Due Diligence & Assessment

Reference Map

Read the most relevant reference for the question at hand rather than loading the full library.

Core Diligence Design

• references/due-diligence-workflow.md - Triage order, sequencing, and information-gap handling across deal types.
• references/document-request-lists.md - What to request by transaction type and where to focus first.
• references/third-party-report-assessment.md - How to read externally prepared diligence materials skeptically and translate them into credit implications.

Financial Quality and Information Reliability

• references/qoe-report-interpretation.md - QoE report review, adjustment discipline, and translation to model inputs.
• references/sell-side-bias-assessment.md - How to de-bias CIMs, management decks, and sponsor projections.
• references/red-flags-by-document.md - Fast scan of recurring warning signs by document type.

Management, Governance, and Sponsor Assessment

• references/management-key-person-assessment.md - Management evaluation, key person risk, succession planning, and management diligence checklist.
• references/pe-sponsor-assessment.md - Sponsor incentives, support capacity, behavioral patterns (dividend recaps, add-ons, LMEs, restructuring), and sponsor diligence checklist.
• references/governance-board-assessment.md - Board oversight, auditor quality, and creditor-relevant governance signals.
• references/conflict-of-interest-checklist.md - Pre-investment conflict of interest identification, MNPI protocols, cross-fund exposure, and sign-off requirements.

ESG and Sustainability-Linked Structures

• references/esg-credit-integration.md - ESG-to-credit-risk framework, practical diligence workflow, greenwashing checks, and ESG due diligence checklist.
• references/sll-structure-mechanics.md - Timeless SLL design principles, documentation logic, credit framing, and SLL evaluation checklist.

Output Deliverables

When asked to evaluate diligence materials, management, sponsors, governance, ESG issues, or SLL features, produce:

1. Source citations: Explicitly cite each material source, including filings, presentations, data-room items, and third-party reports.
   • When a stable direct URL exists, include it inline with the citation and keep any page, slide, filing-date, report-date, or access-date detail in the same citation.
2. Diligence status matrix: What was received, what was reviewed, what remains missing, and which items are critical versus nice-to-have.
3. Source-quality assessment: Who prepared each key document, what scope or caveats apply, and where the bias or blind spots are most likely to sit.
4. Management, sponsor, and governance view: Experience, alignment, board quality, key-person dependency, and evidence of supportive versus extractive behavior.
5. ESG or SLL assessment: Only where relevant, identify the material factors, transmission to credit risk, KPI/SPT quality, and any greenwashing concerns.
6. Risk translation: Show how diligence findings change cash flow assumptions, leverage tolerance, covenant asks, collateral view, liquidity analysis, or refinancing confidence.
7. Open items and required actions: The missing information or follow-up requests that could still change the recommendation.

Limitations

• Management assessment is inherently subjective; document the basis for judgments explicitly.
• Sponsor track record is informative but not dispositive; incentives can change with fund age, mark pressure, and deal context.
• ESG materiality evolves as regulation, litigation, and technology change; use the framework to organize risk, not to imply false precision.
• Data room completeness is itself a signal; missing documents may indicate intentional withholding rather than simple oversight.
• For broader framework limitations, consult skills/credit-memo-generator/references/analytical-limitations.md.

Data Quality

• Never silently bridge missing information with unsupported assumptions. If data is incomplete, use skills/credit-memo-generator/references/incomplete-data-guidance.md to disclose the gap and its analytical consequence.
• Keep reported performance, QoE-adjusted performance, and sponsor or management case assumptions distinct.
• When a conclusion depends on market convention or a changing external benchmark, use the relevant root reference rather than hard-coding the assumption into the diligence narrative.
• When standard analytical frameworks may be unreliable, consult skills/credit-memo-generator/references/analytical-limitations.md and state the limitation directly.

Examples

• examples/worked-management-sponsor-assessment-example.md: Management team and PE sponsor evaluation for a PE-backed diagnostics company, including key-person risk, sponsor behavior assessment, ESG materiality, and covenant handoff flags