following criteria that can be used to identify dubious business brokers. For the difference between a professional M&A advisor and a business broker, we refer to our blog post "Business broker - business intermediary - M&A advisor - corporate finance advisor" as well as our blog post "Business intermediary - M&A advisory".
Serious or dubious company intermediaries / business brokers - the criteria are according to Impulse Magazine issue (1/2012), page 100
- Making contact: unsolicited phone calls, faxes or e-mails as well as letters that give the impression that the intermediary already has a concrete interested party are dubious.
- Contract negotiations: dubious company brokers try to get a contract signed during the first meeting and communicate extremely high company valuations for a company.
- Payment: beware of advance payment and direct debit mandates, these are not common in the M&A industry.
- Services: the contract should include a description of services and the preparation of an information memorandum for potential buyers. Blog post on the subject of the process of a company sale
- References: ask for references
- Another criterion from our point of view: not an agency agreement, but a consultancy agreement
