M/s. AKP & Co., Chartered Accountants, have been engaged by Tech Systems Ltd. (TSL), a listed company engaged in cloud computing solutions and…

Steps involved in conducting the due diligence: (i) Start with an open mind. Do not assume that anything wrong will be found and look for it. What needs to be done is to identify trouble spots and ask for explanations. (ii) Get the best team of people. If you do not have a group of people inside your firm that can do the task (e.g. lack of staff, lack of people who know the new business because you are acquiring a business in an unrelated area, etc.), there are due diligence experts that you can hire. When hiring such professionals, look for their experience record in the industry. (iii) Get help in all areas like finance, tax accounting, legal, marketing, technology, and any others relevant to the assignment so that you get a 360-degree view of the acquisition candidate. (iv) Talk to customers, suppliers, business partners, and employees are great resources. (v) Take a risk management approach. So, while you want to do your research, you also want to make sure that you do not antagonise the team of people of the target company by bogging them down with loads of questions. (vi) Prepare a comprehensive report detailing the compliances and substantive risks/issues.