Pre-Deal

From Pre-Deal To
Portfolio Success

Our dedicated Private Equity Pre-Deal practice supports investors from early market coverage through to deal execution – and onward into portfolio hiring. The best investors must continuously identify, access, and assess leaders, advisors, and other value creators – not just in formal post-acquisition hiring processes. Partnering with high-performing leaders and expert advisors early leads to more informed decisions and better outcomes.

How is this best achieved?

Our Pre-Deal model complements traditional executive search by delivering the speed, exclusivity, and flexibility that investors need to build the right executive networks during early market coverage and deal execution. We connect value-creators of all kinds with private capital to form highly impactful collaborations.

These introductions can lead to investment opportunities, consulting projects, non-executive board appointments, and senior leadership roles. For each opportunity, such as a specific transaction or thematic coverage of a sub-sector, we partner exclusively with one fund.

Our team takes great pride in its track record of supporting top private equity clients to secure deals and meet, or exceed, their value creation objectives.

Structuring Success Before the Deal

ECB STAR Group’s approach is built on three core offerings designed to unlock value before the deal is done.

01

Executive Network Development

Whether the focus is a specific deal situation or coverage across a subsector more broadly, we support private capital to identify, vet, and secure highly impactful senior industry relationships that can provide differentiated angles and expert knowledge.

Premium
Quality

We focus on delivering the levels of rigor, sophistication, and depth that our clients associate with premium executive search, rather than the ‘knowledge vending machine’ style approach of expert networks.

Complete
Exclusivity

We only operate on a one-client-per-opportunity basis, ensuring full partnership and alignment with your process.

True
Alignment

Our reward is always tied to our clients’ success, fostering genuine partnership.

02

Target Mapping & Management Access

We assist investors in originating opportunities and establishing trusted connections with leadership teams and key stakeholders of potential targets, where early relationship building enhances positioning and boosts the chances of closing deals.

Target
Mapping

Systematic identification of companies and executives aligned with defined investment criteria.

Introductions
at CEO and
Chair level

Warm access to decision-makers, built on long-standing relationships and credibility.

Executive-Led
Deal Sourcing

Curating relationships between our clients and proven value-creators who have the access and experience necessary to put a deal together + can act as ‘buy-in’ management.

03

Pre-Deal Leadership Assessment

We offer a discreet and independent pre-deal assessment of target management teams to help mitigate risk and enhance post-investment planning.

Human
Insight

Discreet assessment of experience, capabilities, and alignment with likely value-creation priorities.

Independent
Benchmarking

Comparison against relevant management peer groups and precedent transactions.

Quotation mark

Investors already know that industry expertise and high performing leadership are often the key factor in successful value creation. Our Pre-Deal services are designed to help investors identify, assess, and engage differential expertise and leadership as early as possible so that they can act with more clarity, more speed, and more confidence.

Benedict Hughes

Partner
ECB STAR GROUP

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